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More than 200 women from 46 countries participated in the Know How
Conference 2002 held July 22 to 27, 2002 at Makarere University in
Kampala, Uganda. Isha Dyfan, Anne S. Walker and Yasna Uberoi of
IWTC/Women, Ink. traveled to Uganda to be part of a very exciting and
stimulating event. The conference, "A Safari into the Cross-Cultural World of Women's
Knowledge Exchange," gathered together specialists in women's
information and communications to share strategies and strengthen
networks and linkages. Hosted by Isis- WICCE (Women's International
Cross Cultural Exchange)/Kampala, in collaboration with Isis
International/Manila and IIAV (International Information Center and
Archives for the Women's Movement)/Amsterdam, the conference was held in
conjunction with the 8th International Interdisciplinary Congress on
Women, also known as the "Women's Worlds Congress 2002." Women's Worlds
was held from July 21 to 26, and was hosted by the Department of Women
and Gender Studies. The Know How Conference was aimed at increasing and improving the
visibility of African women's issues, and discussing concerns and
progress made in information centers, archives and services. It also
served as a venue for the sharing of best practices and for the
development of a plan of action for generating and sharing information
by and with rural women activists. In preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in
December 2003, a session, coordinated by IWTC, was held in which
presenters from Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and N.America/Europe
discussed gender and ICT policy and issues in their respective regions.
Recommendations from this workshop will be sent to the WSIS organizers
in Geneva. KNOW HOW HIGHLIGHTS! Collective Journeys:
Isis International/Manila and Isis-WICCE/Kampala presented a multi-media
presentation entitled "Isis Journey" that documented the birth of Isis
International in Rome, the formation of Isis WICCE in Geneva, the move
of Isis International to Santiago and Manila and of Isis-WICCE to
Kampala. The presentation paved the way for the creation of a website
that will house the "collective journeys" or unique stories of women's
information and communication organizations. It is hoped that women's
information organizations, especially those from the South, can gain
more visibility through this planned Collective Journeys website, and
become a stronger voice in the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) in Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005). Contact Isis
international/Manila for more information related to Collective
Journeys: Email: <isis@isiswomen.org> Website:
<http://www.isiswomen.org> Excursion to Nakaseke Telecentre:
Midway through the conference, two busloads of women traveled to the
village of Nakaseke, -about an hour outside of Kampala- to visit the
Multipurpose Community Telecentre and observe the women farmers there
using the IWTC-developed CD-ROM programme "Rural Women in Africa: Ideas
for Earning Money." This programme is a pilot project in the use of ICTs
(Information Communication Technologies) for poverty alleviation and the
empowerment of rural women. It is currently available in both English
and Luganda language versions and was field-tested and developed with
the full participation of the women at Nakaseke, who therefore have a
very strong feeling of ownership of the programme. The visitors first observed the women using the programme on the
telecentre computers, then walked across to the village "square", a
tree-sheltered area used for meetings and events. There, the people of
the district entertained us with singing and dancing (with some of us
joining in!) and gave reports on the progress made in the region since
the advent of the telecentre and -for the women- the introduction of the
CD-ROM programme. The Nakaseke Multipurpose Community Telecentre offers
computers, photocopying, fax, adult and continuing education services
and Internet access. It receives 60% of its budget support from a
consortium of agencies, including ITU (International Telecommunications
Union), IDRC (International Development Research Centre), British
Council, UNESCO, DANIDA and the Government of Uganda. An article from a Kenya newspaper (The Nation) on Anastasia Namisongo,
the Nakaseke woman farmer who came to Know How to demonstrate how the
women use the IWTC CD-ROM, can be found on the IWTC website under What's
New? Website: <http://www.iwtc.org> WORKSHOPS
A very full programme of workshops, panels and events was grouped under
the following thematic areas: THEME 1: MAKING INFORMATION FROM THE VILLAGE LEVEL AVAILABLE AT THE
NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY LEVELS: Building Wired
Villages for the Development of All; ICTs for the Empowerment of
indigenous Women; Gender and ICTs: How FAO Fights Hunger and poverty
with Information; Dimitra Project: Rural Women and Their Organizations
Make Their Voices Heard; Empowering Women in Africa through Collective
and Effective Dissemination of Information; THEME 2: USE OF INFORMATION/ENTREPRENEURIAL INFORMATION:
Strategic Business Information and ICTs; Usability of the Word Wide web
in Business in Africa THEME 3: INNOVATIVE MEDIA CHANNELS:
Using Innovative Media for Women's Empowerment; Poor Women Using Video
to Communicate their Challenges, Dreams; Analyzing Women's Appropriation
of ICTs as a Tool for Social Change THEME 4: RURAL WOMEN AND TELECENTRES:
Development of an Audio, Graphic Programme for Rural Women Farmers, in
local language, using CD-ROM; Demonstration of Programme by Rural Woman
Farmer from Nakaseke; Making Telecentres Work for Women: Lessons Learned
>From the Acacia Project (Uganda, S. Africa, Mozambique, Senegal); Report
from the Online Conference on Information Access for Rural Women. THEME 5: INFORMATION IN THE PEACE-BUILDING AND RECONSTRUCTION PROCESS:
NEEDS AND INITIATIVES
Key Strategies for Utilizing the Expertise of Media Women for
Peace-Building; Development of a Communication Strategy that will
Address Participation and Representation of Women in Peace-Building and
protection of Women in Situations of Conflict; Identification of
Concrete Actions for Information Specialists to Take in Informing Their
Constituencies about Security Council Resolution 1325: Women, peace and
security. THEME 6: ENGAGING THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IN ADDRESSING WOMEN'S ISSUES:
Sharing Successful Strategies: The Case of Nepal; Role of the Media in
Gender Issues; Global Women's Media Team Experience; Panos Southern
Africa's Experience with Radio Listening Clubs; RIF AMARC Experience;
FIRE's Internet Radio Station; Women's Radio Programmes in Asia and the
Pacific; THEME 7: KNOWLEDGE RESEARCH AND ACTIVISM
The Role of Women's Studies Journals. THEME 8: WOMEN'S INFORMATION AND ICT: POLICIES AND INNOVATIONS
Advancing Women's Dialogue and Development: Challenging the Human Rights
and Information Divides Through the Strategic Use of new Technologies;
Good Practices of ICT Strategies for and by NGOs; Using ICTs to
Strengthen Women's Human Rights Advocacy: Obstacles and Remedies; The
Need for Strategic Use of ICTs by the Women's Movement-Knowing our
Internet Rights! THEME 9: INNOVATIONS IN WOMEN'S INFORMATION:
Presentation of Web-Enabled Isis Library Management Automation (WILMA)
System; Systems of Classification and Keywords in Women's Libraries; A
Pilot Project to Set Up a Web TV and a Web Radio Dedicated to Women's
Information; Building Portal Sites: How to Make and Keep Information
Highly Accessible and Visible on the WWW; THEME 10: THE CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN'S INFORMATION SERVICES
The Role of Information and Information Centres in Support of Women
Poverty Alleviation Programmes in East Africa; From Books to Digital
Information: The Changing Role of Women's Information Centres in the ICT
Era; (IIAV examples given included Mapping the World; Websites on Women;
ENAWA (European and North American WomenAction Network); Gender and
Water; Novib-VAW; Sharing Knowledge to Combat Violence Against Women, -a
joint project of Novib, Oxfam International, Isis International/Manila
and the IIAV. AlsoÉÉICTs for Women's Empowerment; Digital Library and Impact on ICT;
Bridging the Gap Between Women's Studies in Academia and Women's
Organizations in the Field of Information; WIDSAA: The Development of a
Southern Africa Gender Information Resource Centre; Regional Network of
National Women's Info-Docu Centers; THEME 11: ENGENDERING POLICY AT THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION
SOCIETY (WSIS)
Background to WSIS; the Importance of WSIS to Civil Society and Women;
the Preparatory Process for WSIS; Gender and ICTs in Latin
America/Caribbean, Asia/Pacific, Africa. THEME 12: HOW ICTs AFFECT THE LIVES OF WOMEN IN GENERAL
Impact and Challenges of ICTs in the Lives of Women; Gender based
Digital Divide in the Web Sector; Means of Expression for a Gender
Sensitive Justice Women's Accessibility to Information: A New Form of
Deprivation; Gender Evaluation Methodology: A New Tool for Women's
Empowerment; Women's organization's use of ICT: Report from the Asia
Region; THEME 12: INFORMATION GENERATION AND SHARING TO INFLUENCE THE
DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER SENSITIVE HEALTH POLICY
Information and knowledge Sharing for a Gender Just Society; Alleviation
of Poverty and Professional Isolation Among Health Workers in Eastern
Africa Through the Use of ICTs; the Women's Health Project. CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS:
With so much expertise available at Know How, it was a great opportunity
for sharing and capacity building amongst participants. Some of the
workshops undertaken were: 1. Radio as a Tool for Information Dissemination for Women in Rural
Areas:
2. Planning, Developing, Implementing, Sharing and Testing a Web Site
Using Action Apps:
3. Building and Maintaining a Website:
4. Use of the Internet to Participate in International Teams:
5. Initiation to Internet Tools for Democratization: The Use of SPIP:
6. Joint Workshop on "Thesaurus-Different Language"
7. Training on Digital Recording on Computer at the FIREPLACE
8. Getting Women's Voices into Mainstream National Media
9. Getting Smart: Strategic Communications for Gender Activists In addition to these activities and events, Know How also fielded a
MarketPlace of goods and services, including a Book Store of women and
development publications run by Women, Ink., an Art Exhibition of truly
wonderful African art and sculpture, and much more. NEXT KNOW HOW CONFERENCE
Know How is held every 4 years, and an invitation to host the next
conference in 2006 will soon be going out to women's media, information
and communications groups worldwide. The Kampala meeting was the first
time that Know How had been hosted in the Global South. WHICH REGION AND
GROUP WILL BE THE NEXT HOST? Costa Rica? Korea? Fiji? Lebanon? Croatia?
Malaysia? Australia? For further information on this and any other topic connected with Know
How, contact: Isis-WICCE/Kampala at <isis@starcom.co.ug>; or Isis
International/Manila at <isis@isiswomen.org> or IIAV/Amsterdam at:
<info@iiav.nl> The Know How Declaration will be featured in a forthcoming issue of IWTC
Women's Globalnet. Meanwhile, ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````check``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` out the following websites for Know
How information as it becomes available: Isis International/Manila website at <http://www.isiswomen.org>,
Isis-WICCE/Kampala website at <http://www.isis.or.ug>
IIAV/Amsterdam at: <http://www.iiav.nl/nl/ic/newsletter/index.html> IWTC Women's GlobalNet is a production of: International Women's Tribune Centre
777 United Nations Plaza
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel: (1-212) 687-8633
Fax: (1-212) 661-2704
Email: <iwtc@iwtc.org>
Web: <http://www.iwtc.org>
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