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Gender and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) discussions, in the context of developing countries, concentrate on disparities between men and women. The buzzword is the Digital Divide. Not only is Africa considered to be the looser of the emerging Global Information Society but also, the women there, are perceived as the information poor and the ICT have-nots of today’s world. After all, so reads the argument, African women are highly represented among the poor, illiterate, and low educated groups in society, blocking ICT access. Most women live in rural areas, without electricity or telecommunications infrastructure, while ICT processes are concentrated in urban areas. Additionally, African women lack decision-making power to change the situation.
More than identifying ICT disparities, many Digital Divide scholars warn that ICT exclusion results in increased social exclusion, with African women ‘getting further behind’ (in income, education, rights, et cetera) as compared to men and the North. I agree with the statements that there are huge ICT disparities between continents and between the sexes. Nevertheless, my research on African civil society into ICT networks indicates that these disparities do not take the shape of a gap isolating the majority of African women from people in the Global Information Society. The Digital Divide concept is flawed in several ways, as I will discuss below. In this article, I propose an alternative view departing from the particularities of societies, gender relations, and ICT processes in Africa. The underlying model envisions linkages instead of a gap, so that in addition to disparities, it also identifies opportunities in ICT, gender, and development. I will highlight the qualitative case examples of some innovative contributions by African women’s organizations and distinguish the multiple roles they play in civil society ICT processes. The examples will demonstrate that even African women completely devoid of new media access can still be empowered through resourceful linkages. Africa in the information age Much thinking about ICT stems from the rich countries of the North. Too often, concepts are simply ‘transplanted’ to the developing countries of the South regardless of the distinct circumstances. Let me, therefore, first take a critical look at two main ICT concepts — the Information Society and the Digital Divide — in view of the African context. Repeatedly, the emerging Information Society is pictured as replacing modern, industrial society (as in the North) or as making the South skip industrialization (the so-called leapfrog in development). Such ideas stem from modernization theories and are based on Western social development. They describe a linear social evolution from hunter-gatherer, via agricultural, to industrial societies and now the subsequent development into information societies. However, development is not universal. Unlike modern societies in the North, the starting-points of African countries are dual societies made up of a modern sector and a non-modern sector. I argue that in present day Africa, a third sector is emerging: the information sector. Information and communication networks are the defining features of this sector, transforming other spheres of social and economic life. However, unlike the ideas associated with the Information Society, the information sector is not replacing current African society. On the contrary, it co-exists with the modern and non-modern sectors. The Digital Divide concept pictures disparities within and between societies as dichotomies, i.e., as pairs of extremes separated by a gap. Examples are urban-rural, North-South, men-women, literate-illiterate, and modern-non-modern. A major drawback of this approach is the neglect of diversity. There usually are gradations between the two opposites, like in the case of ‘rich and poor’. The concept further denies the relationships existing between the ‘poles’. Instead of being separated by a gap, the North and the South are structurally related to one another; and so are the sectors of African societies, men and women, etc. A third problem is the reduction of have-nots to passive ‘victims’ of technological innovation, completely devoid of the socio-economic benefits that ICTs bring along. Application of the concept then runs the risk of reinforcing differences in African societies. Additionally, the identification of a digital gap suggests that ICT access is the solution, ignoring (developmental, gender) problems that the technology itself may provoke. Finally, most Digital Divide scholars take Northern ICT usage as a norm. Thereby, they overlook the specific shaping of ICT in developing countries. Here, an alternative conceptual model is discussed that acknowledges the three co-existing and related sectors of African societies (Fig. 1). The non-modern, modern, and information sectors overlap and interact with one another. Yet, they have distinct ideal-type features. The main economic activity, for instance, is agriculture in the non-modern sector, industry in the modern sector, and information in the information sector. In line with this, ICT processes are concentrated in the information sector. 
Fig.1: Three co-existing sectors of African society The characteristics of the different sections may be in conflict and manifest themselves as tensions in social life. For instance, education and literacy levels are low among people in the non-modern sector. Most persons in the modern sector are literate in (inter)national languages and have enjoyed general education. Yet, they typically lack the ICT skills and jargon that people in the information sector possess. These differences come to the surface in ICT introduction. The education/literacy levels ease this process for people in the information sector, pose a challenge for persons in the modern sector, and may seem insurmountable for those in the non-modern sector. The tensions are gendered, because African men and women are unequally distributed over the sectors of society. Women are over represented in the non-modern sector. The majority of persons in the modern and information sectors are men. Often responsible for income generation of their extended families, men fill not only many jobs, but also decision-making positions in the field of ICT. Therefore, at first glance, Digital Divide proponents seem right in reasoning that most African women are cut off from the information revolution benefits. However, this conclusion overlooks how (people in) the different sectors of African societies are linked together. Bridging the sectors of society Using ICTs in the African environment poses multiple challenges. Examples are profitability in view of poverty, repeated infrastructure breakdown, and lack of writing culture. To cope with these challenges, Africans and their partners have come up with very innovative solutions. ICT in Africa is not a copy of ICT in the North, it reflects local demands. The beauty of such solutions lies not only in overcoming technological obstacles, but in connecting the three sectors of society as well. For instance, the use of HF (High Frequency) radio-to-email technology enables people living in areas without telephone lines to participate in electronic communication processes anyway. Civil society organizations, especially Non-Governmental Organizations, play an important role in this process of linking the sectors of society together. First, because few African governments are engaged in ICT, and private sector actors predominantly concentrate on the profitable clients—i.e., those in the information and modern sectors. But more important is the special position of NGOs in African society: even though they usually operate from the modern or information sector, many of them are active at the intersections connecting the three social sectors. The NGOs act as intermediaries between local grassroots and organizations at the (inter)national level, with the former concentrated in the non-modern sector and the latter in the modern and information sectors. NGOs further function as change agents. They stimulate and support local empowerment processes of grassroots, who are often organized in Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in the non-modern sector. With the rising popularity of ICT, an increasing number of NGOs act as technical assistants in ICT for other civil society organizations as well. In other words, civil society networks linking together the three sectors enable people in the (non-)modern sector to get benefited from ICT processes taking place in the information sector—or better; at the intersections of society. Quite a few African women’s organizations engage in such initiatives, supporting their disadvantaged sisters. Through their work, not all women in the non-modern sector remain isolated from ICT processes and benefits. African women and civil society ICT networks African women in civil society have taken on multiple roles in ICT processes. This paper has tried to distinguish such roles. This is only to clarify the NGO position at the crossroads of society. In social reality the roles are, off course, often intertwined and rarely identified as such. I skip 'ordinary' ICT users in the information sector, who apply computers, the Internet, cell phones, and other new technologies for personal daily activities as writing letters and contacting organizations. They are the ICT haves that Digital Divide scholars refer to, mirroring ‘standard users’ from the North. The variety of ICT use by women in African civil society is, however, much greater than ‘standard ICT usage’ for oneself. Looking beyond the information sector, I identify a diversity of roles by NGO women bridging the information, modern, and non-modern sectors of society. The first role concerns the intermediary function between the local and (inter)national levels. Quite a few women’s organizations use their ICT access in favour of the unconnected grassroots whom they represent in social development processes. The women’s organizations particularly apply ICTs in gender advocacy. In the preparatory phase leading to the United Nations World Conference on Women in 1995 (the Beijing process), women’s organizations tried to influence the conference agenda and the draft policy document Platform for Action. NGOs from all over the world, including Africa, electronically provided lobbyists up-to-date information on the state of local constituencies, in areas like women’s control over natural resources, health, rights, sexuality, and violence. The women I interviewed believed that electronic networking had positively supported the process as well as its outcome. ICTs had thereby contributed to the empowerment of all women, including those without email access.
The Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) uses new media in campaigns to improve the condition of women, regardless whether these are ICT haves or have-nots. For example, TAMWA pressed the mass media with stories on rats eating away the feet of workers sleeping at plantations. This triggered several ministries to solve the problem that hits most on women and children, who were sleeping on the floors while the men occupied the beds. NGO women also apply ICTs to feed back the results of (inter)national processes to the women outside the information sector. In 1999 and 2000, the pan-African network FLAME (Feminists Living in Africa Moving Electronically) distributed the most important results of the UN conference, following up Beijing (called Beijing+5), to women of their continent. From Addis Ababa and New York, FLAME disseminated a daily conference bulletin in French and English. The bulletin informed the African readership that, for example, ‘The African Platform for Action(APA) broke new ground in recognizing women’s rights, rather than just violence against women, as a priority area’. FLAME not only posted the news items on the internet and on an electronic mailing list but also distributed a paper bulletin. In collaboration with the Global Women Action media team, the network further provided African media with ready-made materials to broadcast the news on radio and TV. In this way, the Beijing+5 news reached women in the information as well as in the modern and non-modern sectors. Instead of campaigning general gender issues, part of the women’s organizations uses electronic communication to advocate changes in the field of ICT itself. These NGOs address themselves as national, regional, and global actors with the aim of improving the African ICT situation in general, but for women as underprivileged group in particular. The Gender Working Group of the African Information Society (AIS-GWG) published a booklet about ‘practical skills and information to ensure the full participation of women in the Information and Communication Technology arena’. The publication, Engendering ICT Policy, is more than a civil society guideline for action. It also specifies what policy makers can practically do to improve the situation of African women in ICT. When the Kenyan government was to privatize state telecommunications, Abantu for Development(‘Abantu’ means ‘people’ in several African languages) organized a policy forum about the effects on women and poor people. This awareness-raising seminar for policy makers was meant to ensure that women and other poor Kenyans would not be marginalized as consumers or as entrepreneurs in a liberalized telecom market. In preparation of Beijing+5, AAW( the African Women partner of the Association for Progressive Communications, APC ) and FEMNET( African Women’s Development and Communication Network ) undertook research activities. This resulted in the publication Net Gains. The booklet includes a useful checklist of gender considerations for carrying out ICT projects in Africa. Other research outputs, voicing opportunities and problems of African women both with and without ICT access, were submitted to delegates of the regional and global Beijing+5 conferences. In other words, the great number of African women without ICT access are not necessarily socially excluded, as many Digital Divide scholars imply. The women’s voices can still be included in (inter)national development processes through the NGO intermediary function. A comparable mechanism applies to social transformation at the local level. Here, it is the change agent role of NGOs bridging the co-existing sectors of society. Women’s organizations that support marginalized community women to empower themselves, regularly apply ICTs in this work. Acknowledging the significance of information for development and gender empowerment, many NGOs in the information sector concentrate on the redissemination of electronic information to women outside this sector who cannot easily access this information. The NGOs generally repackage data from the Internet, selecting what is relevant for local CBOs. The NGOs translate, compile, and reformat the information, among other activities. They then forward the information to the grassroots by communication channels which are better accessible than the ‘new media’. Examples include video, radio, street theatre, oral dissemination, and print. Repackaging information is the main way of African content creation—one so often overlooked by Digital Divide scholars who did not depart from the Northern habit of content production through web sites. The Research Association of Zambian Women in Academia repackages information from email and the world wide web on to training leaflets and posters. Especially, the illustrations are easily understandable by local women, including the illiterate. Since 1994, the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has accumulated rich information resources on development related subjects for electronic exchange. FESADE (Sub Saharan Women in Health and Development) at the Cameroon capital Yaoundé is connected to the SDNP. The NGO serves as an Internet hub to a great number of women’s groups in the country, including those without Internet access. The director of the Centre for Promotion of Women at Mbouda, for instance, regularly travels three hundred kilometers to Yaoundé to gather information needed by her members. On return, she shares the details on dressmaking, nutrition, farming, and so on, at training workshops and other gatherings. In the case of the women’s community group at Mankon, the Society for Initiatives in Rural Development and Environment (SIRDEP) acts as the go-between. As a result, group leader Mama Lacombi, an illiterate, receives appropriate information about modern livestock rearing methods to make the activities of the Mankon group more profitable. Anastasia Namisango, a Ugandan lady in her seventies, visits women in her district to introduce the CD-ROM on Rural Women in Africa: Ideas for Earning Money. The CD, developed by the International Women’s Tribute Centre (IWTC) in consultation with local women, provides step-by-step instructions on how to establish and manage a business. It is accessible to illiterate women through a graphical interface and spoken text in the local language, Luganda. Teaching rural women how to use the CD-ROM, Namisango’s change agent role also covers the field of ICT itself. Like other women’s organizations in the information sector, she is a role model, reaching out to her sisters in other sectors and raising awareness on the possibilities of ICTs for women’s empowerment. An important component of this work involves training.  African women using computer
The FLAME network took off at a workshop for fourteen women from nine African countries. While the workshop objective was the collaborative design of a web site, the participants were not necessarily ICT knowledgeable. They were, for instance, a medical doctor or a trainer at an gricultural center. Training and peer learning, alternated with decision-making and creative activities, turned the design process into a skills enhancing experience. The technology was demystified, and as the builders were the future users, the process was a good example of women’s empowerment in ICT. In another workshop, the Economic and Social Policy Initiative (ECSPI) sensitized female rural community workers from Kenya on Internet use from the perspective of women. Using English as well as the local languages Swahili and Kalenjin, they assessed web pages on criteria like networking with rural areas and inclusion of community needs. The women also received training in technology and aspects like ‘how to make the most of the little time (affordable) on the Internet’. The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) adapted on-line available training materials into an email-facilitated face-to-face workshop, teaching their members to build web pages. The idea was that a presence on the Internet would assist Ugandan women in, for example, attracting potential partners for collaborative projects. Another side of change agent activities in ICT concerns the provision of ICTs to women who are not yet using them. In the previous decade, this often meant acquiring technologies or connections for women from the modern sector. The Women, Environment and Development network (WEDNET) played a role in an email connection project as early as 1994/5. As a result, twelve African women’s organizations received a modem, communications software, email connection, training, and six months subscription. In 1996, it was very difficult for Africans to obtain and afford modems. ENDA-Synfev (is the ‘Gender and Development Synergy group of Environment and Development in Africa’ ) from Senegal acquired such devices for twelve women’s groups in West Africa. Together, with its international partner organizations, Enda trained the women how to use the modems. Lately, the concept of telecenters seems to prevail. These centers offer a diversity of information and communication services, from photocopying to browsing, from library services to scanning. More and more of these centers can be found in rural areas. Women from the information sector are playing active roles in establishing and running such centers. Isis-WICCE (Women’s International Cross-Cultural Exchange) established a women-focused telecenter in its Kampala offices, as an alternative to the mushrooming Internet cafes that women cannot access, for instance because of the high costs. The Isis-WICCE telecenter provides wireless Internet communication for free, as well as hands-on ICT training. Among their customers are women’s organizations and students. In collaboration with the Kenyan National E-Commerce Task Force, women of Library Information Support Services introduced a telecenter in the Nairobi slum Kawangware. This center specifically targets orphans, women, and children. One step further are the NGO women carrying out technical assistance tasks. It includes professional ICT activities such as construction of web sites, establishment of discussion forums, and provision of on-line technical support. In fact, this is an extension of the ‘traditional’ change agent role to the activities in the information sector. At the same time, the actions fill in niches left by the market. Enda-Synfev provides technical support on-line. An example is the electronic list following from the workshop Nos voix sur Internet (Our voices on the Internet). It provides ICT beginners step-by-step guidance in questions of downloading, decompression of files, and installation of software like WinZip. Women’s Net South Africa created a radio-web exchange to up- and download sound files. Community radio stations can now get Internet materials ready for broadcasting. The supporting project foresaw networking activities between gender activists, NGOs, community radio disc jockeys, and other media workers. This ensured that women’s organizations were able to produce radio-ready content and that radio workers are gender sensitive. The radio-web exchange well illustrates the links between ‘traditional and ’new’ media—and thereby, between people in the (non) modern and information sectors in Africa. Far from a widening ‘digital gap’ between those who engage in ICT and those who do not, the sectors of society overlap and interact. There are all kinds of technical, informational, and social connections at the intersections. As a result, African women without ICT access are not necessarily disadvantaged socially. The radio-web exchange is, in fact, an innovative case of the shaping of ICT in the context of developing countries. As the many examples above have shown, African civil society women actively contribute to such innovations.
Rethinking gender, ICT, and development Structural neglects in civil society remain mostly undiscussed in the discourse on the Digital Divide, so redirecting of research, policy, and advocacy are needed. Support of African women requires a view acknowledging the specific shaping of ICT in developing countries rather than the flawed notion of a Digital Divide. While the portrayal of African women as excluded has raised awareness of gender issues, solutions to problems like structural disregards, require a realistic approach. Such an approach should recognize the participation and innovation by African women’s organizations. The model of co-existing sectors can be helpful in identifying not only tensions, but also opportunities in gender, ICT, and development.
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Through ZEPS, all clinics in the capital Lusaka are connected to one another via a wireless local area network. This would imply that no expectant mother would be required to keep files, let alone carry them. Whenever they go to the clinics, all they have to do is to produce a number or password which was provided to them during their first visit. Upon re-entering the password, their medical history is available, and can be obtained from any clinic. The system was introduced to address some of the major health concerns of the country such as high rate of maternal and infant mortality.