In the final part of her series, Dorothy Okello explores how Wougnet is working with the government and civil society organisations in Uganda to enhance access to information and also use of ICT by rural women to improve their quality of life.
Access to accurate and timely information by rural women can result in enhanced economic and social development. Indeed, the Uganda government recognizes that information is key for programs such as the Poverty Eradication Action Plan and the Plan for Modernisation for Agriculture (PMA). For example, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), a component of PMA, was designed to focus on increasing farmers’ access to improved knowledge, technologies and information. However, information is of limited use unless it is appropriately packaged and communicated. In this article, we highlight Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)’s activities in addressing the need to enhance access to information by rural women in Uganda with examples from our work in Apac District, Northern Uganda.
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is a non-governmental organisation initiated in May 2000 by several women’s organisations in Uganda to develop the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among women as tools to share information and address issues collectively. According to findings from the 2003 WOUGNET Evaluation Report (which used the APC Gender Evaluation Methodology – GEM tool that is useful in assessing initiatives using ICTs for social change), WOUGNET activities had increased awareness and participation of women in ICT related activities, as well as increased information sharing and networking among women and women organisations. However, the benefits were still limited to those organisations that had access to Internet, leaving out the majority of women and women organisations in the rural areas. Though efforts had been made to support women organisations in the rural areas to explore ICT opportunities in their activities through awareness workshops, seminars, print materials; this had been done on a limited scale. There was still lack of adequate capacity for women to explore ICTs to their full potential in their activities. Constraints included:
- Inadequate skills and knowledge in ICT use and application in their daily activities.
- Lack of ICT centres where they could exploit ICTs in their activities.
- Lack of connectivity to access information disseminated online by WOUGNET.
- Lack of information translated in the local language to meet the needs of the diversified members.
- Lack of diversified methods of disseminating information that would satisfy both urban and rural women.
Lack of technical skills to address problems such as computer break down and maintenance.
Following the 2003 evaluation, WOUGNET’s overall objective was revised to strengthen the use of ICTs among women and women organisations, to build capacities in ICT use and application, and to expand activities to reach out to women in the rural areas. There are four major program areas in support of the overall objective: Information Sharing and Networking; Technical Support; Gender and ICT Policy Advocacy; and Rural Access. The Rural Access program aims at improving rural women’s access to ICTs, strengthening organisation members and building capacity in their ICT use and application increasing women access in ICTs.
Over 80% of Uganda's population of 24 million is rural based and depends almost entirely on agriculture at various levels for livelihood. However, diseases, pests, soil degradation and other factors such as lack of market for easily perishable crops have greatly affected the total national incomes and subsequently the standard of living of people in rural communities. Access to information as prescribed in government strategies requires cheap and fast dissemination of information to farmers, even in the rural areas. Limited resources, including limited telecommunications and energy infrastructure, have contributed to slow implementation of such government initiatives. Consequently, despite being the largest contributor to the country’s economy, the agricultural sector still lacks knowledge dissemination innovations to facilitate timely, accurate and relevant information to farmers.
Under the Rural Access program, a project on “Enhancing Access to Agricultural Information using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Apac District” was initiated in 2005 to develop and improve information and communication systems so as to enable easy access to agricultural information for rural women farmers. According to a research study undertaken in 2003, findings revealed lack of information as a key limiting factor to increased productivity in Apac District. The rural farmers lacked information on how to improve quality of their products, improved seeds and crop varieties, source of inputs/implements, plant diseases, pests and their control, soil management and conservation, and improved skills. Lack of such information has limited the production levels of the rural farmers, hence limited incomes and poverty.
The Enhancing Access to Agricultural Information using Information and Communication Technologies (EAAI) project is implemented in twelve parishes/villages of Atik, Abedi, Apac, Kungu, Awila, Apoi, Aumi, Agege, Angic, Adyeda, Bar Akalo and Adyang of Maruzi and Kole counties in Apac District. The project was initiated with financial support from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), and targets grassroot women farmers as the main beneficiaries while not excluding men or the youth in the project activities. Located in Apac town, the Kubere Information Centre (KIC) was also established to act both as an Information Resource point as well as to support project implementation and two-way linkages with the women farmers. Local agricultural content has been produced and disseminated via radio and SMS messages as well as on audiotapes, video tapes and CD-ROMs. The content is made available in the local language, Luo, and disseminated to farmers.
In order to ensure timely dissemination of relevant information to farmers, the EAAI project has applied a number of collaborative strategies. WOUGNET has teamed up with a community radio in Apac to ensure delivery of information that is packaged, transcribed and formatted into a series of weekly radio programs. Established in 1999, Radio Apac serves the target district and has got a good listenership in the community. In addition, WOUGNET has partnered with existing sources of agricultural information including Agency for Sustainable Development Initiatives (ASDI ) and Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns (VEDCO) – both NGOs based in Apac, FOODNET , The Radio and Internet Program (RANET) – Uganda Metrological Department , and the Apac District Agricultural Office. Furthermore, a question and answer arrangement is also available to assist farmers in providing a technical back up. This has been done in collaboration with the National Agriculture Research Organisation (NARO), the local coordinator of CTA’s Question and Answer Service and with the FAO/NARO Agricultural Research and Extension Network (ARENET) project that seeks to use the internet to bring the gap between researchers, extension workers and the farmers.
Since late 2006, WOUGNET is also partnering in an e-Society programme that seeks to foster collaboration between local government and civil society in Apac district through the use of ICTs. With financial and technical support from Hivos and IICD, it involves local government at the district and sub-county levels as well as civil society organisations active at district and community level. Experiences with joint civil society and government activities in e-governance on a local level are not common and are not widely documented. Through the e-Society programme, IICD and Hivos wish to explore and operationalise, together with government and civil society partners, the opportunities of improved governance and service delivery through the use of ICT. Hivos and IICD consider this as an incubator for a workable e-Society model at the district level that can and should be rolled out in other districts. To ensure that lessons learnt do actually lead to improvement of the model, monitoring and evaluation will be key activities in this process – and it is here that WOUGNET and I-Network, the local national partners, play a major role.
In conclusion to the three-part series highlighting WOUGNET activities, while many constraints remain in enhancing access to information by rural women, WOUGNET is committed to directing all her efforts to supporting women and women organisations in Uganda to access and utilise ICTs in their development activities to improve their lives. Access to as well as utilisation of information, knowledge and skills are key to improving the lives of both urban and rural women in Uganda.