Natasha Primo discusses why NGOs focused on women's issues need to embrace information technology infrastructure as well as develop ICT skills to achieve their goals.
Computers and information have become critical tools in the development of women’s NGOs. Yet the leadership in most women’s organisations in South Africa are clueless about how to manage their existing technology and information, or even how to think about what tools they may need in the short to medium term future!
Computers and information management are more central than ever before to the ability of women’s NGOs to plot the design, implement, and monitor projects and programmes. In this process, technology becomes a critical development resource within that organisation.
The difficulty is that most women’s NGOs and CBOs do not pay enough attention - if any - to what technology they buy and how they plan to use it. Often the decision for many is to acquire the latest and/or fastest products that are affordable, or to default to the recommendation of the IT consultant.
Fortunately, help is at hand. Women’sNet has been running workshops with women’s NGOs on how to plan for technology use in the organisation, and linking these technology plans directly to the mission, vision, and action plans of the organisation.
In the technology planning process, facilitators from Women’sNet guide the staff of these women’s NGOs and CBOs through a discussion of what their programme plans are, who they want to know about their organisational activities, and which information dissemination channels would best achieve these goals. As a team, the organisation’s - including management and staff - discuss which technology might be more appropriate to their plans.
The Women’sNet facilitators add to these organisational discussions by making the team aware of cheaper hardware, software and/or networking solutions - most of which are free or open source - that the organisation could consider, rather than defaulting to their existing knowledge of technologies in the market, some of which will not closely match their specialised needs.
Women’sNet hopes to increase the number of technology aware organisations in the women’s movement. Leaders of women’s NGOs and CBOs will feel more in control of their technology choices, and can justify these choices and technology expenses to their boards and donors as sound asset management.
Being more technology aware, women’s organisations will be able to clearly trace the links between its hardware and software technology choices, and their mission and development objectives. In deliberating its programming and the related technology needs, NGOs are likely to become more autonomous in technology decision making and can effectively wean themselves from often expensive IT consultants.
- Why is it important for women users to engage with FOSS? Why target women’s NGOS? What will they gain from such a process?
- Most women’s NGOs are cash strapped and will benefit from technologies that are cheaper and thus more accessible;
- Women’s NGOs do not always know what the technology options are, and are likely to purchase hardware and software without any clear understanding of how it relates to their needs in the organisation.
Technology planning facilitates efficient management and deployment of organisational resources – like staff and funding. The management imperative must include the deployment of technology resources.
Women’sNet’s aim is to turn (women’s) NGOs into much more conscious users of computers and information management technologies, to make them more aware of the broad array of software choices available, and how these software options and freedom of choice translates into greater choice in hardware solutions.
Technology choice - and free and open source software in particular - will also impact on how far one can stretch a generally non-elastic equipment budget!