Group items tagged

This paper highlights why women's illiteracy needs to be addressed, and outlines documented experiences in using ICTs to address illiteracy. After reviewing some of the salient experiences of running literacy programmes for women in developing countries, the authors discuss the support needed from a broad array of sources and areas for meaningful use of ICT interventions in women's literacy. The paper then provides a brief description of the status, trends and problems relating to application of technology to adult literacy in some Third World countries, with a special focus on India. Thereafter, the paper analyses research experiences relating to the use of ICTs for women's programmes vis-à-vis women's access to ICTs, use of ICTs for poverty alleviation, and women's empowerment through ICTs, highlighting the lessons learnt.

The paper argues that successful service delivery to poor people requires that clients have voice and influence in the process of service design and delivery. It presents methods - such as participatory planning and gender budgeting - to strengthen the voice of poor women, and help ensure that both women's and men's concerns and priorities are taken into account. But it also recognises that tools and training are not enough; if women's perspectives on poverty reduction priorities disappear once the consultative stage is over, or if the results of a gender budgeting process are ignored, then nothing will change. Women's organisations, other civil society organisations and donors therefore have an important role to play in holding governments and providers accountable with respect to women's empowerment and gender equality. Guidelines are presented to support donors in strengthening accountability with respect to public services. These include: provide and demand sex-disaggregated data in all documents to make gender biases visible, promote gender auditing systems and gender budgeting initiatives, and carry out assessments and evaluations to measure outcomes and impact of service delivery with regard to gender equality.'

'What interventions are needed to improve the legal position of women, especially in Muslim societies, so that women's rights exist not only on paper but are realised in practice? Drawing on interviews conducted in Egypt, Yemen and Jordan in early 2008 with affected individuals, activists and people involved in development projects, this report proposes three key areas of action: formal legal reforms, improving women's access to their rights, and working closely with traditional and religious authorities to spread knowledge about existing laws. It presents case studies of interventions taking place in relation to these three areas, including an example of how the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW) lobbied for gender equality in nationality law in Egypt, a study of a national coalition against underage marriage in Jordan, and an example of how cooperation with male and female Islamic preachers in Yemen was successful in raising awareness of existing laws to protect women's rights. A central factor in the success of all the projects presented was the combination of lobbying with training measures and action research. Documentaries and public hearings at which affected women could tell their own stories proved to be particularly effective in lobbying and advocacy. Projects with judges (male and if possible also female), with employees of the judiciary and with the police force were also found to bring about positive changes.'

10 facts about women's health

'In a message to the governments gathered for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, Amnesty International joined Indigenous women's organizations throughout the region in calling for an end to violence and discrimination against Indigenous women and girls.

This book is designed to assist women in caring for their own health, and to help community health workers or others meet women's health needs. It remains highly relevant and includes valuable and vital information that will be useful for those with no formal training in health care skills and for those who do have some training. It provides comprehensive chapters on sexual and reproductive health, nutrition for women, family planning and women with disabilities.

A key point in the paper is that many poor people are forced to move on a regular and chronic basis and that this movement has both negative and positive consequences for their health and nutritional status. The paper is concerned with the high levels of infant and child illness and death amongst poor urban slum communities in Rajasthan, a state with one of the highest infant mortality rates in India. The paper examines the consequences of internal migration for women's reproductive experiences and for their children's health and is based on work between 2002-2004 carried out by Unnithan-Kumar in two urban slums (basti) in Jaipur city, the capital of Rajasthan in NW India.

This 2007 report 'provides a framework for policy makers to use in establishing what sectors of the economy and society are the most strategically relevant to women's development goals. It will help them make informed decisions towards a vibrant and competitive national knowledge society, taking full advantage of a country's human resources. 'In order to achieve this, data are needed: data that provide the best and most useful information on gendered opportunities and challenges, data that will allow the best decisions to be made. The report aims to provide the framework for the necessary data analysis to achieve these goals.'

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