Global   Electronic   Networking   Forum

SPEAKERS FORUM

The Chair opened the meeting outlining the aims of the meeting as per the agenda (as above).

"Information and the willingness to make change happen are at the heart of transformation processes." We can do that, using our collective intelligence, experience, technical expertise and imagination.

Anne S. Walker from International Women's Tribune Center (IWTC) talked briefly about the beginnings of the IWTC Women's GlobalNet, which grew out of the need to inform women worldwide about the decision of the China Organizing Committee (COC) in Beijing to move the NGO Forum from Beijing to Huairou, 40 miles outside of town.

Using a graphic, she pointed out the geographical location of the 32 members of WOMENET, a faxnet of women's media networks set up at a women and media meeting in Barbados, 1991. On learning of the sudden change of Forum location, IWTC faxed a one-page message to WOMENET, alerting them to the news.

By the following Monday, IWTC's fax machine was running hot with replies from every region of the world. It became clear that women everywhere were disturbed by the news and each media network had faxed the bulletin on to their regional and national contacts.

Packages of faxes were put together and taken over to the CSW which was still in session and handed out to delegates. They were astounded at the speed with which the news had spread, and people had responded!

A second bulletin was then sent out containing a suggested letter that could be signed and sent to a) the UN Secretary General and b) the COC in Beijing (via the country UNDP office). Word was received within days that both of these places were swamped with letters requesting that the NGO Forum not be moved out of town. (The UNDP people loaded up a wheelbarrow and wheeled the letters over to the COC office in Beijing).

Major results stemming from these actions included

1. 1000's of faxes were received by IWTC and the fax numbers garnered from these messages became the basis for the new IWTC Women's Global FaxNet
2. Petitions and letters were received by the COC in Beijing via the Beijing UNDP office, and by the UN Sec-General in NY, prompting a special visit to Beijing by a delegation that included a special envoy of the Secretary General to investigate the situation.
3. An added measure of respect was gained for the Global Women's Movement and it's ability to mobilize and demand action when necessary.
4. A new instant channel of "breaking" news around Beijing plans and preparations was inaugurated. After IWTC Global FaxNet #11, a request went out to all those on the FaxNet with e-mail addresses, to send these to IWTC so that some of the high cost associated with faxing could be alleviated, and IWTC Women's GlobalNet was formed. Using a programme known as mergemail offered by APC, the e-mail list grew to today's total of 1,500 addresses and the fax list remains at around 500. Both lists are sent via the Internet, -through APC for the e-mail and through a fax broadcast firm for the faxes. Together, the two lists reach tens of thousands. IWTC regards each of the primary addresses on the two lists as "multiplier groups" who are responsible for sending the one-page bulletin on to their own networks.

Karen Banks of APC Women's Networking Support Programme, spoke on electronic networking strategies used prior to and during Beijing

Main Points:

APC - Association For Progressive Communications - is a worldwide network of Internet Service Providers offering services to the not-for-profit and NGO community. APC has 25 members worldwide and 40 partners.

• In 1993, APC began on-site communications at regional preparatory conferences of UN World Conferences. They also started training women to at UN World Conferences, both at the Conference itself and at the parallel NGO Forums.
• Began online thematic conferences (health, environment, peace etc)
• Also offered training and outreach at the UN Commission of the Status of Women, (acting as the PrepCom for Beijing) in collaboration with other networks ( IWTC, Art of Organizing, etc).
• Provided on-site communications at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) in 1995 (Beijing). APC's teams comprised ALL women from 24 countries, speaking 15 languages.
• In Beijing, information facilitation services included having women working remotely in London, Nairobi, Lusaka, Mexico and Melbourne. These regional contact points disseminated useful information daily to NGOs not able to attend either the FWCW or the NGO Forum.

Marie-Helene Mottin-Sylla of ENDA-SYNFEV spoke on electronic networking strategies being used in Francophone West Africa.

Main Points:

• Established a French-language online networking service, and offered training to NGO's in Francophone West Africa.
• Are now undertaking electronic solidarity campaigns on and about women's issues and concerns.
• ENDA/SYNFEV is also producing indigenous African information
• They are now beginning to work in partnership with other online women's networks in Africa, e.g. WomensNet (South Africa), GAIN (Gender in Africa Information Network), and ABANTU.
• For Beijing+5, ENDA/SYNFEV will work closely with APC Women's Networking Support Programme and Anglophone African networks

Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng of ISIS-WICCE spoke on electronic networking strategies in Anglophone Africa, using the example of the GAIN network.

Main Points:

• Attended the PrepCom in March, 1995, and during that time met at IWTC to set up a system whereby documentalists worldwide could plan a workshop at the NGO Forum, via e-mail. This network of documentation centres became known as The Web, facilitated by Lourdes Vazquez, IWTC Resource Centre Coordinator.
• Went back to Africa to find groups who were already online
• Began helping groups get online with training assistance from APC Women's Networking Support Programme
• With documentalists worldwide, staged the workshop at the NGO Forum. The workshop was very successful and proved the possibility of planning major international workshops via electronic conference.
• Mentioned the importance of women's access to decision-making power and control of ICTs, recognizing it as 'the money and the power'.
• At this point, Ruth invited Gillian Marcelle to comment on Gender Policy in telecommunications and the use of ICTs.

Gillian Marcelle (ITU Gender Task Force):

Main points:

• successfully lobbied the ITU with other women to recognize gender as critical in all resolutions on ICT policies. ITU passed a gender resolution in April 1998, and moved quickly to set up a Gender Task Force, which met in Geneva in September 1998. (IWTC, Isis International/Santiago, Isis International/Manila and Isis-WICCE/Kampala participated in this Task Force and were able to bring an NGO perspective to deliberations).
• Gillian has found the ITU process easier to influence than the women activists here at the CSW, and was disappointed at the seeming lack of interest amongst them on issues pertaining to gender and ICTs.

Others also commented that it remains a challenge to our organizations to influence NGO caucuses at PrepComs in relation to the vital importance of information and media, and specifically to the urgent need to make resources available to women's media networks. Without information, policy formulation at the global level will not be communicated at the community level.

Chat Garcia Ramilo, ISIS International/Manila, and a member of the Asian Women's Exchange Resource (AWORC) then spoke.

Main Points:

• ISIS International/Manila focuses on Asia and the Pacific, while Isis Internacional/Santiago focuses on Latin America and Isis-WICCE focuses on Africa. All Isis groups work closely together on international issues and concerns.
• Isis/Manila produces many publications which are sent out via mail. They only recently began sharing information electronically via e-mail networks and a web site.
• Isis/Manila organized a workshop of information/resource centres out of which AWORC emerged. This new regional group currently has 11 national members.
• AWORC comprises a website with information on actions and campaigns, a directory of women's organizations, information on the 12 Critical Areas of Concern from the Platform for Action and new initiatives and strategies from around the region.
• AWORC is now training women to develop and use websites. The aim is to ultimately have women use websites for their own organizational purposes once the Beijing+5 review process is over.

OPEN FORUM

1. How do we use ICTs for our own purposes and not let technology take over our agenda
2. Will the Global North just get more informed and more wealthy while the Global South becomes less informed and poorer? (Social exclusion and access issues)
3. How will we sensitize women to use the new telecentres being constructed in Africa and Asia? (These are usually placed in rural areas, and are intended to provide access to information for people who otherwise tend to be very isolated and unable to get the information they need. Telecentres have computers and access to the Internet).
4. Are donors becoming more gender-sensitive and providing needed funding to ICT projects for women?
5. What needs to be done to allow women in the regions to become more involved in the Beijing+5 process?
6. How can civil society influence the Beijing+5 process more effectively
7. How do we see that women in Africa and Eastern Europe get better andcheaper access to the Internet?
8. How do we help make access to the Internet equally available to women in all countries in Africa (and for that matter the world)?
9. What can we do to include more women who are either very old or veryyoung in electronic networks?
10. Is it true that women activists are not very interested in the use of ICT's? If so, how can we convince them of the need and usefulness of ICT's?
11. What (or which) donors are actively providing support to women's ICTefforts in Africa? (IDRC -Acacia Project and ITU were given as examples)
12. Are young women being given sufficient opportunities for computer training in schools worldwide?
13. Is security/privacy an issue with online communications in some regions more than others?
14. How can we actively/tangibly support the Beijing+5 review process, ensuring that all those interested in playing an active role can do so?
15. How do we totally change the agenda around utilization of ICT's in the effort to make global policy formulation and community implantation efforts more of a participatory process?
16. How do we reinstate affirmative action legislation that allows women to obtain telecommunication licenses?
17. How do we get things moving around ICT's at this PrepCom?
18. Can we use strategies from other world conference review processes which were in some cases more successful at including civil society input?
19. How can we utilize expertise that already exists in universities, women's studies programmes, etc?
20. How do we conquer the language problem online? (particularly non-Romanic languages, e.g. Korean, Hindi, Arabic, Japanese, etc.) (Yukika's comment: To be able to begin using computers that utilize non-Romanic alphabet languages, new hardware and software needs to be developed).

INITIATIVES:

1. Computer training for elected members (women) of local government -(India)
2. Computer training for women working in disaster areas (India)
3. E-Mail/fax campaign against trafficking in women (Nepal)
4. Organize women around e-commerce especially women in Africa involved in informal markets (Senegal)
5. Use synergy, and put our efforts together in getting resources to make visionary projects possible e.g. the new web site under construction on women's human rights, that came out of a meeting of women's human rights leaders in Harare, Zimbabwe.
6. In response to queries about the lack of ICT activity in E. Europe, APC reported that they are working with women's networks in the Czech Republic and the Ukraine.
7. UN Environment Programme website has a list of 200 meetings happening in coming 2 years <www.unep.org>
8. Resolution to ITU regarding support for women trying to expand electronic networking could be initiated?
9. Development of national shadow reports as a tool for getting more participation from NGOs and establishing a monitoring procedure for the government report.
10. Using the national and regional shadow reports, development of a global shadow report
11. Placing of government country reports on website (UNIFEM/womenwatch) (www.un.org/womenwatch)
12. Training in use of ICT's parallel to regional conferences
13. Resource list/trainers, materials
14. Involvement in on-line conferences
15. On-site communication
16. Review of section J in Platform For Action - Women and Media. This section was hard-fought by NGOs and now needs to be reviewed, and government, UN and NGO actions implemented.
17. Lobby the UN for hardware for NGOs and other on site communications centres (hardware refers to computer equipment).
18. Use monitoring score card technique (from Earth Summit) for online monitoring.
19. Use lobbying and advocacy techniques to influence policy at international organizations and agencies
20. Lobby for action to be taken on developing e-mail for non-Romanic languages

FOLLOW-UP

• Work together with other groups, using ICTs
• Become involved and get others involved in learning, training, and using ICTs. Own ICT technology and make it something that meets the needs of women.
• Inform donors of need for support

The following statement was prepared and given to the NGO "Framework" drafting committee for inclusion as a fifth principle in the NGO statement of principles on the process for the Beijing +5 process ? "Finally the action plan as outlined in this statement, cannot be achieved without the full mobilization of resources and the support of governments, UN, and other agencies for efforts to increase access to and dissemination of information and the development of communication strategies that bridge the gap between policy formulation and community implementation."

FOLLOW-UP TO GLOBAL ELECTRONIC NETWORKING FORUM (March 17th 1999)

Anne Walker, IWTC presenting Global Networking Initiative Proposal to the NGO Community during PrepCom 1, 19th March 1999 (listen on RealAudio - 19990319anne.ra 437 KB)

This open forum was convened to shape strategie for using electronic networking as part of the Beijing +5 Review process, and to share experiences on advocacy and accounta-bility strategies by women activists worldwide. The workshop was attended by more than 70 women from NGO communities, UN and/or governmental organizations worldwide.

The draft proposal which follows represents the work of a smaller group that met to assess the open forum's questions and inititiatives and to propose future actions.

Three initiatives (listed below) respond to the immediate need for:

• a way of continuing the discussion around the Beijing Plus Five review framework.

• a way of collecting and sharing the national and regional shadow reports

• a clearinghouse for all important information devoted to NGO initiatives and information around the Beijing +5 process

• a way of continuing the discussion around NGO access and participation in UN meetings in general and the Special Session on Beijing Plus Five specifically

• a way of monitoring and reviewing specific actions to be taken as part of Section J (Women and Media) in the Beijing Platform for Action.

Three Initiatives:

1. Development of a global website as a resource for Beijing +5 review process (see graphic below)

   click here for digital image by APC WNSP

   
   

2. Undertake training and capacity building for regional facilitators of online working groups and regional web site coordinators. A criteria for material that would be up-loaded onto the global web site still needs to be developed.

3. A score card/checklist to distribute amongst women's media networks and organiza-tions worldwide, to review and monitor specific actions taken by governments, media systems and NGOs, as outlined in Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action.