The following item from the Accra weekly, Public Agenda, was seen on
AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200704090934.html . Note the
discussion of localization in African languages. DZO
Ghana: ICT Can Transform the Lives of African Women
Public Agenda (Accra)
[no URL available]
April 4, 2007
Posted to the web April 9, 2007
Isabella Gyau Orhin
Accra
The Business Development Officer of the Ghana- India Kofi Annan Centre of
Excellence in ICT, Sarata Adams has said Information Communication
Technology (ICTs) can transform the way women live and the way development
takes place in Africa and the world at large.
Speaking at the just-ended African E-governance conference in Accra last
week, she said, "technologies have many potential benefits for women such as
e-commerce and improved access of women to distance learning and work
programme."
Africa 2007
She said Africa is in the midst of dramatic technological transformation
where women have played a key role in the transformation across society.
"Women are leaders, entrepreneurs and role models in such positions," she
said.
According to Ms. Adams visits to some internet cafes in Ghana have shown the
enthusiasm with which women are using the internet.
In spite of these, Ms. Adams believes ICT use remains difficult if not
impossible for majority of women. There is therefore the need to get young
women interested in ICT and also to get employers and workplace culture to
encourage women.
Ms. Adams recommended among others, special ICT education programmes,
subsides on ICT training for women, workshops and stability in the ICT
labour market.
She said girls should also be encouraged to pursue ICT courses, while women
re-entering the job market should be encouraged to opt for ICT training and
ICT jobs.
Added to these there is the need to broaden the perception of what ICT is
about as well as develop scholarship schemes for women interested in
studying ICT at the higher level.
Ms. Adams further said African governments must ensure that women living on
the continent take advantage of opportunities offered by transforming the
ICT systems using rights based approach. Government should also create an
enabling environment that will encourage more women to join the ICT
Industry.
Activists insist that on the right of African women to have scientific and
technological expertise and knowledge which should be made more accessible.
They also have specific concerns and perspectives which need to be
integrated into ICT systems as well as into information systems for
sustainable and equitable development.
They also say the ability to communicate their perspectives and concerns is
a central to the overall empowerment of women based on the publication of
their concerns and perspectives and for access to information and education
that will promote women's consciousness-raising.
Further, the decentralised, interactive and non-hierarchical nature of these
technologies presents a non-threatening space for women to develop their
views, opinions and benefit from the synergy of interactive communications
with women.
In addition, once the initial costs of access and technology are covered,
ICTs present a low-cost and relatively simple mode of publishing
newsletters, articles, statements, etc.
They say the experience of other communications media indicates that for
women to be actively involved in the definition, development and information
in the new technologies they need to be given the platform to express their
concerns and represents their perspectives in a non-threatening,
non-stereotypical manner. Incidents of negative stereotyping, discrimination
against women and sexual harassment are already evident online.
They will need to include mixed-media and mixed technologies, locally-based
distribution systems, and housing in organisational and sectoral contexts
which fit with women's daily responsibilities and cater to their time
constraints.
Supporting Ms. Adams, a lecturer from the Akan Department of University of
Education Mrs. Joanna Portia Antwi-Danso called for a localization of ICT to
aid women and others who are not highly literate in the use of ICTs.
She said survey has proved that majority of aged citizens, especially women
are semi literates. Their educational background is up to basic level and as
such their ability to read and write and understand the local languages is
far better and overwhelming than they do in a second language such as
English.
ICTs offers possibilities and opportunities for development but hey are
meaningful only if their content reflects local conditions, she explained.
Localisation of ICT is a way of customizing programmes and materials to suit
local people and to have impact on the culture of the local communities.
"Today, in almost every home in Ghana, mobile phone is a common item. She
said adding, "I believe that when the language of this technology is
localised, a lot more Ghanaians including the aged can use their phones more
enjoyably and beneficially," she said.
According to her, illiterates and semi literate artisans, craftsmen and
farmers do not understand the language of the computer and are not attracted
to it and therefore never use it in anything.
Localisation of programmes according to her is beneficial because it ensures
that IT solutions are taken into higher heights and are more accessible. It
will also represent a breakthrough for Ghanaian language, linguistic and
literary studies as well as Ghanaian cultural studies in general.
Africa 2007
She said in South Africa, computer laboratories are being rolled out into
schools where kids do not have English as a mother tongue.
Also software translation efforts are under way in Dares Salaam for East
Africa's 130 million Kiswahili speakers and in Kampala for Ugandan software
that could be used by 12 million people.
In Kenya also, the localization project has made IT solution more accessible
to the Kenyan community as well as to more than 90 percent of the
population.
"Finland is a successful example a country that applies local language
-Finnish -in all walks of life. Today, the Finnish have succeeded in
adopting ICT in their language," she said.
Copyright C 2007 Public Agenda. All rights reserved.
PO Box 5564 Accra North Ghana
233 21 238820/238821
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