10th December 2003

WOUGNET Presented With World Summit Award
WSIS 2003, Geneva

Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) has been presented on 10th December 2003 with the World Summit Award (WSA) in the category of e-Inclusion. WOUGNET is one of only two winners from Africa, the other being 'Time to Market (T2M)' from Senegal,<http://www.manobi.net>.
The WSA award was presented to WOUGNET by the President of Senegal H.E. Abdoulaye WADE at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva .

Overall, 40 projects received WSA awards in eight different categories: e-Learning, e-Culture, e-Science, e-Government, e-Health, e-Business, e-Entertainment and e-Inclusion. Projects were chosen from 136 countries worldwide.

The WSA Grand Jury Evaluation noted:

"The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) allows women to take advantage of the opportunities presented by e-Content and the internet in order to effectively address national and local problems of sustainable development. It offers multiple references and content to empower women in Uganda. It generates awareness about women rights and helps integrate women into the areas of politics, community, education and health. The WOUGNET website promotes information and references about best practices, appropriate technologies, ideas and problems of other groups working on similar concerns from various women organizations in Africa. This project has a strategic value for the world-wide inclusion of women."

When asked by the Chairman of the WSA Board of Directors, Dr. Peter BRUCK at the presentation of the Award, how WOUGNET is able to put together such depth of content, Mr. Aineruhanga responded: "WOUGNET has a small staff of 3 people, but the true producers of the content are the women of Uganda and I dedicate the award to the rural women of Uganda and to the whole of Africa. Usually, all you can find about Africa is the bad news and there is the complaint that with our African diversity, there is not enough African content on the web, but this award is proof to the world, that the best in the world can come out of Africa."

About the World Summit Award:

The World Summit Award, a global 3 year project, which will be held in the framework of the WSIS, seeks to demonstrate the benefits of the Information Society in terms of the new qualities in content and applications, by selecting, presenting and promoting the best products from all over the world with a special emphasis on bridging the digital divide. The WSA is an initiative of the European Academy of Digital Media and the International Center for New Media
under the patronage of:
Mr. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, President of Tunisia
Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal
Mr. Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission
Mr. Wolfgang Schüssel, Federal Chancellor of Austria
Mr. Ion Iliescu, President of Romania

For more information about the WSA, visit http://www.wsis-award.org

WOUGNET Program Officer: Milton Aineruhanga

Email. info@wougnet.org
Web. http://www.wougnet.org
Tel. +256-41-256832
Fax. +256-41-234924
Post. P.O. Box 4411, Kampala, Uganda