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Regional Workshop to establish e-Network for African Gender National Machineries

04 December 2006

Over 40 participants from African gender machineries are expected in Addis Ababa to attend a four- day regional workshop ( 5-8 December) on Networking, organized jointly by the ECA's African Centre for Gender and Social Development, and the Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations,

This workshop builds on a series of sub-regional workshops, a regional meeting and various capacity-building and network-building activities undertaken in 2004 and 2005 to strengthen the capacity of national machineries through the effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT).

The sub-regional workshops identified existing and potential strategies for institutional capacity building and for promoting gender equality through the effective use of ICT. In addition, hands-on training workshops were held for information managers/specialists from national machineries on the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) for knowledge management and information sharing.

Different facets of linkages between gender equality and ICT were also explored throughout the workshops to ensure that ICT and gender specialists were sensitized on the thematic and political agenda of national machineries as well as of gender equality and ICT issues:

. Gender disparities in use of and access to ICT by women and men, girls and boys;

. Use of ICT by women and men to promote gender equality;

. Current use of ICT by national machineries;

. Integration of ICT into the strategies of national machineries;

. ICT disparities affecting women and girls specifically targeted by national machineries;

. Integration of gender perspectives into national ICT policies;

. Linkages between gender equality and ICT for development.

The Overall objective of the regional workshop is to establish the first Regional E-network for National Machineries. Specifically, the workshop will seek to achieve a number of goals, namely:

  • Raising awareness of knowledge management and communication strategies, including the value of using ICT;

  • Evaluating the current status and progress achieved by national machineries in using ICT;

  • Examining the value of electronic networking and introducing participants to existing women's networks at the national, sub-regional and regional levels;

  • Introducing the e-network and its support mechanisms;

  • Training participants on the structure and activities of the e-network (information portal, discussion list, etc);

  • Providing the opportunity for participants to contribute to the finalization of the e-network's structure and activities and defining the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders; and

  • Establishing a Management Group to oversee the e-network and producing a final agreement on the structure and activities of the e-network based on recommendations by participants.

http://www.uneca.org/daweca/

 



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