Fifty six sessions and four plenaries – on technologies, people and markets – that 's what on offer at GK3. The program conference is out and this week, I cast my gender lens over session descriptions to see what the odds are in favor of gender being integrated as a cross cut in the event. What I looked for are sessions that focus on analysing women's experiences and finding solutions for changing their conditions of inequality towards empowerment and the exercise of their rights. I also paid close attention to sessions that articulated how gender dimensions are going to be investigated and strategies explored.

What did I find out? Session descriptions reveal encouraging signs that GK3 will be a place where gender and women's concerns will be taken up. Let's see what's on offer at the moment.

Sign 1: Five sessions just on women and gender

Out of 56 sessions, there will be five sessions that focus primarily on issues and strategies such as empowering grassroots women for good governance through the use of community media, measuring women's participation in the knowledge society, strategies for successful policies of gender inclusion, gender evaluation of ICT4D projects and stories that emphasise grassroots voices of women and youth using ICTs to improve their livelihoods. These sessions are being put together by organizations and networks that are known as leading gender advocates.

I list them here as my picks of the conference:

This session seeks to raise awareness on women's participation in good governance through Community Radio (CR), by promoting knowledge sharing on ICT4D from the grassroots on issues such as poverty reduction, water management, and education.

This panel will report on the results of a project to develop gender-specific indicators on ICT use, needs and impacts both for the information society as well as the broader knowledge society.

Participants are invited to provide inputs in becoming part of the solution for gender inclusive policies and gender initiatives to achieve an increased likelihood of short and long term successes, informing the panel of their issues and creating an international dialogue that can continue through the conference and beyond.

Addressing gender in ICT-type projects have long been recognised as difficult and challenging, from conceptual understanding of gender in ICTs to providing real solutions that affect and positively change gender power relations and which impact on communities socially, economically and politically. The Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) for ICT4D Practitioners will encourage participants to visit these known challenges from within a non-threatening environment of a "game play".

This is a two-part session which emphasises grassroots voices of women and youth (including homepreneurs, teleworkers and small enterprise owners, collectively called Small Office Home Office (SOHO) entrepreneurs) using ICTs to improve their livelihoods. This is a storytelling session that conveys individual experiences behind the research and presents the real challenges and opportunities of e-inclusion for small women entrepreneurs, homepreneurs and young teleworkers from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Sign 2: Sessions with articulated gender dimensions

To my delight, I also saw another six sessions that articulated how gender will be tackled or included in the topic. I highlight these sessions to hold them up as examples to other workshop organizers. The topics range from learning from India's experience in succesul multi-stakeholder partnerships to examining telecommunications regulatory authorities' information and communication practices. Here's content that we can expect:

“How can we design ICT4D programmes that address marginalized communities, gender sensitive and which accommodate existing cultural ethos?”

“Discussion will include open dialogue on how their own organisational engagement is changing the world for women and young people.”

“Panelists will explore how having easy access to regulatory information and processes can support community and public agendas, including establishing community networks; lobbying for policies which promote women and girls' access to ICTs.”

Panellists will explain the relationship and impact of ICT products, industries and overall Infostates on the emergence and growth of new markets, including parallel evolution of labour markets, with particular emphasis on the role of women, and across countries at different stages of development.

“This session will draw attention to the inclusion of Community-Based Electronic Resource Centres (CBRC) in village-provincial-country development plans and the use of ICT for sustainable development and boosting commerce.” One of the panellist is Fozia Zahid, Gender Specialist, Aga Khan Education Services Pakistan.

“Practice: providing insight into appropriate and sustainable business strategies, and support for enabling participation of women and empowering them in development of Mauritius businesses.”

So while the jury is still out on whether GK3 will raise the bar in seriously integrating gender in charting the future of ICT4D, I see encouraging signs towards making -- gender/women -- a more prominent tag cloud in GK3. To what extent and degree throughout the conference will depend on how much interest and capacity there are among session organisers and participants to talk about how gender matters in their specific situations.

The good news is that GK3 has set up some innovative helpdesks for sessions organisers and moderators, including the access to gender experts who can help pinpoint speakers and panelists and provide advice about how women's concerns and gender perspectives can make it into any of the sessions at the conference. The next blog in this space will tell you exactly how you can get support. And in the weeks leading to GK3, we wil be highlighting more ideas to draw the gender advocate in all of you.

text by Chat Garcia Ramilo
GKP Gender Cluster Convenor