The APC gender evaluation methodology (GEM) for ICT projects team was invited to participate in the International Conference Equality and Gender Unit of the Andalusian Institute for Women, which took place in Seville, on October 8th and 9th, 2003. This conference was organized by the Unit and was attended by 600 people, most of them civil servants from the gender equality departments of the municipal governments dependent on the autonomous regional government of Andalusia. The event was sponsored by the European Social Fund.
During the conference experiences on gender and public policy were presented by the representatives of gender equality in Ireland, Belgium, Canada, the European Commission, and the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW). Four simultaneous workshops took place in the afternoon, one of which was dedicated to GEM. The workshop was led by Chat Ramilo Garcia, general coordinator of GEM, Dafne Sabanes Plou, regional coordinator of GEM for Latin America, and Assumpcio Guasch Petit, of the Pangea network, member of the APC in Barcelona. The workshop offered the opportunity to learn about GEM methodology and establish a dialogue with civil servants who are already using ICTs for development in their field work on the opportunities and challenges that GEM use poses to evaluating their work from the perspective of gender equality.
The workshop was well-attended and there was a lot of interest in learning about the tool and its possibilities. GEM is already in three languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish) on the Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) website. The remarkable thing is that the Andalusian Institute for Women decided to invite the GEM team after learning about the tool through the website. To APC, this and reaffirms the importance of the good use of ICTs to promote the work that is being done on GEM and to get other people working for gender equality and inclusion excited about incorporating ICTs into their work.
The Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) initiative for ICTs is an innovative tool for analysis from a gender perspective. It was produced by APC WNSP and is directed at professionals committed to fomenting gender equality and strengthening women’s use of ICTs. The field verification and fine-tuning of the GEM in over 40 projects has been taking place through a series of regional activities in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America which began in 2002.
The Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) facilitates the strategic use of ICTs to support activities and work destined to attract attention to issues that concern women, strengthen campaigns for solidarity, improve traditional networking activities for women and defend their right to fair participation in public and civil life.
