Training people to use GEM (Gender Evaluation Methodology) is always a challenge. There are lots of expectations about the results of this training. For the trainer, the usual finding is that evaluators very seldom take a gender perspective into account when planning a project or considering its results, unless they work in a gender unit or in a project that is already committed to women´s issues or related to equity goals. So after lots of discussions in plenary sessions, learning about gender issues and gender policies, and active group work, participants do want to show, through concrete examples, what they have learned about this tool. And this is where creativity plays a crucial role.
Training people to use GEM (Gender Evaluation Methodology) is always a challenge. There are lots of expectations about the results of this training. For the trainer, the usual finding is that evaluators very seldom take a gender perspective into account when planning a project or considering its results, unless they work in a gender unit or in a project that is already committed to women´s issues or related to equity goals. So after lots of discussions in plenary sessions, learning about gender issues and gender policies, and active group work, participants do want to show, through concrete examples, what they have learned about this tool. And this is where creativity plays a crucial role.
In the GEM workshops held in the Dominican Republic, September 17-21, 60 participants, among them public officers from different government units, project leaders, NGO representatives, and social movement activists, worked together in small groups, selecting their projects according to their interests and learning needs. The variety of issues chosen was relevant: ICTs to prevent violence against women, in convergence with radio; websites and cell phones to alert the population about natural disasters; ICTs for disabled people; ICTs for marketing small business ran by women?; ICTs for community development; ICTs to share the achievements and productions of women in prison, etc.
The groups worked for two days on their projects, applying the GEM tool’s framework, and phases, and shared results in very interesting ways. They did not just report back in plenary on their findings and achievements, but used their creativity to include feelings in their reports.
A TV set was created and a “journalist” interviewed one of the women “entrepreneurs”. A script was written to guide the interview. The women role played earnestly and spoke of how women’s empowerment grew as they gained confidence in their use of ICT tools for the development of their small businesses.
Another group presented a short story entitled “Butterfly”. It told the story of a battered woman who learned how to overcome her situation after listening to a radio programme where the conductor encouraged women to seek help by using ICTs to get in touch with organisations that offered advice. It was such a moving story, read aloud in a very silent plenary room, that the atmosphere it created let everyone sense the value of using modern communication tools to work in solidarity and take care of the vulnerable in our communities.
There were other testimonies and stories, that in different ways, addressed the relevance of “learning for change”, sharing concepts that are well developed in the GEM tool. The main concepts that sustained these projects were that technologies are not neutral and that if we want to build an information and knowledge society that is truly inclusive, we must consider how to overcome the social, economic, political and cultural barriers that create discrimination and leave most people behind.
GEM is a tool to reflect on the possibilities of changing unjust gender relations and to work to make these changes happen. Participants in the workshop held in Santo Domingo were able to make plans and hope for the best results. The workshops held in coordination with INDOTEL (Dominican Telecommunications Institute) and CIPAF (Centre for Women’s Rights) was a first step in the work towards equal opportunities and equity for women and men in the local ICT field.