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| | | Title | EMPOWERING WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY: Lessons from a successful woman entrepreneur in Kenya, Case Study No. 10 | | Author | African Community of Practice on Management for Development result at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) | | Subject | Entreprenurship | | Date of Publication | 2016 | | Publisher | African Community of Practice on Management for Development result at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) | | Number of Pages | 8 pages | | Language | English | | Geographical Coverage | Kenya | | Keywords | Women and Technology, Women Empowerment, Women and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Gender and ICTs | | Abstract | Communication Technology (ICT) sector. This can be attributed to the willingness of African countries to realize the transformational potential of ICTs to boost their economies. Unfortunately, despite the important role of African women in the economy of their countries, millions of them have no access to ICTs and they cannot use the ICT facilities. The gender digital divide is so remarkable that institutions at different levels commit themselves to bridge the gap. This paper provides the success story of Judith Owigar who co-created AkiraChix, a space for women in technology to experiment, fail, and excel, with the vision to increase the ratio of women in technology. After five years of activities, AkiraChix has developed many programs intended for women at different ages and impacted hundreds of girls and women in Nairobi. Even if it is too early to assess the real impact of AkiraChix on the issue of the gender digital divide in Kenya, the initiative is to be recognized and encouraged as already done by many international organizations. On the specific issue of women’s access to and use of ICTs, much has been achieved but much more remains to be done to ensure that women in urban and rural regions in all parts of Africa benefit from ICT opportunities. The paper calls for African states to close the gap in gender access to ICT in Africa by promoting and building capacity of women in ICT sector for inclusive achievement of economic development of these countries. Moreover, because of the lack of statistics, the gender digital divide could be underestimated in Africa – as such the paper calls for the regional institutions such as The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Union (AU) to support capacities of African states in addressing this knowledge gap. A key lesson emerging from the study is that a small change in mindset can sometimes make a huge difference in women empowerment – therefore policies specially designed to promote early involvement of women in ICTs is important for improving women’s access to and use of ICTs in Africa. | | Copyright Holder | African Community of Practice (AfCoP) | | Copyright URL | http://afrik4r.org/ | | Filesize | 675993 MB | | File Format | PDF | | [ View / download original document ] |
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