Wikigender asks: how can social networks foster gender equality?

From 3 until 10 February, Wikigender hosted its first online discussion on: “How can social networks foster gender equality?”

Numerous examples were given of web 2.0 platforms that help girls and women to feel more included in discussions that matter to them, giving them a sense of belonging to a specific community. The wealth of information offered by those online social networking platforms is not only easily accessible by those who have an Internet connection, but also easily spread. This opens many doors, from career counselling and career building to campaigns to advance gender equality, strategies to cope with poverty, best practices and more. All in all, comments reinforced the idea of online social networks acting like a “technological booster” that empowers women and girls in many ways.

Comments however also reflected the rhetoric of current global inequalities, with only 30% of the population digitally included. What about the 5 billion people that do not have access to the Internet? What about women in rural areas who are unable to view videos on YouTube in some countries due to insufficient bandwidth? Even if other technologies such as mobile phones are becoming increasingly cheap and therefore more available in developing countries, helping women to balance their family and work responsibilities, this does not mean that they have access to those social networks and therefore to the information. Therefore, within the digital divide and “access” issues, one needs to consider also the “gender divide”: women and girls need to build their capacity in using online social networks more efficiently, and they need to be involved in the early design and deployment stages of new technologies so that these technologies respond adequately to their needs. Sometimes, women and girls simply need to be informed of the existence of such social networks, as it is not always the case, and they should be trained in differentiating good information from bad information, as social media can also have adverse effects.

To access all the comments and read the full summary of the discussion, please visit this page. If this online discussion inspired you to create an article, click here!

To continue on the question of empowering women and fostering gender equality, the Wikigender Team invites you to participate in a new online discussion on: “Equal rights to resources: the key to empowering rural women. But what's stopping it?” – the outcomes of the discussion will be presented at a side event during the 56^th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which focuses on the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges. Contribute until Wednesday 22 February and get your point across!

By Estelle Loiseau 

The week in review

The week in review 09.02.2012

Hello, glad you could join us for the Wikiprogress week in review -- a handful of headlines that have caught our eyes over the last week. You can find all news articles and blog posts on the progress community in the  Wikiprogress Community Portal      

On subjective well-being

Bronwyn Bare, a nurse working in palliative care in Australia has recorded the most common regrets of the dying: first on her blog, Inspiration and Chai and more recently in her book: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying - A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, (Balboa Press, 2011).  Her findings from conversations with people in their last 12 weeks of life have resonated strongly with current discussions on subjective well-being.

Read the Guardian article on the top five regrets of the dying. Read also, commentary from The World Bank Impact Evaluations blog and commentary by Nic Marks, well-being expert at the new economics foundation.

See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on Subjective Well-being

On peace
Measuring Peace in the Media (VOH 03.02.2012)
For the second year, the Institute for Economics & Peace and Media Tenor have jointly analysed global television networks coverage of peace and violence issues. The report found that the only two networks which were either 50% accurate or more were SABC News @ One and ABC World News with 56% and 50% accuracy, respectively.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on the Global Peace Index

On Revolution 2.0
Wael Ghonim on Egypt's uprising (The Economist 07.02.2012)
One of the most recognised faces of the Arab Spring, activist and Google executive Wael Ghonim, speaks to the Economist about the role the Internet played in bringing down the Mubarak regime and what the future holds for Egypt.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on the Arab Spring

On gender equality
Women, Girls and ICTs (Wikigender debate)
This week Wikigender hosted its first online discussion on the role that access to ICTs can play in promoting opportunities for women and girls.  Direct discussion comments and comments from Twitter all leaned towards the added value of social networks in empowering women and girls.
Have your say: contribute to the Wikigender online discussion until Friday 10 February! A summary of the discussion will then be posted on Wikigender.

Report releases:
Two report released this week caught our eye:
Multidimensional Poverty Analysis – Looking for a Middle Ground , February 2012, Francisco Ferreira and Maria Ana Lug, World Bank Development Research Group Poverty and Inequality Team & Latin American and the Caribbean Region, Office of the Chief Economist

Caribbean Human Development Report 2012 , February 2012, UNDP

We hope you will tune in the same time next week. In the meantime, if anything interesting passes your desk that you would like to see in the next Wikiprogress week in review, please tweet it to us  @Wikiprogress  or post it on our  Facebook page . 

New UN report on resilient people and planet

This week, Wikiprogress is highlighting a very full report which came out recently from the UN Secretary General High Level Panel on Global Sustainability, “Resilient People, Resilient Plant: a future worth choosing” chaired by the Presidents of Finland and South Africa.

The report is written for a child born this year who will come of age in 2030 in an effort to explain how we got to this point in 2012 and how the Panel recommends to fix it.

The report is broken out into three big sections:

1) Empowering people (gender equality, human rights)

2) Transforming the global economy (green growth)

3) Strengthening Institutions (sustainable development goals, a framework for measuring progress)

Below are just a few recommendations that jumped out at me while reading. There are 56 recommendations in total to put sustainable development into practice and to mainstream it into economic policy “as quickly as possible”.

1) There is a real emphasis in this report on getting policy makers at all levels to make decisions for the long term rather than the short. Interesting considering panel is full of politicians (or their senior ministers/advisors). There is a recommendation for an “incentive road map” in terms of the wins predicted along the way if we plan for sustainability. This is a good idea. I wish they would call it something else though. The term “road map” immediately conjures images of bureaucracy. They  could call it “Incentive Alley” or something. Though, that makes it sound like a Broadway show.

2) Fight for gender equality because without it there can be no sustainability. Nice to see this spelled out so clearly in a report that isn’t about gender equality but rather about sustainability. A lot of these reports make an e f f o r t at gender mainstreaming but in this one it seems almost effortless.

3) Create Sustainable Development Goals (the recommend progress metrics alongside absolute goals, incorporate near term benchmarks, and covering all countries in the world) AND a common framework to measure progess. These are two separate issues with different recommendations in this report though with obvious overlap. I think it is good that the goals are separated from the indicators in this paper; however, the tone of it all seems to be very top down. It will be impossible to come up with universal indicators as there is no one size fits all indicator. This is a criticism of the current MDGs as well.

4) Pull everyone out of their silos of expertise and create a new language of progress. “For too long, economists, social activists and environmental scientists have simply talked past each other”. Yes, we have heard that one many many times before but nothing seems to change there. The Panel are calling for a new order so that we can finally pass the test that the earth is giving us on “the capacity of the planet to sustain us”. 

The Panel includes high level representatives from Finland, South Africa, The United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Canada, Russia, Switzerland, Mexico, Sweden, Mozambique, Korea, Japan, Denmark, Spain, India, United States, Australia, Barbados, Brazil and China.

Link to the report and related articles: http://www.wikiprogress.org/index.php/In_the_spotlight#In_the_spotlight_-_current

Angela Hariche

Davos: African economies essentially rely on women

This post by Angela Luci first appeared on Gender Debate.

Guinea’s president Alpha Condé, who came to this year’s World Economic Forum at Davos before participating at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, discusses the crisis of capitalism and new business models for Africa. He sees giving women better access to micro-credits and therewith enhancing their economic empowerment as a major step towards more economic and social development in Africa.

                                                           image: www.genderdebate.com

Alpha Condé said to “Le Monde”:

“L’Afrique a des problèmes très concrets. La base de notre développement c’est l’agriculture : il faut d’abord donner à manger. L’énergie est aussi un problème, car sans énergie on ne peut pas développer un pays. L’éducation, la santé, le rôle des nouvelles technologies. En Afrique, nous devons essayer de mettre en commun notre politique pour l’énergie, les infrastructures, le commerce intérieur. […] Il faut donner une nouvelle image de l’Afrique. Une des tares de l’Afrique, qu’on nous reproche beaucoup, c’est la corruption. Il faut d’abord agir sur la gouvernance,  appliquer la transparence, et que les ressources de l’Afrique profitent réellement aux populations africaines, particulièrement aux femmes et aux jeunes. […] L’économie africaine, pour l’essentiel, repose sur les femmes. L’homme peut  émigrer, laisser les enfants, mais la femme est obligée de rester pour donner à manger aux enfants. Ensuite, les femmes sont plus honnêtes. Quand vous donnez du micro-crédit, le taux de remboursement chez les femmes est de 90 %. Le développement de certains secteurs, comme l’artisanat, repose sur les femmes. Notre objectif c’est de transformer  le secteur informel productif en PME. Les femmes sont plus honnêtes, plus sensibles, plus travailleuses, mais elles n’ont pas assez accès au crédit. »

“Africa has very concrete problems. The basis of our development is agriculture: it is first necessary to have enough food resources. Energy is also a problem because without energy you cannot develop a country. Education, health and new technologies also play an important role. In Africa, we must try to harmonize our policy for energy, infrastructure and internal trade. [...] We must give a new image to Africa. One of the flaws of Africa we are accused of is corruption. We must first develop governance, apply transparency, and make sure that the resources of Africa actually benefit the African people, especially women and young people. [...]
The African economy essentially relies on women. Man may emigrate and leave children, but women are obliged stay to raise their children. In addition, women are more honest. For micro-credits, the reimbursement rate for women is 90%. The development of certain sectors, such as handicrafts, is primarily based on women. Our goal is to transform the productive informal sector into small and medium businesses. Women are more honest, more sensitive, harder working, but they do not have enough access to credit.”

Source: Le Monde, 31/01/2012

Related articles on this blog:

Lessons from Davos: Gender quota urgendly needed!

Empowering women by microfinance!?

See more and contribute to the Wikigender article on Women and African Economic Development

The week in review

Hello, glad you could join us for the Wikiprogress week in review - a handful of headlines that have caught our eyes over the last week. You can find all news articles and blog posts on the progress community in the Wikiprogress Community Portal .    

On wikis
2012 Top 100 NGOs: #1 Wikimedia Foundation (The Global Journal 26.01.2012)
The Wikimedia Foundation is best known for its most famous initiative, Wikipedia. The Foundation operates under the belief that information is a not-for-profit commodity; the Wikimedia Foundation has been instrumental to the global phenomenon of user-generated content and the mass sharing of information.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on wikis

On growth and development
Sustainable Humanity (Project Syndicate 31.01.2012)
Developmental Economist Jeffrey Sachs calls for the mobilisation of new technologies shaped by social values in ensuring sustainable development incorporates equality in economic growth and protection of natural resources.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on sustainable development

On measuring progress
The OECD recently produced the video, How’s Life: Measuring Progress – asking experts, “What well-being and sustainability measures are needed to go ‘Beyond GDP’”?
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on the Better Life Initiative

On social development
UN Commission on Social Development kicks off with focus on poverty and youth (UN News Centre 02.02.2012)
In 2011 there were 75 million youths without a job; UN figures show that young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. Over the next 10 days the UN Commission on social development will focus on youth unemployment, poverty eradication and socially inclusive policies.
See more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on employment rates

On gender equality
Land rights for women can help ease India’s child malnutrition crisis (Guardian 20.01.2012)
India has developed significantly over the past decade; however malnutrition rates are among the worst in the world with 45% of children under 5 suffering from malnutrition. New research shows that allowing women ownership of the land they farm could drastically reduce these figures.
See more and contribute to the Wikigender article on access to land

In the Spotlight: UN High Level Panel Report on Global Sustainability - Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing (United Nations 30.01.2012)

A 22-member Panel was established by the Secretary-General in August 2010 to formulate a new blueprint for sustainable development and low-carbon prosperity. The Panel's final report, "Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing", contains 56 recommendations to put sustainable development into practice and to mainstream it into economic policy as quickly as possible.

Read more and contribute to the Wikiprogress article on sustainable development.

We hope you will tune in the same time next week. In the meantime, if anything interesting passes your desk that you would like to see in the next Wikiprogress week in review, please tweet it to us  @Wikiprogress  or post it on our  Facebook page

Yours in progress,

Philippa Lysaght

Social media for anticorruption: lessons from the trenches

By Francesco Checchi from the United Nations Development Programme in Europe and CIS. 

This post first appeared on the UNDP Voices from Eurasia blog.

Real time map of trends on Twitter

As anticipated in a previous post (Social media for anticorruption? Exploring experiences in the former Soviet block), we have been putting quite a lot of thought into the use of social media for anticorruption in our region.

How can we use social media to capitalize on existing efforts by ordinary citizens and NGOs to enhance accountability of public institutions? How can we harness the amount of information concerning corruption scandals and maladministration shared on the Internet by the independent websites, media and bloggers? How can we move beyond the hype of well publicized cases to get into the mechanics of what works and doesn’t work?

We quickly came to the conclusion that the most useful contribution we could make to the debate was to provide some in-depth case studies focusing on the experiences of those who are working “in the trenches” – from the Georgian version of FixMyStreet to Moldova’s crowdsourcing platform Alerte.md, from an in-depth look  at the work of celebrated Russian blogger Alexey Navalny to the use of Ushahidi to monitor elections in Kyrgystan.

We therefore commissioned a report on The role of social media for enhancing public transparency and accountability in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States: emerging models, opportunities and challenges. 

In addition to case studies, the report contains a review of the growing literature on the topic of social media for transparency and identifies three emerging models of implementation (information sharing, crowdsourcing and crowd-to-community).

Perhaps more importantly, the report focuses the attention on some criteria than can be identified as a predictor of success for social media for anticorruption efforts, based on the experience of the practitioners interviewed. These include, for instance, a well established reputation in the field, the use of cross-media promotion (going beyond online), and, importantly, citizen reporting – including NGO verification and the involvement of public authorities.

The report is meant to be a live document, to be updated as we come across new experiences in the region (See: Social media for anticorruption: from “why” to “how to” and Ushahidi comes to Kyrgyzstan) and, equally importantly, to test our own findings through projects on the ground. So watch this space for updates.

We warmly welcome comments, critics and contributions to make this study as useful as possible to practitioners and organizations working in the area of anticorruption and public transparency.