Photo: © Tostan
On November 28, 2010, 700 communities in the department of Kolda, Senegal, publicly declared their abandonment of harmful practices, including female genital cutting (FGC) and child/forced marriage. At the march held before the ceremony, local girls celebrated their communities’ commitment with dances and songs.
as men to access the Internet at home or in public kiosks or Internet cafés. And as the FAO, IFAD and World Bank (2008) testify, rural women are particularly disadvantaged in making their voices heard in ICT communications. COL regards women’s empowerment and gender equality as central to its “learning for development” agenda, and gender mainstreaming is an integral part of all of programmes.12 Studies by COL indicate that course materials often reflect a traditionally male construction and ownership of knowledge. The “invisibility” of women in course materials can uphold stereotypical beliefs about the learning styles of men and women. Drawing on studies by Green and Trevor-Deutsch (2002), COL (2002) stresses the need not only to address the barriers to women’s access and use of ICT but to ensure the relevance of content and methodology by: • Valuing women’s knowledge, wisdom and experience. •
Using participatory methods to design and develop the content and learning systems to reflect the lives of women.
•
Building on traditional communications methods.
•
Ensuring that the content is directly relevant to women’s livelihoods.
12
www.col.org/resources/micrositeGender/Pages/default.aspx
29