CLICK, click, click…Ms Anambiak Asampo Elizabeth, the assembly woman for Nawuni/Afayili electoral area in the Tolon-Kumbungu district, moves the cursor to various icons on the screen of her desktop checking out some websites to look for information.
Afterwards, she taps the keys on the keyboard typing one or two sentences to put together a position paper on an issue of concern to her area.
Faraway in Zabzugu, Ms Mary Tagba, who is the Presiding Member for the Zabzugu-Tatale district assembly, is busily chatting with some personal contacts on one of these social networking sites. She is sharing her experiences with these contacts and gathering some feedback to enhance her performance.
This is how the Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS) is using ICT to build the capacities of women to participate effectively in the information society and by so doing, GINKS is bridging the information literacy gap between men and women.
Elizabeth and Mary are among the 21 elected assembly women in the Northern Region who benefitted from a 5-day intensive training programme in Information Literacy organised by GINKS, with funding from the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP).
These are women who initially found the computer too fearsome to get close to and allowed their male counterparts to intimidate them with ICTs.
Today, they are not just using the computer to type and store their documents, but also surfing the internet for information that could support them in finding solutions to the challenges facing their respective areas.
In this ‘information society’, assembly women certainly need these skills to enable them monitor what is happening in others part of the world and stay informed to enable them contribute more positively to national debate.
So click by click, these women, who are expected to deliver to expectation to justify women’s abilities, have now found a new partner to champion the course of women empowerment.
The new clichés among these assembly women is: “women can use the computer just as their male counterparts” and “women are as informed as the men are.”
“This is one of the best trainings we have had as assembly women. I can now open an email account and a website and do case studies,” the assembly woman for the Fungu electoral area in the West Mamprusi district stated at the end of the training.
She opined that through such training programmes, women would become more informed and participate actively and intelligently in the development process.
Indeed, assembly women are expected to play essential roles in their respective communities, but most often they lack the information literacy skills that are vital for influencing policy decision making in favour of their constituents.
Apart from being responsible for informing their constituents on the programmes and policies of the government, they are also expected to lobby the assembly to give the community its share of development projects.
The training by GINKS has therefore built the capacity of the assembly women to recognise when information and networking is needed and how to gather and organise such information and networks to present a good case.
According to the facilitators of the training programme, Mr Joseph Kpetigo, who is the Assistant Coordinator of GINKS and Mr John Stephen Agbenyo, Director of Savana Signatures, the women were also trained to understand the legal and ethical issues surrounding the use of information.
“We have trained them to critically evaluate any information they access and its sources. For every website, they must know who publishes the content, for what ends and when the content was posted,” stated Mr Agbenyo.
With these skills, assembly women in the Northern Region are now better placed to assert themselves and contribute more effectively to national development.
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