CITAD Moves To Address Gender Digital Divide in Nigeria
By Rabiu Musa
HOTPEN – The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in a bid to address the digital divide and promote digital inclusion in Nigeria, convened a one-day consultative meeting on Gender and Community Networks.
In a communique sent to HOTPEN and signed by Harira Wakili, the Centre’s Community Mobilization Officer at the end of the event, noted that CITAD convened the meeting as part of its project on supporting community-led approaches to addressing the digital divide in Nigeria.
The meeting, attended by over 25 CSOs, Media Personnel, Women Led-groups, and CSOs from different parts of the country was held in Bafra International Hotel, Kaduna state was meant to generate more voices about the need to develop policies that address the gender digital divide in Nigeria. Additionally, it was aimed to continue the effort toward working with the Nigerian Communication Commission to develop a national policy on community networks.
The statement further noted that the program is part of a larger project on community networks coordinated globally by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) with support from the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.
It explained that community networks comprise telecommunications infrastructure deployed and operated by a local group to meet their own communication needs and also a communications infrastructure, designed and erected to be managed for use by local communities.
According to the communique, these communication needs can be voice, data, etc. And can be the point of convergence for communities to come together to address their common community problems.
It further said “The participants unanimously resolved to form a Platform of Women Activists for Community Networks with the following objectives:
“Popularize the importance of women participation, the emerging community networks initiatives and see it as a tool to bridging the gender digital marginalization in the country.
“Sensitizing their community members, social media followers as well as their organizations about the importance and benefits of women engagement with community networks initiatives.
“To advocate stakeholders involvement to come up with a national gender-based policy framework for community networks in the country.
“Support effort by all stakeholders to address the multifarious dimensions of the digital divide in Nigeria.
“Campaign for special initiatives for the massive digital literacy among girls in secondary schools so that the digital bridging process should begin at that level”.
Some of the recommendations made by the participants includes:
“Government should as a matter of urgency come up with a National Policy on Community Networks to create the conducive environment for that will catalyze citizens’ action and address their digital marginally.
“The ICT policies should be gender friendly, allowing for equal access to participation and to use and benefits from digital technology.
“In pushing for a policy on community networks, women should play a leading role to ensure that the community network initiatives to do replication and reinforce the gender blindness of existing policies in the digital space.