Using ICT in Development: "Perspectives on Nepali Experiences" Soni Rana MahilaWeb Nepal [email protected] Develop information technology (IT) sector and place Nepal on the global map of IT. The main objective will be to make IT accessible to the general public and through it improve the national economy; provide employment opportunities by making social services easily accessible and by maintaining good governance. Provide various communication services to the rural areas to impart the public to the right of information and at the same time make the democracy strong and bring the whole population in the main stream of development. Tenth Plan Approach Paper Background Nepal's total population is 23 million out of which 11 million are women. Nepal's total literacy rate is 58 percent and women’s literacy rate is 28 percent. About 38 percent people live below the poverty line. Nepali women are thrice marginalized, viz., education, health and economic status. ICT has become a powerful means in transforming social, economic and political life globally. Without its incorporation into the information age, there is very little chance for countries or regions to develop wholly. Internet offers a big scope of new opportunities for communicating and networking among communities, NGOs, and umbrella organizations. It helps to access important debates, exchange experiences and new ideas, generate information, share resources and bring joint positions and demands further into efficiently coordinated lobby and advocacy work. In other words, this can be one of the effective means to develop a country like Nepal. Genesis and growth of electronic media Telephone Tele-communication services first started in Kathmandu in 1913. The development of systematic telephone services followed the establishment of the Telecommunication Department in 1959. At present, direct international telephone linkage has been established with 131 countries around the world. Till July 2001, Nepal Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) has distributed 250,000 telephone lines in Kathmandu valley while approximately 55,000 telephone lines are distributed outside the Kathmandu valley. NTC has access to telephone in all 75 districts of the country but only 66 districts have operational exchanges, which makes the call cheaper. A telecom regulatory body called Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has been recently formed as per the guidelines of the new Telecommunication Act 1997. Besides women living in the centres, others do not have access to telephone services. Radio Radio Nepal was established in April 01, 1951 to inform the public about government activities and it is still owned by the government. In a mountainous country like Nepal, radio broadcasting has proved to be a very effective medium in disseminating information, educating people and entertaining the masses. Eighty to ninety percent of the population listens to Radio Nepal. In 1970s, the government developed the concept "Communication for Development". Radio Nepal first started broadcasting programmes on Agriculture, Health, Forestry, Women Development, Environment and Children.

By mid 2000 Frequency Modulation (FM) radio licenses were issued to12 private groups and six were already broadcasting programmes. FM stations have also been established in Palpa, Rupendehi and in Jumla its in testing phase. FM broadcasting stations have gained a wide support from the public as it addresses their needs. Television Nepal Television (NTV), which is a government owned channel was started as a project in January 1985 and started broadcasting programmes from December of the same year. Besides NTV, there are other private channels like Shangrila, and Space Time. Now, NTV, Space Time’s Channel Nepal are using satellite to transmit their programmes. The two major constraints to extend television broadcasting are lack of electricity and the hilly and mountainous terrain. Rural people can now watch the Nepali TV channels provided they have electricity, a TV set, and cable connection. There are around 80 cable television companies operating in the country. Computer, e-mail and Internet Computer, e-mail and Internet are all components of information technology. Computer was first introduced in Nepal by His Majesty's Government/Nepal for processing data in 1971. The private sector began its activities in this area in early eighties. Mercantile Office Systems became the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) in mid-July 1994 when it established an online international link via NTV to Singapore Telecom. At present, there are 11 Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Nepal out of which one is semi-government and the rest are commercial. Estimating the number of internet/e-mail users in Nepal is difficult, as the ISP owners do not keep the record electronically and some of them want to keep the data confidential. Internet users per 10,000 populations in Nepal are 15.0, which is less than one percent. Progress can be seen in government as well as commercial organizations, which are growing rapidly to provide services in the sector of ICT. There are 11 Internet Service Providers (ISP) and three of them have technical branches outside the valley. The semi-government NTC too is in the process of opening its technical branch outside the valley. There are more than 100 commercial organizations, which provide various services on ICT and most of them are located in the valley. With joint initiatives taken by the Government and UNDP, twenty-five District Development 1 Centres (DDC) of Nepal have established district-based database system. Some private schools have incorporated computer education in their curriculum and the government owned schools are trying to follow the same. Due to tough competition the services provided by commercial and government in ICT are fairly low but still very few people can afford to use the services. E-commerce Limited initiatives are taken on the e-commerce front and Nepal has yet to see an organized and concerted effort towards this direction. This is mainly because e-commerce issues cut across a broad range of technical, legal, economic and institutional questions for which Nepal is yet to come up with appropriate responses. Recently a number of websites have emerged seeking to use the Internet as a medium to sell goods and services both within and outside the country, though issues of security and payment mechanisms are yet to be resolved. International websites like PeopleLink (e-commerce website) are selling the products made by Nepali women through their website. Hastakala, Manushi, etc have hosted websites to publicize products made by women but it is not complete e-commerce website. Government policy His Majesty's Government of Nepal has recognized the potential of IT for all-round national development and has hoped to bring IT into the national mainstream of activities. The Government has also realized that mere introduction of IT will not help the Nepali society.

Though Nepal is still in its elementary stage as compared to developed countries, it has made sufficient plans to improve the sector of IT. Economic empowerment is a major thrust of the Ninth Plan of the government and IT can assist a great deal to raise the economic status of the country. The government will implement programmes and create favorable situation to improve as well as encourage commercial organizations, donors, etc., to develop IT sector as well as the country. Women empowerment is recognized as a major vehicle for economic empowerment but gender is not mentioned in the Ninth Plan's IT sector. The government has made Information Technology Policy (2000), which is very challenging and will be beneficial to all the people of Nepal. In both the Ninth Plan and IT Policy (2000) the government has not made any clear indication of empowering women through ICT. One of the strategy of IT Policy is 4.13 Information technology network shall be extended to rural areas, but it has not mentioned whether women will be involved in the network and have access to information. The Tenth Plan's Approach Paper, which is still in draft form, Information Technology and Communication (ICT) is under Transport and Communication in chapter nine. The objective of the Tenth Plan's Approach Paper is to establish Nepal in the global IT arena. Besides others, the prioritized areas of Approach Paper of Tenth Plan are Information Technology and empowerment of women and disadvantage people. But still the Approach Paper of Tenth Plan has not mentioned how it will use the ICT to empower women.

Experience of MahilaWeb In February 2000, representatives from more than 15 organizations working on women's and gender issues met to discuss the possibility of forming a network on Nepali women and gender which would provide a forum for improved access to and sharing of information on relevant issues. This was mainly an initiative of the gender unit of Canadian Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI). The group met again in May and witnessed a dummy webpage of the proposed MahilaWeb (produced by CECI to the group the potential of electronic 1 networking) and the newly launched website of Sancharika Samuha (SAS) . SAS is a forum of women communicators working for the empowerment of women. The meeting decided to make SAS the focal point of this network and the participants committed themselves informally to provide information on different topics. In June 2000, a proposal was submitted to ICIMOD to begin testing an Internet-based information service and network in Nepal on women's and gender issues. ICIMOD provided the start-up fund for the pilot phase, which was of nine months. During the same time, SAS was also working on Women's Rights Advocacy Programme (WRAP), an umbrella project being implemented by three organizations – SAncharika Samuha, Saathi and Centre for Legal Research and Services. Therefore, the same network was established to begin the work with the objective of increasing the participation in future. The main responsibility was taken by the above three organizations for the pilot phase. Vision and Objectives MahilaWeb's vision is to develop MahilaWeb as a forum for sharing information about women and gender in Nepal. Its mission is to link women and gender focused organizations in Nepal by facilitating the dissemination of information and resources via the electronic network. Objectives are: Provide convenient, timely access to information of interest to women/gender focused organizations Create a discussion forum to highlight women and gender issues via an online discussion board

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Initiate a mailing list where partners and beneficiaries can participate in discussions and receive latest information about MahilaWeb Create a sector to advertise products made by women to increase sales and empower women entrepreneurs and home based women workers Raise the profile of the resources working towards women's equality and gender equity Increase public awareness of women, gender and children issues in Nepal Collect public opinion through the topic of the month regarding women and gender issues

Subject coverage The MahilaWeb website covers a wide range of topics of information in its website, which is valuable to both individuals and organization at local, national and international level. It feeds information on 12 critical areas of concern identified by Beijing Conference (1995). The main sectors are Poverty; Education and Training; Health; Violence; Armed Conflict; Economy and Business; Power and Decision Making; Institutional Mechanisms; Human Rights; Media; Environment; and Children. Besides these, we have included two sectors i.e. Post Beijing Activities and Trafficking. Each sector has sub-sectors like Facts & Figure, Government Policy and Legal Provision; Reports; Case Studies; News, Organizations and Website Links. There are also sections like Opportunities; Organization Profiles; Resource Centre; Publication; Who's Who; E vents and Feature of the month in which articles are posted and a bulletin board is created for viewers to send their comments and suggestions. Partners in development MahilaWeb is the only online resource center of Nepal. At present it consists of partner organizations like Saathi, Centre for Legal Research and Services (CLRS), Centre for Micro Finance (CMF), Centre for Women Development, and Women Acting Together for Change (WATCH). MahilaWeb has recently (October, 2001) opened membership on the request of orgnazations and at present it has two members i.e. Canada Nepal Gender Organization (CNGO) and Tewa. Beneficiaries Information uploaded in MahilaWeb website assists the non-governmental organizations, governmental organizations, students, planners, researchers, individuals, and others. The average hits per day are approximately 300 with people from more than 20 countries browsing it. Most of the information fed in the website is in English language but gradually besides news other information in Nepali language too is being fed in the website. MahilaWeb is the most complete website which has information on women and gender of Nepal. Issues and challenges The major concern of MahilaWeb at present is its sustainability. The second concern is information collection, which has to be collected from various organizations MahilaWeb is facing a financial constraint. Pilot phase of MahilaWeb has already been completed and the staff is working voluntarily since July 2001. Training on webpage design and basics on internet/e-mail usage was given on the condition that the trainees will share their organization's information but none of them are cooperating at present. Though organizations have realized the importance of sharing information and some have even have found it beneficial, collecting information is still a big problem and until and unless the staff visit and call them personally, they do not send information. Partner organizations and other users have yet to learn the importance of sharing information at all levels. Organizations have gained positive recognition by posting their information in MahilaWeb. One such case is of Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) which is an organization working in the field of advocacy. Many people have contacted them after they posted their reports

in MahilaWeb. The online electronic resource center can be used as a forum to discuss women and gender issues with people of all levels. Mr Bhesh Nath Sapkota of Netherlands distributed the article on Property Rights posted in MahilaWeb's feature of the month section during the international conference held in Netherlands. The same section can be used for advocacy and lobbying issues on gender and women. Future plans As MahilaWeb covers a wide range of topics it will be the channel to empower women and children directly and indirectly. Information fed into MahilaWeb website will be more beneficial if it is available in Nepali language. Locals can have access to information, which will be cheaper than the hard copy and faster. The website can be used for sensitization, advocacy and lobbying on gender issues. Mailing lists can be used to share information both ways i.e. top-down and bottom-up. MahilaWeb plans to include e-market to publicize products made by women entrepreneurs and home based women workers. It will also conduct trainings to improve their skills on different aspects of the product like – marketing, packaging, managing, etc. Therefore, the website can also be used as a forum where women entrepreneurs and home based women workers share their experiences and assist each other to enhance their competence. Information sharing trend in Nepal (a case study) User's survey Altogether a hundred forms were distributed through e-mail and hard copy, to organization and individuals working for the empowerment of women and gender. A second reminder was also sent in October and telephone calls made, but in spite of that only 17 organizations responded. Major findings It was found that internet/e-mail services are used by these organizations mainly to communicate and search information related with their organization as well as to enhance their efficiency. Few organizations had subscribed the mailing list for information. On an average, organizations browsed the internet for 9.09 hours weekly. It usually takes about 5 minutes to 30 minutes to locate information for the respondents, depending on their browsing knowledge. Out of 17 respondents, only 14 organizations had organizational websites. Besides, NepalNet the rest fed information about their activities. The websites have been hosted mainly to inform the visitors about its activities. Only a couple of organizations uploaded their information frequently, 3 while the rest uploaded information once in a while. (Frequency of updates ) To find out the number of organizations (both governmental and non-governmental) and females using the Internet/e-mail services questionnaire were send to 10 ISPs. Reminders were sent and 4 telephone calls made but only 5 responded . The ISPs who did not respond said that to quote number of users is strictly prohibited and is confidential. The respondents gave out the total number of users of both internet/e-mail as they did not have the system to differentiate the users. Three ISPs - Mercantile, WorldLink and Infocom had their technical branches outside the valley. Issues In Nepal only a handful of privileged people have access to information and the capacity to use it for development purposes. A series of factors, including literacy and education, language, time, cost, geographical location of facilities, social and cultural norms and women's computer and information search and dissemination skills constrain women's access to information technology. Therefore, it is the government's and non-governmental organization's role to make women aware of its importance and use it to improve their socio-economic status. Recommendations

In order to promote women's participation at all levels there is a need to identify current status of women's groups in terms of their ICT use – where they stand and how they can take advantage of this new technology. Workshops and meetings have to be conducted by the government and non-governmental organizations to find the status. Various types of programmes such as demonstrations, seminars, and workshops should be organized occasionally. Electronic as well as print media should be used for the popularization of ICT skills and knowledge and their development potential. A special educational programme package should be introduced to increase the participation of women in the ICT-related HRD sector. The Government and non-governmental organizations should provide special provision to empower women in the sector of ICT by providing opportunities for human resource development – basic training should be provided to women (who can read and write in English) in using computer, internet/e-mail services, etc. Other means of ICT, which can be easy to use and cheap, should be explored and developed to empower women. For example audio and video magazine can be made in local language and which should be easily understood to disseminate information. Networks like MahilaWeb should be encouraged to disseminate information in Nepali/English languages and expand it at the same time. Government should provide incentives in the field of telephone, ISP, and make it tax-free in the case of e-commerce to sustain the network. Governmental and non-governmental organizations should be encouraged to publish local information in electronic media and database should be created on women and gender issues. As information sector remains a dynamic sector, a cell should be created in DDCs solely for women to share experiences and be informed of the latest socio-economic issues. This has to be done in collaboration with government and non-governmental organizations. While developing e-commerce policy, one window system should be made and the government should provide incentives to women entrepreneurs and home based women workers. Easy access to markets and fair prices for commodities is essential to increase production and economic development and e-commerce websites can be the most effective tool in this matter. Government should assist the concerned organization/party by providing special incentives to establish FM stations, Audio Towers, local TV stations. These broadcasting stations should focus on women and gender issues and the needs of women. Monitoring, supervision and evaluation of ICT-related programmes should be conducted regularly by the government. Conclusion Without the paradigmatic shift in every level of the nation, Nepal cannot exploit IT's full potential. Information and communication technology is not an end in itself but a means to bring prosperity in modern times. Therefore, it is necessary that IT be fully integrated in every level of the nation in order to make a tangible difference in the quality of the common people's life. Women in Nepal are in the deepest part of the divide further removed from the information age than the men whose poverty they share. If access to and use of these technologies is directly linked to social and economic development, then it is imperative to ensure that women in Nepal understand the significance of these technologies and use them. If not, they will further be marginalized from the mainstream of the country and the world. It is essential that gender issues be considered early in the process of the introduction of information technology in Nepal so that gender concerns can be incorporated from the beginning and not as a corrective measure

afterwards. Nepal cannot afford to take corrective measures later. IT can be an important tool in meeting women's basic needs and can provide the access to resources to lead women out of poverty. Women's access to ICT means more than just the access to hardware, software, the Internet. It also includes the access to ICT policy-making, ensuring that gender analysis and issues are integrated in policies on ICT. Therefore, women with knowledge in development field and ICT should be involved to make women friendly policies. Annex 1

Success story of Kachanpur district. Kanchanpur of Far Western Development Region has revolutionized by making its DDC fully computerized. All the resources data, information and maps, etc., are filed in the computers. The chairperson plans to build network and provide ISP services to all the VDCs of Kachanpur. Already 5 VDCs of Kanchanpur are using computers to keep a record of their resources and activities. Twenty-five District Development Centres (DDC) of Nepal have been made IT friendly by establishing computer network. Therefore, Information Center should be created in the DDCs, which are IT friendly for women to visit and use the services. Twenty DDCs are in the process of computer networking and the remaining ten DDCs have not started the networking yet.

2

In April 2000, SAncharika Samuha launched a website on Post Beijing Activities.

3

Frequency of updates by organizations which have websites.

4

Data Provided by ISPs S Name N

Established Date

Subscriber s (e-mail) (app) 694

Websites

May 2000

Subscri bers (interne t) (app) 1317

1 Nepal Telecommuni cations Corporation 2 Mercantile Communicati ons Pvt Ltd 3 WorldLink Communicati ons Pvt Ltd

1994

4000

1200

http://www.m os.com.np

10 districts

September 1995

5200

2300

http://www.wli nk.com.np

7 districts

4 Himalayan Online service Pvt Ltd 5 Infocom Pvt Ltd

September 1999

1,000

http://hons.co m.np

X

September th 9 , 1999

2600

(e-mail services only not available) 1100

http://info.co m.np

3 districts

http://www.nt c.net.np

Technical branches outside KTM valley X

References -

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Information Technology for Development – IT policy and Strategy Papers for Nepal published by His Majesty's Government of Nepal, National Planning Commission Secretariat, Kathmandu, Nepal. Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An Analytic Study by Nancy Hafkin and Nancy Taggart. Putting Beijing online, Women working in ICT published by - Association for Progressive Communications, Women's Networking Support Programme –2000 Networking for Change, The APCWNSP's First 8 Years published by - Association for Progressive Communications, Women's Networking Support Programme –2000 Acting Locally, Connecting Globally, Stories from the Regions published by - Association for Progressive Communications, Women's Networking Support Programme –2000 Nepal Internet Case Study (draft) , ITU on www.nepalit.com.np Gender Equality/Equity trhough ICT/Internet published by Asian Pacific Women's Information Network Center, The Sookmyung Women's University Press Online Technology and Networking – Some Gender Perspective by Hari Srinivas Information Technology and E-commerce Development by Centre for Development and Governance New Directions for Women in the Digital Society by Sookmyung Women's University (http://www.sookmyung.ac.kr) and Asian Pacific Women's Information on Network Center (http://www.apwin.women.ac.kr) Access for the poor: bridging the digital divide (strategy paper) by MS, Denmark (http://www.ms.dk/kampagner/ICTsouth) Ninth Plan published by His Majesty's Government of Nepal, National Planning Commission Approach paper of Tent h Plan published by HMG, National Planning Commision Mid Term Evaluation Report of Ninth Plan, by HMG, National Planning Commission