Climbing the Information Society Ladder

Climbing the Information Society Ladder: The Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the World Information Society

INTRODUCTION

The twelve (12) critical areas of concern for the advancement of women, as outlined in the Beijing Platform remain high priority for women in the Region.

Since 1995, there is evidence that economic and political forces have been responsible for measures and policies, which run counter to the commitments made by our governments for implementing the Platform for Action. Many existing and subsequent policy decisions are in direct contradiction to the promises made. For example, few national budgets address gender imbalances in resource allocation. and labour legislation continues to deny domestic workers the rights and protection enjoyed by other workers.

GENDER EQUALITY & EQUITY

A review of women’s participation in the parliament of 13 CARIC OM Caribbean Nations has revealed that only Grenada 32% and Guyana 30.7% had achieved the 30% target. These were followed by the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago (26.8%), St. Lucia ad Dominica (21%) Barbados (17.6%) St. Vincent and the Grenadines (14.2%), Jamaica (12%), Antigua and Barbuda (11.7%) and Belize (9.5%). Another concern is the withdrawal by some government from international human rights conventions. This raises questions for us as to the future of governments’ obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the optional Protocol to CEDAW.

VIOLENCE

If police statistics are any indicator, then we are not doing enough to combat the problem of gender-based violence, and stem the growing current of misogyny in our Region.

Also disturbing is the fact that in the Caribbean, the highest rate of new HIV infection is among adolescent girls. While women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and STDs is partly determined by psychological factors, it further reflects their wider economic, social and sexual vulnerability.

The trafficking in women for tourism and the sex trade, their recruitments for the drug trade and the growing number of Caribbean women incarcerated in the Region and overseas for drug trafficking, are cause for concern.

The low socio-economic status and growing poverty of women and their families, has led to hardship for vulnerable sectors of the population: indigenous women (who are to be found in the interior of Guyana and Suriname and in specific communities in Belize, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines) rural women, disabled women, young women and older women.

Employment of farmers – many of whom are women in the banana export sector of some Caribbean countries is in serious jeopardy because of the United States’ challenge to the preferential trade provisions granted by the EU to Caribbean countries through the LOME Agreement. The social and economic consequences of a complete closure of the banana export outlet, combined with the Region’s vulnerability to natural disasters, are serious obstacles to achieving the goals of the Platform for Action. The negative impact of Trade Liberalization on the region, and Gender and Trade issues need serious attention.

Trade provides the best hope of confronting poverty, but the approaches to tackling it are piecemeal and disjointed. Trade provides the best hope of confronting poverty, but the continuing injustice of global trade threatens many of our national activities.

Information Communication Technologies (ICT’s) have begun to transform commerce, government education and citizen participation. However, it is true to say that although the Caribbean ranks high in use of radio and mobile phone, there is a widening gap to digital divide between rich and poor.

The Commonwealth Action Programme for Digital Divide (CAPDD) is a framework for ensuring that poor, rural remote people can communicate and develop.

The use of ICT’s among women’s organizations is low. CAPDD therefore offers hope to women who are not able to access effectively the expanding electronic information highways.

Women suffer disproportionately when excluded from the information society, and should be enabled through various methodologies to practice preserve and pass on their culture.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on ICTS and the Millennium Development Goals (2002) states that “ICT’s have brought about a new hope for the developing world. Many of these countries continue to labour in the agricultural age, and their economic development is thus restricted and unable to move on to catch up with the developed world – in telemedicine, distance education, wireless applications, the use of the Internet for a wide variety of critical information dissemination tasks, hold the promise of overcoming fundamental barriers in infrastructure, which have plagued the developing world.”

The CAPDD Report (2005) recognizes that the Digital Divide means there is a very substantial risk that those without the capacities to access ICT’s, or to use it effectively, will be further marginalized.

The Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality (2005-2015), makes explicit reference to the need to bridge the “gender digital divide,” as women tend to have less access to ICT’s and skills training than men and young people.

The Media must provide a balanced picture of women’s diverse lives and contributions to society in a changing world. The call in the Beijing Platform for Action Paragraph 237 remains relevant - “Women should be empowered by enhancing their skills, knowledge and access to information.”

In his poem – “It was the Women who Restored Us,” Elliott Roache sang a Praise Song to Caribbean women for the struggles through slavery and early post emancipation period. These gains are being eroded as women are faced with new forms of slavery, restraint, illusions of economic improvements and persistent poverty. It is imperative that the WSIS process increase the participation an1`d access of women in and through the Media and new technologies of communication.

CHANGING THE ENVIRONMENT THROUGH PARTNERSHIP

There has been a weakening of the partnerships between government and NGOs that was so evident during the Beijing preparatory process and at the Conference itself, when several NGO representatives led the government negotiations on key aspects of the Platform for Action. NGOs are now called upon to assist in implementing the Platform for Action, at a time of dwindling resources.

In spite of these constraints, women’s NGOs maintain the need to act and advocate for change. The enabling environment must be created for implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, through effective collaborative mechanisms.

There is need to engage the media as a vehicle for changed attitudes. It remains critical that resources be provided to Civil Society, and particularly women’s NGOs to enable them to benefit from information communication technologies and address the critical changes and actions for the advance of women.

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