From access to appropriation: Women and ICT policies in Latin American and the Caribbean

This 30-page document explores trends related to the work of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries in expanding ICTs to this region, focussing on the progress, obstacles, and recommendations for policies and programmes that strengthen gender equality in and through ICTs. The document also includes a summary of an online consultation among researchers that was designed to identify areas of need as well as strategies and actions for future progress.

Here is a summary of trends related to the use of ICTs in LAC countries (detailed charts may be viewed in the full document):

• The percentage of people connected to Internet in LAC was about 4-6% in the first semester of 2001, with 28% in Europe and 41.05% in Canada and the United States over the same period.
• In Chile, 20% of the population are Internet users, as compared to Argentina (10%) and Brazil (7.74%). However, Mexico, which has the same population density as these countries, registers 3.38% of Internet users. In comparison, Bolivia registers 0.36% and Paraguay 0.98%.
• Although the contribution of LAC countries to the world GDP amounts to 7%, 1% participate in electronic world trade.
• LAC has seen an expansion of Internet use in the past years. As compared to 1999 figures, the number of hosts grew by 30% in Europe, 61% in Asia, 74% in North America, and 136% in Latin America.

The author acknowledges that these figures might be thought to support the conclusion that there is a technological revolution in progress that will foster a balance between some people's advantages and other people's disadvantages. However, she says, the data is insufficient to draw conclusions about the digital gaps between geographical regions within each country, or between generations, ethnic groups, and gender. The data that is available indicates:

• On average, 38% of LAC users are women.
• According to 2000 estimates, 18.1% of the richest 15% of Latin American population was connected, as compared to 2.7% of the total Latin American population. It is expected that by 2004, 68.9% of the richest 15% of Latin American population of 14 or over will be connected, while only 10% of the total Latin American population of 14 or over will be.
• In Uruguay, two-thirds of university students use the Internet for email and searches, as compared to 41% and 30% for those with secondary and primary education, respectively.
• In Brazil, 15.8% of Internet users are between 14 and 9 years old, 11.3% between 20 and 35 years old, 5.6% between 36 and 45, and 3% over 46 years old. These differences increase when ownership of personal computers is assessed among each group: 27%, 19%, 13.7%, and 6.3%, respectively.

Reflecting on the growth of ICTs in LAC countries, especially among women and other marginalised groups, the author points out that "The scandalous growth of poverty and of the levels of social inequity, together with the weakness of the national states and the lack of public investment in strategic sectors for human development, such as education or health; together with other alarming signs such as the lack of transparency of the stateadministration of budgets for social programs and purchase of technological infrastructure, the concentration of multimedia in the hands of transnational corporations, and the absence of regulations regarding the rates of telecommunication services, do not allow us to be very optimistic, at least in the short term...Unless additional efforts are made...it is highly probable that e-gaps will continue to grow."

Furthermore, she says, there is a lack of consideration of "the gender perspective" in regional meetings that deal with ICT policies. To address this issue, the United Nations DAW thus carried out an electronic consultation to explore the position of women researchers and/or activists who work for gender equality in and through ICTs in LAC. Here is a brief summary of findings:

• ICTs offer women a means of exchanging information, and building and participating in national, regional, and international networks.
• ICTs have brought about progress in terms of organisation, articulation of demands, legitimacy, knowledge building, and creation of alliances among women NGOs over the last decade.
• Women from LAC countries have focused mainly on the democratisation of connectivity.

Strategies are proposed to the prevailing problems identified, which include lack of statistical information and qualitative research, connectivity problems among the most marginal populations, lack of acknowledgement on the part of governments of gender inequities in the technological and scientific fields, weak commitment on the part of the women's movement and NGOs in the struggle to support ICTs as a fundamental tool for political and cultural transformation, lack of gender-sensititivity in educational programmes fostering the use of ICTs among women, and resistance on the part of women and NGOs to the use of technological tools other than e-mail.

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