Press release

(ENDA, Dakar, July 25, 2005) In preparation of the African Woman
Day, 2005, the Gender and ICT Network (a joint initiative
ENDA-ART-OSIRIS) publicly launch the book "Fracture numerique de
genre en Afrique francophone : une inquietante realite" (Gender
digital divide in Francophone Africa : a harsh
reality".

This book is published by ENDA and presents the results of a
research undertaken, since two years in six countries (Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal), with the support of
the
International Development Research Center (Canada).

Reporting-back workshops are to be held in the six countries
included in the research during the week preceding the African Woman
Day : Tuesday the 26th of July in Cameroon, Wednesday 27 in Mali ;
Thursday 28 in Benin, Mauritania and Senegal ; Saturday 30 in Burkina
Faso.

The research results show that women have globally one third chances
less than men to benefit from the information society in francophone
Africa. As information and communication technologies (ICTs) are seen
as a way to alleviate poverty, this result request that
decision-makers engage bold
policies to insure a fair and inclusive information society, in term
of gender issues.

Assessed through three information and communication technologies
considered as strategically important to promote gender equality (the
computer, the Interned and cell phones), the gender digital divide is
a reality, and much more in terms of control, contents and capacities
than regarding access. Only the young population that have attend
school until secondary level is escaping gender disparities, but
women in the African information society are likely to occupy a
secondary role as consumers and
helping hands.

The Gender and ICT Network is a joint initiative built by
Environment and Development in the Third World (ENDA), the
Observatoire des Systemes d'Information, Reseaux et Inforoutes du
Senegal (OSIRIS) and the Senegalese Telecommunication Regulation
Agency. Its members are individuals and organizations active to
promote gender justice in the national, African and global
information society, in partnership with public, private, national
and global cooperation in development actors.

Download your own free copy of the book (in French) at :
http://www.famafrique.org/regentic/indifract/fracturenumeriquedegenre.pdf
{http://www.famafrique.org/regentic/indifract/fracturenumeriquedegenre.pdf}

Contacts and Information : c/o enda : [email protected]
{mailto:[email protected]}