This page
aims to tell you three things:
a. What do
we mean by "women's ICT-based enterprise"? (Link)
b. What are
the purpose and outputs of this project? (Link)
c. What is
the nature of the focal "Kudumbashree" project? (Link)
We define
ICT-based enterprises as those using ICTs for new economic activities that
arise from the advent of ICTs. There are
three main categories:
· ICTs as an enterprise output: enterprises that produce hardware,
software and telecommunications products.
· ICTs as a primary, processing
technology:
enterprises that provide data entry services, ICT-based business services,
software customisation, ICT-based distance learning, etc.
· Other ICT-related support activities: enterprises that provide computer
training, consultancy and other services.
Put more
simply, we can ask of any enterprise the question, "Would this enterprise
exist without ICTs?". If the answer
is "no", then that is an "ICT-based enterprise". They are a "women's ICT-based
enterprise" if they are majority-owned or majority-managed by women. To find real-world case studies of women's
ICT-based enterprises, click here.
ICTs have
facilitated job, income and skill generation in enterprise worldwide. However, as yet, those benefits have rarely
been accessible by the poorest groups in society. The purpose of this project is to help
increase the number of sustainable ICT-based enterprises run by groups of poor
women in developing countries.
This will
be achieved through a series of project outputs, targeted at a
specifically-identified set of institutions in developing countries:
·
An
ICT-enabled network for those involved in ICT-based enterprise projects for
women in developing countries. This
would seek to provide ongoing support and knowledge-building around this topic,
and to develop target institution links.
To get details on joining our network, click here.
·
Copies
of a guidance handbook on development and support of women's ICT-based
enterprises. This will be made available
in relevant languages helping government/NGO officials to plan, initiate,
evaluate and improve ICT-based enterprise projects for poor women; and helping
groups of poor women initiate, operate and improve such projects. To access a copy of the handbook, click here.
·
An
international knowledge-sharing workshop in Kerala, India to which overseas
representatives of relevant government, NGO and community organisations would
be invited. This would provide a forum:
for direct experience of the Kudumbashree initiative (see below); for sharing
of experiences and development of knowledge frameworks between Keralan and
overseas participants; and for development of personal/institutional action
plans. To access a report on this
workshop, click here.
·
Five
action workshops with the same aims as for the handbook (the handbook will form
the basis for the workshops), to be held in South Asia, East Africa and the Central
America.
The data
required to produce these outputs will be generated through an intensive study
of the Kudumbashree initiative, through commissioned studies from other
developing countries, and through sharing of experiences on the project's
online workspace.
As noted,
this project will derive data from many different sources. However, there will be a particular interest
in the Kudumbashree initiative.
The
Kudumbashree poverty eradication initiative based in Kerala state in India is a
unique scheme that has created a state-wide series of cooperative
microenterprises, which are all owned, managed and operated by women from
'below poverty line' families. In
addition to more 'traditional' enterprise, Kudumbashree has facilitated the
creation of more than 100 ICT-based microenterprise units thus providing jobs
for more than 1,000 poor women.
Each of
these employs ten women from its immediate neighbourhood, plus others on a
piece-rate basis. The units are focused
around three main activities: data entry/digitisation, IT training, and
hardware assembly.
Data has
been gathered from these units through six main methods: key informant
interviews; case sketches; focus-group-driven case studies; individual
questionnaires; financial document analysis; and work/life story-telling. Most of this fieldwork has been undertaken by
Planet Kerala, a research and
action network NGO based in Kerala.
The overall
Kudumbashree Web site can be accessed by clicking
here.
The "Women's ICT-Based Enterprise for Development" project is
coordinated by the University of Manchester's Institute for Development Policy and
Management. The project is funded by
the UK Department for International
Development's Knowledge and Research programme.
http://www.womenictenterprise.org/project.htm December 2005