A new study reveals that digital literacy and mobile phone use is still very low among Kenyan women.
The findings of the study on women’s empowerment in information communication and technology in Kenya attribute this to the cost of accessing the Internet and web-enabled gadgets, lack of training and general illiteracy among women and girls.
The study was conducted by the International Association of Women in Radio & Television (IAWRT), a global organisation of professional women working in electronic and allied to the media.
The survey was conducted in several capital cities and main economic hubs around the world, including Nairobi, Cairo (Egypt), Bogota (Colombia), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kampala (Uganda), Lagos (Nigeria), Manila (Philippines), Maputo (Mozambique), New Delhi (India) and Yaoundé (Cameroon).
ONLINEHARASSMENT
The report, which will be officially unveiled Wednesday, provides what it calls a strong justification for the Kenyan government to devise a more focused policy on incorporating gender into ICT policy pillars.
The report suggests setting clear targets for women to access the Internet, ICT skills development and training.
It calls for policies to deal with how to handle technology-based violence, especially when perpetrated against women.
“The government cannot deliver on its mandate fully when part of the society is not ICT literate,” the study report states.
According to the survey, fear of harassment and bullying online is one factor that has made many Kenyan women to shy away from fully exploring opportunities on the web.
“More than a quarter of women surveyed who use the Internet had experienced online harassment, including receiving offensive or threatening emails or messages (and) having offensive comments posted about them on the Internet,” the findings of the study indicate.
SMARTPHONES
It states that women face problems accessing the Internet due to lack of web-enabled devices, which are too expensive to acquire.
It recommends that the government consider making affordability of smartphones and other ICTs a priority by coming up with strategies that would help cut down their cost so that more women can buy them.
Among its recommendations is that the government should create mobile computer schools that can reach those who need to be trained and encourage and assist women and girls to access them.
A suggestion is also made for the government to set up separate computer training points for adult learners to encourage them to acquire computer skills.
E-CENTRES
Another recommendation is that the government should establish e-centres in rural and peri-urban areas to make access easier for women and girls.
To this end, governments are urged to make sure "public funding for technology development (such as subsidies or incentives for tech entrepreneurs) is specifically set aside for projects led or managed by women."
Internet access among respondents in the survey sample was recorded to be lowest (2 per cent) among those with no formal education and highest (84 per cent) among those who had completed tertiary education.
The findings show that as the level of education dropped, Internet access was also observed to drop correspondingly, leading to the conclusion that education is a key factor in determining access to the Internet as lack of it was a barrier.
The highest access to the Internet among respondents was recorded in the category of students at 74 per cent.
Respondents who were unemployed or between jobs recorded the least access to the Internet at 30 per cent. CAROLINE WAFULA
