WIGSAT

About
WIGSAT

    
WIGSAT is an international non-profit consulting organization. Its goal is to promote the development and dissemination of science and technology (including ICTs) which enable women, especially those living in developing countries, to contribute to and benefit from growth and development in the global knowledge economy. Its range of activities includes:
  • facilitation of e-networking and information dissemination (including web sites and listservs)
  • advisory services on gender and ICT mainstreaming at both institutional and policy levels
  • policy analysis and research
  • conducting and facilitating workshops (both training and programme planning)
  • development and management of projects
  • project evaluation and impact analysis.

Areas of focus
  • Indicators to measure the participation of women in the information society - Women in the Information Society
  • Promoting understanding of the use of technology for social and economic development, especially in support of women's SMEs
  • Promoting women's participation in the knowledge society through ICT
  • Use of ICTs by women for empowerment and poverty reduction
  • Promoting nonformal education of girls and women through and in ICTs

WIGSAT is co-coordinator of the International Task Force on Women and IT with the Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The Taskforce is a consortium of global leaders and practitioners formed to create synergy in efforts to increase women's full participation in ICTs: from engineering and software, to access and use, to literacy and leadership. The network promotes communication and information exchange; increased sharing of research, knowledge and resources; development of a series of collaborative activities; and promotion of recommendations for policy and programming.

Who are we?

WIGSAT activities and services are delivered by associates on a consulting basis. Current associates.

Members of the Board are: Ann Holmes, Canada; Judi Wakhungu, Kenya; and Kate Wild, Canada.


Activities

Knowledge sharing

  1. Management of the international mailing list WIGSAT-L, the bi-monthly International Gender, Science and Technology Digest and the list ICT for Rural Women launched in May 2003.

  2. Design and hosting of web sites for partner organizations, including GAB-UNCSTD and OFAN. A major project has been the design, maintenance and hosting of the Gender, Science and Technology Gateway (GST Gateway) for GAB-UNCSTD, which is a clearing house of information, resources, and organizations working in various areas in gender, science and technology.

  3. Technical advice and support to the Harvard-UNIFEM-SEWA programme Women in Informal Employment, Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) on its information strategies.

Policy research

  1. Women in the Information Society in From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity: Measuring Infostates for Development, Orbicom and Statistics Canada
  3. Preparation for IDRC of report on "Supporting Women's Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Sustainable Development", which is recognized as an influential report in the field.
  4. Chapter on "Gender, Education and ICTs" as part of a World Bank Study on Engendering ICTs
    5. .

Gender mainstreaming

  1. Gender Mainstreaming Project, infoDev

    • desk review of 95 infoDev-funded projects from a gender perspective
    • coordination of six field studies in developing countries,
    • literature review, "Lessons Learned on Gender, ICTs and Poverty Reduction" and
    • development of a gender strategy for infoDev.

  2. Organization and facilitation of a Gender Workshop for Bellanet. Bellanet is a multidonor initiative to support ICT use and networking in developing countries. Staff were taken through a series of exercises to discover and articulate the gender dimensions of Bellanet projects.

  3. Evaluation for UNIFEM of the ICT component of the DEVNET (Italy) managed "WINNER" project. WINNER provided ICT training to women entrepreneurs in eight countries to enhance their ability to access new markets through the Internet and expand their businesses.

Grant and project administration

  • Grant and project administration services to the international Once and Future Action Network (OFAN), for its grant from UNIFEM for the period 2000-2003. WIGSAT also hosted the OFAN planning and networking lists.

Advocacy at international conferences and policy fora

  1. Member of the Local Ad Hoc Committee on Women at the Global Knowledge '97 conference in Toronto. Activities included:

    • Organisation of the Women's Breakfast, including the presentation by Dr. Shirley Malcom on Knowledge, Technology and Development: A Gendered Perspective

    • Coordination of an international email lobby to increase the representation of women at the conference to one-third and ensure that each panel and workshop session included at least one woman.

  2. Management of the UNESCO-UNIFEM-OFAN Virtual Pavilion on Women and S&T at the 1999 UNESCO/ICSU World Conference on Science
    • WIGSAT also participated in the gender lobby which was successful in integrating gender perspectives and language into the final Conference Declaration and Framework for Action.

  3. Collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on a proposal to fund an international delegation of women computer scientists to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in December 2003.




This page was last updated on January 15, 2007.

WIGSAT
204 Ventress Road
Brighton, Ontario, K0K 1H0
Canada
Tel 1-905-355-5124, Fax 1-647-723-5069