Version en espanol

Declaration of the Know How Conference 2002

Hosted by Isis-WICCE and Isis International/Manila, with support from the IIAV, at Makarere University, July 22-27, 2002

1. INTRODUCTION

We, the 180 women and men from 46 countries gathered together at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda are a part of the global community of information and communication specialists, librarians, archivists, academics, politicians, activists and media specialists.

The mission of the Know How Conference is to build and consolidate powerful relationships among participating organizations, so as to create new programs to make information on women's issues and concerns highly accessible and visible.

We recognize the enormous effort of women to close persistent global and gender digital divides that disproportionately exclude women. We further recognise the imperative of challenging inequalities in ICT access at the national, regional and international policy levels and the need to hold accountable the private corporations, governments, and civil society organisations in redressing such imbalances.

The Conference Objectives

1. To increase and improve the visibility of African women's issues concerns and the progress made in information centres, archives and services;
2. To establish and strengthen links between women's information specialists in Africa and the rest of the world;
3. To evaluate the progress made in the field of information collection, processing and dissemination, as well as sharing of best practices;
4. To equip more women activists with information and communication technology skills; and
5. To develop a plan of action for generating and sharing information by and with rural women activists.

The Conference Themes

1. Making information from the village level available at the national, regional and international policy levels and vice versa.
2. Engendering women's information through the use of (mainstream) media
3. Women's information and ICT: policies and innovations.
4. How ICT affects the lives of women in general.

2. CONTEXT

1. Reaffirming the African Charter on Broadcasting that was adopted in Windhoek in 2001,
2. Reaffirming the Declaration of the Know How Conference on the World of Women's Information held in Amsterdam in 1998,
3. Reaffirming the NGO Communications Strategy Proposal, Beijing, September 1995,
4. Reaffirming in particular Section J, Women and Media section of the Platform for Action of the United Nations 4^th World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995,
5. Reaffirming the Toronto Declaration from the UNESCO and Media Conference, Toronto,1995,
6. Reaffirming the Bangkok Declaration from the Women Empowering Communications Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand, 1994,
7. Reaffirming the information statement from the "Women, Information and the Future" international conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in 1994,
8. Reaffirming the People's Communication Charter, a world-wide citizen's demand for the protection of the quality of communication services and the provision of information that is affordable, user-friendly and accessible, reliable and pluralist, Global Forum, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992,
9. Reaffirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly Article 19, 1948.

The Internet has become a powerful and widespread communication platform, particularly with the convergence of existing communication media with new communication technologies. Access to the Internet has increased. At the same time, it has become subject to increasing commercialisation, corporate ownership and control.

New communication technologies are a vehicle of a process of globalisation that takes place on unequal terms, and that often increases social and economic inequality, between and within countries. At the same time, these technologies can be empowering tools for resistance, social mobilisation and development in the hands of people and organisations working for freedom and justice.

Our approach to gender and ICT work involves an understanding of power relations in society. This recognition includes an awareness of the unequal power relations between women and men, North and South, rich and poor, urban and rural, connected and unconnected-in local communities, in sovereign countries, and globally.

We must work to transform these relations of inequality, with the full knowledge that ICTs can be used to either exacerbate or transform unequal power relations. Part of this recognition includes an awareness of the limits of ICTs-that in and of themselves, ICTs cannot create gender equality, or end poverty, but that they can be tools for social action and positive social change.

We must facilitate the strategic use of ICTs in support of women's actions and agenda; to bring more attention to issues of concern to women; reinforce solidarity campaigns, enhance traditional women's networking activities and defend the rights of women to participate equally in civil and public life.

This entails working with women and their organisations to integrate the use of ICTs in a way that strengthens their capacities, improves information flow within their organisations, empowers individual members to do their work and improves their organisational capability to achieve strategic objectives.

Strategic use also involves harnessing ICTs to organise and transform information into knowledge, and to share that knowledge with a wider global community to promote the development of cultures based on values of human rights, freedom and justice, and gender equality.

3. THE KAMPALA KNOW HOW DECLARATION

The Kampala Declaration has been designed in consideration of the four main themes that guided all the discussions and deliberations during the five days of the conference.

The following recommendations are made:

First theme:
Making information from the village level available at the national, regional and international policy levels and vice versa

1. Access to information and communications is a human right and must be ensured at all times, particularly in times of crisis.
2. We must challenge government policies that hinder access to ICT. We need a strategic understanding of government policies; we want to ensure that all policies that affect women's access to ICTs include a gender perspective.
3. We want community media recognised in government policies as different from mainstream media.
4. Rural women need relevant and appropriate information delivered in a format that is easily accessible and in local languages.
5. The development of gender evaluation methodologies to evaluate information developed for rural and low-income women should be encouraged.
6. Gender and ICT projects for rural women should be encouraged.
7. Online conferences that include rural and low-income women should be encouraged to ensure further outreach.
8. Restrictive laws and commercialisation of information should be discouraged. We need to resist privatisation that influences the content of media and the fact that we have to pay for information.
9. A Special Rapporteur should be appointed to ensure the implementation of UN policy on media.
10. There is a need to strategise and develop a plan of action on how to lobby governments and bilateral agencies vis-a-vis the allocation of resources for projects and programmes on ICTs for poverty eradication.
11. We must ensure that women not only generate information but also own the information.
12. There is an urgent need to lobby for funding with regard to information and communication initiatives.
13. Information exchange and sharing of communication skills among women should be encouraged.

Second theme:
Engendering women's information through the use of mainstream media: Integrating gender perspectives into mainstream media

1. Women's information and communication organizations should optimise the use of mainstream media as a strategy for advocacy and social change.
2. Media organisations should develop and adopt a gender policy.
3. Women's information and communication organisations should develop a strategic approach to communications that includes outreach to all segments of society.
4. Training and networking support for women media practitioners should be provided.
5. Strengthen existing regional alliances and support and encourage the formation of other regional alliances of women in media.

Third theme:
Women's information and ICT: policies and innovations

1. Baseline studies are recommended to enable us to assess what we have accomplished and what the obstacles are. The information and the analyses gathered from such studies maybe used to inform the process of planning for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) as well as other efforts that impact on the worldwide information revolution.
2. The WSIS Gender Caucus and all other efforts to develop policy and perspectives on gender issues are supported, and further efforts are recommended to ensure that gender is at the centre of all WSIS planning and preparation.
3. We must ensure that whatever actions we undertake are sustainable and that we continue to develop new skills and improve ourselves. Business management workshops for information and communication organisations are strongly recommended.
4. Information and communication organisations should undertake research and assessment projects to ascertain where the gaps are in information and communication outreach. Baseline studies should be undertaken to evaluate where women's information and communication organisations are and where the gaps are to ensure an informed process of future actions. The results of such studies will be presented at the next Know How conference.
5. Case studies and testimonies on regional, ethnic and linguistic diversity should be undertaken in every world region. Current efforts to undertake studies and surveys should be supported and encouraged.
6. Efforts to develop government legislation on gender and ICTs, such as those underway in South Africa, are encouraged wherever and whenever possible.
7. Access to ICTs should increase the capacity of women to create, process and utilise information to advance women's status.
8. Training on Gender and ICTs must be centred on the political framework of social transformation.
9. New ICTs should converge with traditional and alternative media.
10. The development of a model African union policy on gender and telecommunications is recommended.
11. Public discussion and debate is encouraged on all issues that relate to gender and ICT policies.
12. All efforts to integrate a gendered critique in the development of national legislation on gender and ICTs should be encouraged. In addition, critical engagement and participation in this process as well as the interrogation of existing ICT policies at national, regional and global levels is also encouraged.
13. Ensure the availability of frequency waves and Internet access for free communication.
14. Funding needs to be raised and earmarked for increasing rural women's access to information.
15. Surveys and studies already underway on the information needs of rural women should be supported and new research is recommended.
16. Rural multi-purpose community telecentres should be supported and encouraged, with special efforts made to develop programmes that are appropriate, relevant and in local languages for women farmers and other marginalised groups.

Fourth theme:
How ICTs affect the lives of women in general

1. Easy access to means of communication in conflict and post-conflict situations shou;d be ensured, especially early warning systems, so that women in conflict zones can reach out and get the support needed quickly. This is also recommended for all situations where women are living in areas experiencing some kind of humanitarian need.
2. Efforts to bridge the gap between the rural and urban areas are recommended, with programmes that include local, relevant and appropriate information, in local languages, developed so that rural women can join the information society and bring to the process their perspectives and needs.
3. Open source technology for women and designed by women should be made available to women's information documentation centres and NGOs worldwide.
4. Need-based training in ICTs targeting rural women, women activists and researchers should be encouraged. Systems and all necessary support such as appropriate and flexible channels as well as affordable training costs should be put in place to ensure that women can avail of such training
5. Create more opportunities for girls so that they can access the creative and enjoyable potential of ICTs in ways that promote and respect women's human rights.

Recommendations Relating to Rural Women

1. Given the specific talents and expertise of women involved in media and information and communication work, it is recommended that we undertake, in partnership with community groups and activists in Africa, the development of relevant and appropriate information packages in the area of women and HIV/AIDS. We, as media women, should recognize the devastating impact of AIDS to the African continent and the rest of the world.
2. All efforts to engender the policies and practices of the World Summit on the Information Society should be supported and further efforts should be encouraged.
3. All efforts currently underway to document the experiences and realities of women in every world region are supported and encouraged. It is further recommended that discussions be undertaken to assess the viability and usefulness of constructing and maintaining a women's media, information and communication history web site. A women's history centre was also recommended, either international, regional or both.
4. There is an urgent need to document the experiences of women in armed conflict situations as well as to spread this information so as to increase the world's awareness of the cruel realities of war and as a contribution to achieving global peace.
5. There is a need for women's information and communications actors to promote economic alternatives to current dominant neo-liberal economic policies. This includes finding strategic ways of networking, of sharing resources, of increasing visibility and exchange for the development of women's economic initiatives in solidarity-based economy.
6. There is an urgent need to produce and disseminate information that critically analyses the effects on women of neo-liberal economic policies and promotes economic justice policies, especially debt cancellation.
7. There is a need to raise and earmark funds for increasing rural women's access to information.
8. Surveys and studies already underway on the information needs of rural women should be supported and new research is recommended.
9. Rural multi-purpose community telecentres should be supported and encouraged, with special efforts made to develop programmes that are appropriate, relevant and in local languages for women farmers and other marginalized sectors.

4. APPENDIX

Letter of Solidatity
25^th July 2002

We, the African delegates to the Know How Conference 2002, held at the University of Makerere, Kampala, Uganda, after four days of deliberations today send this message of solidarity and sister support to the Niger Delta women of Nigeria in their struggle with Chevron and Shell. We urge the companies to pursue the route of dialogue, justice and peace and to make earnest efforts to resolve the issues raised by the women in the interest of all.

We the participants also send a solidarity message to the Colombian women in Bogota in their search and struggle for peace.

We also note with concern the conflicts in other parts of Africa which threaten the lives and the livelihoods of women and children in particular and demand that the African union, all the states, individuals and the groups involved in perpetuating these conflicts should make serious and committed efforts to bring sustainable peace to the areas of Northern Uganda, Sudan, Somalia and the D.R.Con

For questions or more information please contact: knowhow@iiav.nl
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