WOUGNET Update Newsletter - July 2003

[Dorothy Okello <dokello@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

WOUGNET Update Newsletter - July 2003
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A monthly electronic newsletter from Women of Uganda Network
(WOUGNET) - http://www.wougnet.org
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This month's contents:
1.    Women Organisations in Uganda
2.    ICT Policy
3.    Links & Resources
4.    News & Events
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WOMEN ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA
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= Isis-WICCE: Women peace builders visit Kenya and Tanzania
A group of 45 women community peace builders from Uganda will visit
different women groups in Kenya and Tanzania from 17th to 21st June
2003. The exchange visit is the climax of the four year (1999 - 2002)
training that Isis-WICCE has conducted on conflict resolution and
peace building. The aim of the visit is to enable the group express
solidarity with women of other ethnic groups who have gone through
violent conflict as well as other conflicts and share the best
practices, mechanisms and strategies utilised in their localities.
The visit will also enable the women peace builders to form a strong
network that will instill a culture of peace in communities.
http://www.wougnet.org/Documents/IsisWICCE/womenpeacevisit.html



= Reminder: WOUGNET evaluation of mailing list and website
WOUGNET is conducting an evaluation of the website and mailing
lists. The evaluation will conducted with the support of GEM Africa.
Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) is an evaluation tool that
integrates gender analysis into the evaluation of ICT initiatives for
social change.
WOUGNET would like to evaluate the impact of email and the web in
enabling information sharing and outreach by women and women's
organisations in Uganda. The outcome of this evaluation will help
WOUGNET design programmes and activities to strengthen and further
promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)
for information sharing and dissemination in order to effectively
address national and local problems of sustainable development.
Kindly download and complete the evaluation questionnaire available
in WORD and PDF formats at:
http://www.wougnet.org/eval/wevaluation.html
Alternatively, send email to info@xxxxxxxxxxx to request a copy of
the questionnaire by email.



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ICT POLICY
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= FOSSFA Action Plan, June 2003
Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) in
conjunction with APC (Association for Progressive Communications) has
completed the 2003-2005 Action Plan and a brief state of OSS in
Africa. For a copy of the document (zipped RTF format), visit:
http://www.wougnet.org/ICTpolicy/opensource.html#FOSSFA


= Kompyuta ne Yuganda
Kompyuta ne Yuganda is a Luganda translation project to enable any
literate Luganda speaker (and probaly speakers of some other bantu
languages) make use of the power of electronic computers and
information technology. The Translation Project is an international
voluntary organisation whose aim is to coordinate software
developers, people who can translate and computer users (running
Linux, GNU and other *NIXen) in an effort to enable computers to
"speak" in as many of the world's languages as possible.
http://www.wougnet.org/ICTpolicy/ug/fosiug.html



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LINKS & RESOURCES
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a) African & International Women Organisations

= Ruma Women's Group
Based in Kenya, the driving force behind the formation of Ruma
Women's Group in 1981 was to mobilise the women in Ruma village to
contribute to their own development. The group has a variety of
programs in health, education and economic empowerment.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/africa_int.html#RWG



b) Agriculture

= Science and Development Network
The Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) has established
itself as an authoritative online source of information and debate
about the way that science and technology can meet the social and
economic needs of the developing world. SciDev.Net includes an
African Gateway providing news coverage through its network of
science journalists in the region. SciDev.Net also provides in-depth
'dossiers' on key topical issues in agriculture and enviroment
including indigenous knowledge, GM Crops and climate change and has
free access to selected articles from the journals 'Science' and
'Nature.'
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/agriculture.html#SciDev


= Developing Countries Farm Radio Network
The Farm Radio Network is a Canadian-based, nonprofit organization
working with 500 radio broadcasters in 70 countries to fight poverty
and food insecurity. It supports broadcasters in developing countries
to build the skills to develop content that responds to the local
needs of small-scale farming and rural communities. The Network
supports developing-country broadcasters by facilitating the exchange
of information that increases food supplies and improves nutrition
and health. The information conveyed must be simple, safe, and
practical; ecologically sound and environmentally sustainable;
clearly communicated by radio; proven useful and transferable within
the developing world; requires resources available to small-scale
farmers; requires little or no technical help to implement; and meets
the needs of both women and men.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/agriculture.html#DCFRN


= Rural women and Access to Land (Recommendations of International
    Workshop)
The International Workshop Rural Women and Land took place in Thies,
Senegal from 25-27 February 2003. It was organised by the Rural Women
National Network of  Senegal with the support of the Dimitra project
and Enda-Pronat. The main goal was for rural women to speak out and
highlight the problems they encounter in regard to accessing
cultivable land, natural resources and land acquisition. Rural women,
the majority of whom are farmers, are crucial partners in the fight
against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Nevertheless, their work
still remains underestimated and local traditions can often increase
discrimination against them. The Recommendations, Action Plan and
other documents resulting from the conference are available online
for consultation. Documents are available in English and French.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/agriculture.html#RWL



c) Development

= Uganda Art For Peace (UAFP)
Uganda Art For Peace (UAFP) is a non-governmental organization which
carries out awareness and sensitization programs that target the young
people for peace and development using art;  visual and audio-visual
arts as the principle media.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/development.html#UAFP


= African Youth Foundation (AYF)
The African Youth Foundation (AYF) is a non-profit development
organisation based in Germany. AYF was created to aid young people in
Africa, as well as African Nationals abroad to undertake projects
which will enable them obtain skills necessary for their future
livelihoods. The organisation's mandate is to promote youth education
for African Nationals abroad and in Africa, as well as gender
equality, with a view to mobilising and developing the talents of the
youth to contribute meaningfully to national and global development.
A concept which will motivate the youth to begin their own
enterprises particularly in the informal sectors, other than
migrating to other countries.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/development.html#AYF



d) Education

= School-Based Telecenters (SBTs)
SBTs were launched first in Zimbabwe and later in Uganda (2001) as a
direct reponse to the challenge of bridging the digital divide and
providing an opportunity for; increasing learning  achievements;
making learning more enterprising for learners and educators; as well
as stimulating community development. The strategy entails
establishing Telecenters (with networked computers connected to the
fast Internet) at schools premises as shared facilities for school
and neighboring communities.
The SBT program is supported by the World Bank Institute, ICT for
Education Program, World Links Organisation, Bill and Mellinda Gates
Foundation, Government of Uganda and participating  schools in Uganda
and Zimbabwe.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/education.html#SBT



e)  HIV/AIDS

= Reach out Mbuya HIV/AIDS initiative.
Three women decided that they could do more for the communities they
were living in by sharing the word of God to their neighbors. After
several home visits, they discovered that the majority of the people
they visited had no food, were bed ridden and suffering from HIV and
its related complications. The three of them decided that they would
pull their meager resources together to help these people most of
whom could not afford even the basics like food and treatment drugs.
Today an HIV community initiative called 'Reach out Mbuya HIV/AIDS
initiative' has been started.
http://www.wougnet.org/HIVAIDS/mbuya_reachout.html


= Advocacy campaign on microbicides to begin.
A campaign on the development of safe and affordable microbicides is
set to begin in Uganda. This will be the first time that a
large-scale campaign on microbicides is launched after years of
ongoing research about the efficacy of this product. Microbicides are
agents that kill or deactivate disease causing microorganisms,
technically known as pathogens and are supposedly developed to
prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in women.
http://www.wougnet.org/HIVAIDS/microbicides_campaign.html



f) ICT Resources

= Library Bookmobile Project
The Internet Bookmobile was created by the Internet Archive as a
community-based means for achieving greater access to written
knowledge, by enabling nearly anybody to print public domain and
self-published works in small quantities at very low cost.
With funding obtained from World Bank InfoDev, an Internet Bookmobile
will be established in Uganda. The bookmobile will be based at
Caezaria Public Library (about 40km from Kampala). The project will
apply mobile print-on-demand technology to address a key need of
Uganda: the dissemination of books (at all reading levels) to the
rural population.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/ictresources.html#LBP



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEWS & EVENTS
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July 2003

= Africa SMME Awards: Call for nominations (Extended deadline)
The Africa Centre for Investment Analysis (ACIA), together with a
number of national and international organisations, is hosting its
fifth Annual Development Finance Conference in October 2003 in
Johannesburg. Together with the SMME Awards, the best SMMEs of the
year will also be announced. The Africa SMME Awards are presented to
businesses that strive for excellence in order to be competitive in
regional, national and international markets. These businesses are
well established, in good financial shape and enjoy a reputation for
quality, integrity and service. Furthermore, they act socially
responsible, support community development efforts and create a work
environment in which their employees can learn and grow.
Nominations should be made before the July 31, 2003.
http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews03.html#AfricaSMME


= Cisco Networking Academy Program Announcement,
   Makerere University/Cisco Systems Networking Academy
Are you a woman lacking strong ICT skills? Do you want to build ICT
capacity in your organization? Are you deficient in maintaining your
organization's computer infrastructure? Have you considered improving
your organization's ICT knowledge base? If the answers to any of
these questions are yes, you may like to strongly consider enrolling
in the Cisco Networking Academy Program at the Institute of Computer
Science at Makerere University.
http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews03.html#MUKCS



August 2003

= Forum on ICTs and Gender, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
    August 20-23, 2003 (new dates)
The Forum will be a multi-stakeholder initiative, bringing together
public, private and not-for-profit stakeholders to examine issues
surrounding gender and information and communication technologies. In
general, the purpose is to foster a greater appreciation of the
gender-related barriers that exist in developing and developed
countries, to develop an understanding of why women need access to
ICTs, and to discuss strategies for overcoming these barriers. This
will translate into policies that support women's access to ICTs and
successful networking to enhance women's participation in the
information economy, especially in the developing world.
http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews03.html#GICT



September 2003

= ICT Stories Competition 2003: Now open to enter you story!
Have you been working on a project that uses Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a tool for achieving
development? Then this is an opportunity for you to share your
experiences with the world!
Knowledge is generated throughout the entire course of a project. The
ICT Stories objective is to capture the learning process that
accompanies the introduction and implementation of ICTs in a project
in exemplary stories. Most Stories applicants have had to struggle to
go through hurdles and a lot of ups and downs for their projects to
happen, and their stories become vehicles to share such knowledge.
These stories describe good practices and lessons learned from
contributors' experiences. Deadline for submissions is September 26,
2003.
http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews03.html#ICTS



To list your event/news on the WOUGNET website, send details about
the event/news including contact information to: news@xxxxxxxxxxx


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