Information society:promoting financial mechanisms with a gender equity perspective

This document is intended to describe the funding strategies of the Information Society (IS) that are currently under discussion at the preliminary meetings of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) – Second Phase, which will be held in November 2005 and, from a gender perspective, to tie them into the commitments undertaken through the Goals of the Millennium, the Beijing Action Platform and Funding for Development, among others. This paper has been prepared for the Regional Workshop titled "From Fringe to Center: Gender Equity in Building the Information Society”, called upon by the Steering Committee of WSIS Gender Caucus . This is one of the tasks pursued by the Caucus to fulfill its strategic objective: “To ensure that gender equity and women’s rights are integrated into WSIS and its subsequent processes”. Building the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean requires a new outlook that, based on the understanding of the Region’s specific economic, social, political and cultural settings, should redesign the scenario for development in the Region. Development strategies stemming from the Washington Consensus applied by several Latin American and Caribbean countries as from the 90’s has broadened the inequity gap in terms of economic, social and political conditions. Furthermore, the number of poor and marginalised people is increasingly higher, and the growth of unemployment is rolling out dramatic scenarios, especially among destitute women. In this respect, the commitments to be undertaken by governments and conveyed in public policy-making should be revised in order to guarantee the fulfillment of each one of them in respect of gender equity, uprooting of poverty and funding for development issues. ICTs account for powerful instruments whose impact on development is not neutral. The application of ICTs may exacerbate or transform existing power relations. For that reason, governments should put in place the mechanisms required for the use of ICTs on the basis of equity and equal opportunities for all. This may only be realized if governments access and allocate the necessary resources for their implementation, operation and development. For that reason, funding proposals should be revised from a gender perspective to guarantee a comprehensive social justice-based IS, as endorsed by WSIS Gender Caucus. More

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