9th session of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration held on  19 April to 23 April 2010, New York had as one of the key issues 'Information and communications technology and gender  equality' on the agenda.

FLACSO-Argentina and WIGSAT have prepared a presenation in which they stress, that ICT present today new opportunities and challenges for public administration to implement the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

The presentation stresses:

Many women are alienated from the outreach of governance structures for reasons that include mobility, level of education, and access to infrastructure and resources. But the most important reason is discrimination and exclusions owing to societal norms and attitudes regarding the role of women. Redressing this marginalization is the aim of millennium development goal 3 — gender equality and the empowerment of women, which promotes in particular their inclusion in economic, social and political development processes.

Since the mid-1990s, most governments have increasingly recognized information and communications technology (ICT) as a major tool to improve public administration practices and operations, with reference to at least two key objectives:
(a) enhancing service delivery to all, especially marginalized groups; and
(b) providing mechanisms for civic engagement by all.

However, the empowerment of women and their active participation in e-government programmes will not occur if the approaches and ICT-supported contents are not gender-sensitive and committed to removing gender inequalities.

Download the full document:

ECOSOC-ICT-and-Gender-Equality.pdf