Policy briefs

In November 2015, IT for Change submitted a position paper on critical concerns for women farmers' rights in the digital age to MAKAAM's meeting to deepen its Charter of Demands for Women Farmers. This note discusses 2 aspects of this shift pertinent to women farmers:

• 'E-agriculture' initiatives
• New challenges to women's citizenship arising on account of the reconstitution of governance systems by Internet and ICTs

The digitalisation of public service delivery has effected a paradigmatic shift in governance. This note discusses two aspects of this shift pertinent to women farmers - 'E-agriculture' initiatives and the new challenges to women's citizenship arising due to the reconstitution of governance systems by the Internet and ICTs. In the past, digitalisation efforts by the government has focused on the areas of digitalisation of service delivery at both central and state levels of agricultural departments. However, these efforts have failed to address the lack of gender inclusivity.

This policy brief provides insights from Women-gov, a feminist action research project aimed at enhancing marginalised women's active citizenship and their engagement with local governance, across three sites in India, Brazil and South Africa. The partnering organisations for this project are IT for Change in India, Instituto Nupef in Brazil and University of the Western Cape in South Africa.

The IG chapter, penned for a book of policy recommendations in the context of the new Government, calls for a reconstitution of the India's Internet policy in place of knee-jerk reforms that are poorly researched, incomprehensible and lack foresight.

IT for Change submitted inputs for the post 2015 women's coalition's brief on Gender and ICTs. The report contains critical issues, priorities and actions related to gender justice in the information society.

IT for Change was commissioned by BRIDGE, IDS in 2013 to prepare a policy brief on Gender and ICTs for DFID. The final policy brief, submitted in February 2014, provides a broad brush-stroke analysis of the depth and breadth of the implications of information society change for gender equality and women's empowerment, and identifies future directions for policy and programming.

In April 2014, IT for Change submitted a solicited input to the Second High Level Committee on Status of Women in India, analysing key policy and programmatic concerns in the area of 'Digital Technologies and Gender Justice in India'. The brief demonstrates the urgent need  for  a gendered analysis of the National e-governance Plan and e-governance schemes under implementation, to overcome the limitations of current 'gender-neutral', 'corporatist', e-governance approaches.

Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director, IT for Change, has been closely in dialogue with the Women's Major Group for the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals , urging for the inclusion of information society concerns in the SDG discussions.

1. Which stakeholder category do you belong to?

NGO – in Special Consultative Status with UN ECOSOC

On 20th July, 2013, Parminder Jeet Singh drafted a position paper reflecting on the current nature of e-governance schemes upon sampling and studying recent developments in the area, where he posits that the increasing role of ICTs in governance is resulting in a de facto “centralisation of power” and “privatisation of Governance”.

Find the link to article here.