UNESCO wins the 2014 GEM-TECH Award
Promoting Gender Equality through Technology, and Turning Priorities into Action
Women in African History: Comic strip on Wangari Maathai. CC BY SA Eric Muthoga
Since the launch of “Women in African History: An E-Learning Tool” in November 2013, Amanuella Alemayehu Mengiste, secondary school student in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, has been using and sharing multimedia content highlighting African women’s contribution to development with her friends on their mobile phones and computers, downloading digital comic strips, and reciting songs and stories from audio modules; “the more stories you hear about women who are doing stuff on their own and following their dreams and doing what they want to do – I think it’s inspirational. Whenever someone says ‘oh no you can’t do this,’ you can point to that woman and say ‘well she did it, so why can’t I?’” The inspiring stories of women “who did it” such as Wangari Maathai, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, Gisele Rabesahala, Nzinga Mbandi, Taytu Betul, and many others, thanks to this tool, are being shared across the Sahara, in the plateaus of the Great Rift Valley, and on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Their stories are being read, sung, and shared and are inspiring young women and girls to pursue their dreams and education thanks to the transformative power of ICTs.
In honor of the contribution of “Women in African History: An E-Learning Tool” to promoting ICT Applications, Content, Production Capacities and Skills for Women's Social and Political Empowerment and the link between Women's Empowerment with Sustainable Development, UNESCO was awarded 1st prize during the first edition of the GEM-TECH awards (Gender Equality and Mainstreaming-Tech Awards). The Deputy Director-General, Getachew Engida, accepted the award that was jointly delivered by the ITU and UNWOMEN in Busan, South Korea during the ITU Plenipotentiary on 28 October 2014. The GEM-TECH award recognizes leaders and organizations that use technology to drive change and promote gender equality. In light of the UN Beijing Platform for Action, which emphasizes the importance of ICTs for women's empowerment and the achievement of gender equality, the links between ICT applications, content, production capacities and skills and Women’s Empowerment must be promoted.
“Women in African History: An E-Learning Tool” is doing just that through an internet platform that consists of multimedia content including comic strips, interactive pedagogical units, audio modules, and quizzes in order to highlight the role of women in African History. This project, funded through the generous contribution made by the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria, develops ICT tools for knowledge acquisition and sharing that encourages the general education and ICT capacity of young women, promotes their use of ICTs, and capitalizes on intangible heritage to promote the link between technology, culture, education, and sustainable development. It is currently available in English and French. In 2015, the tool will be made available in Arabic and several African languages, including Swahili and Dioula, and modules of additional women figures from across Africa and the African Diaspora will be developed and further partnerships mobilized. The project seeks to highlight the role ICTs have in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment by developing Interoperable and Multimedia Open Educational Resources to expand and disseminate knowledge of the role of women in African history, countering gender-based prejudices and stereotypes.
In order to promote gender perspectives through the development of media and local content, comic strip artists from Africa and the African diaspora, the majority under 35 and many women, participated in the development of multimedia content. Illustrators from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Kenya, Madagascar, and Nigeria and hip-hop artists and slammers from across the United States, Senegal, and Eastern Africa participated in the development of the pedagogical material that can be consulted on computers, mobile phones, and tablets and downloaded free of charge as open educational resources; The outcome represents a fruitful collaboration between intellectuals, artists, technologists, and pedagogues that positions UNESCO as a platform for innovation, international cooperation, and exchange.
“Women in African History: An E-learning tool” represents a crucial step to expand and disseminate knowledge of the role of women in African history to counter prejudices and stereotypes in the framework of UNESCO’s seminal work “The Pedagogical use of The General History of Africa.” In line with UNESCO’s Gender Equality Action Plan, the Project seeks to empower women through ICTs and access to information and knowledge to promote an accurate understanding of their role in the economic, social, cultural, and political development of the Region.
A mandatory requirement for success in the execution of “The Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa” is the transformation and updating of the information initially made available in the 8 volumes of the UNESCO collection in form and content. This need for “updating” implies the use not only of new information and communication technologies now widely available and used on the African continent, but also the revision of content in light of developments within the field of historical studies. In line with the provisions of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and the Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access in Cyberspace adopted in 2003, the tool also responds to the efforts in the framework of the Memory of the World Programme to promote digital preservation across the African region. The outcome represents a fruitful collaboration between intellectuals, artists, technologists, and pedagogues that positions UNESCO as a platform for innovation, international cooperation and exchange while promoting the two global priorities of the Organization – Priority Africa and Gender Equality.
Women in African History: Comic strip on Funmilayo Ransome Kuti. CC BY SA Alaba Onajin
