Leaders Are Made, Not Born!

“Eagles don’t flock.
You have to find
them one by one.”



Leaders Are Made, Not Born!
I’ve read the obituaries of leaders, but never have I seen a birth announcement for a leader.

I can only deduce that somewhere between birth and death, by training, by choice and by strength of character, people become leaders.

And I think you’re one of them.

LEADERSHIP

There are many diverse definitions of leadership. This piece of work highlights a few common approaches, and outlines the definition of leadership underpinning Christian Leadership World. For this site, our leadership definition is defined as "enabling a group to engage together in the process of developing, sharing and moving into vision, and then living it out." We also emphasise the importance of a leader's character and integrity in building up the trust necessary for the leadership to be exercised over a period of time. For Christian Leadership, the importance of prayer must be emphasised - since God seeks to work in partnership with his people, and prayer is the primary channel of communication.
Some of the common ideas that others include in leadership definitions include exerting influence, motivating and inspiring, helping others realize their potential, leading by example, selflessness and making a difference. For perspective, we include several other common definitions
Leadership Definition: The Collins English Dictionary. ( © 1998 HarperCollins Publishers ) leadership (n) 1. The position or function of a leader. 2. the period during which a person occupies the position of leader: during her leadership very little was achieved. 3. a. the ability to lead. b. (as modifier): leadership qualities. 4. the leaders as a group of a party, union, etc.: the union leadership is now very reactionary.
This dictionary definition of leadership focuses on the position (singular or collective), tenure and ability of leaders. As such, it misses key points about the purpose and hallmarks of effective leadership.
Leadership Definition : Peter Drucker : The forward to the Drucker Foundation's "The Leader of the Future" sums up leadership : "The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers." To gain followers requires influence (see John Maxwell's definition below) but doesn't exclude the lack of integrity in achieving this. Indeed, it can be argued that several of the world's greatest leaders have lacked integrity and have adopted values that would not be shared by many people today.
Leadership Definition : John C Maxwell : In the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell sums up his definition of leadership as "leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less." This moves beyond the position defining the leader, to looking at the ability of the leader to influence others - both those who would consider themselves followers, and those outside that circle. Indirectly, it also builds in leadership character, since without maintaining integrity and trustworthiness, the capability to influence will disappear.
Leadership Definition : Warren Bennis : Warren Bennis' definition of leadership is focused much more on the individual capability of the leader : "Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential."
Leadership Definition : Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester : For the purposes of the Leadership Development Process of the Diocese of Rochester, their leadership definition is "the process of influencing the behavior of other people toward group goals in a way that fully respects their freedom." The emphasis on respecting their freedom is an important one, and one which must be the hallmark of Christian leadership. Jesus influenced many diverse people during his ministry but compelled no-one to follow Him.
Leadership Quotes
Quotes on leadership topics from national and business leaders and writers, offering food for learning and reflection.
Quotes on Leadership and Vision
"If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere." - Henry Kissinger

Quotes on Leadership Character
"Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility
unable to change." - Peter F. Drucker
"A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity." - Baltasar Gracian
"Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy." - Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
"Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing." - Albert Schweitzer
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod." - Sir Winston Churchill
"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader." - General George S. Patton Jr.
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." - John F. Kennedy
Quotes on Leadership and Management :
"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives." - Theodore Roosevelt
"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." - Stephen R. Covey
"You manage things; you lead people." - Grace Murray Hopper
For Further Exploration : Our perspective is that leadership and management are complementary. Indeed, good management requires the leadership necessary to make things happen.
Quotes on Leadership and Empowerment
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." - Ralph Nadar
"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." - Bill Gates
"The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." - Harvey S. Firestone


“MANAGERS ARE PEOPLE WHO DO THINGS RIGHT, WHILE LEADERS ARE PEOPLE WHO DO THE RIGHT THING” (WARREN BENNIS)

Activation
The employment of a nonconstraint resource for the sake of keeping busy unrelated to whether it is useful in supporting system throughput.

Affirmative action
A hiring policy that requires employers to analyze the work force for under-representation of protected classes. It involves recruiting minorities and members of protected classes, changing management attitudes or prejudices towards them, removing discriminatory employment practices, and giving preferred treatment to protected classes.

analytic workplace design
Design based on established physical and behavioral concepts, including the known working habits of people. Produces a workplace environment well within the range of human capacity and does not generally require modification or improvement.

Assessing
The process of conducting In Process Reviews (IPRs) and After Action Reviews (AARs). IPRs help to determine initial expectations, ascertain strengths and weakness of both employees and the organization, and identify key issues and organizations whose willing support is needed to accomplish the mission. AARs determine how well the goals are being accomplished, usually by identifying areas to sustain and improve.

Attributes
Characteristics or qualities or properties. Attributes of the leader fall into three categories: mental, physical, and emotional.

Authoritarian leadership
A style of leadership in which the leader tells the employees what needs to be done and how to perform it without getting their advice or ideas.

Beliefs
Assumptions and convictions that a person holds to be true regarding people, concepts, or things.

Benchmarking
The process of measuring the organization's products, services, cost, procedures, etc. against competitors or other organizations that display a "best in class" record.

Benchmark measures
A set of measurements (metrics) that is used to establish goals for performance improvements. These are often derived from other firms that display "Best In Class" performance.

Building
An activity focused on sustaining and renewing the organization. It involves actions that indicate commitment to the achievement of group or organizational goals: timely and effective discharge of operational and organizational duties and obligations; working effectively with others; compliance with and active support of organizational goals, rules, and policies.

Brainstorming
A technique for teams that is used to generate ideas on a subject. Each person on the team is asked to think creatively and write down as many ideas as possible. After the writing session, the ideas are discussed by the team.


Capacity
The capability of a worker, system, or organization to produce output per time period. It can be classified as budgeted, dedicated, demonstrated, productive, protective, rated, safety, or theoretical.

Character
The sum total of an individual's personality traits and the link between a person's values and her behavior.

Climate
The short-term phenomenon created by the current junior or senior leaders. Organizational climate is a system of the perception of people about the organization and its leaders, directly attributed to the leadership and management style of the leaders, based on the skills, knowledge and attitude and priorities of the leaders. The personality and behavior of the leaders creates a climate that influences everyone in the organization.

Communicating
Comprises the ability to express oneself effectively in individual and group situations, either orally or in writing. It involves a sender transmitting an idea to a receiver.

Conflict of interest
Any business activity, personal or company related, that interferes with the company's goals or that entails unethical or illegal actions.

Constraint
Any element or factor that prevents a person from reaching a higher lever of performance with respect to her goal.

Constraint management
The practice of managing resources and organizations in accordance with the Theory Of Constraints (TOC) principles.

Corporate culture
The set of important assumptions that members of the company share. It is a system of shared values about what is important and beliefs about how the company works. These common assumptions influence the ways the company operates.

Corrective action
The implementation of solutions resulting in the reduction or elimination of an identified problem.

Counseling
Talking with a person in a way that helps that person solve a problem or helps to create conditions that will cause the person to improve his behavior, character, or values. The providing of basic, technical, and sometimes professional assistance to employees to help them with personal and work related problems.

Courage
The virtue that enables us to conquer fear, danger, or adversity, no matter what the context happens to be (physical or moral). Courage includes the notion of taking responsibility for decisions and actions. Additionally, the idea involves the ability to perform critical self-assessment, to confront new ideas, and to change.

Culture
The long-term complex phenomenon that can be affected by strategic leaders. Culture represents the shared expectations and self-image of the organization. The mature values that create "tradition", the play out of "climate" or "the feel of the organization" over time, and the deep, unwritten code that frames "how we do things around here" contribute to the culture. Organizational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and norms that unite the members of the organization. Individual leaders cannot easily create or change culture.

Decision making
The process of reaching logical conclusions, solving problems, analyzing factual information, and taking appropriate actions based on the conclusions.

Decision matrix
A matrix used by teams to evaluate possible solutions to problems. Each solution is listed. Criteria are selected and listed on the top row to rate the possible solutions. Each possible solution is rated on a scale from 1 to 5 for each criterion and the rating recorded in the corresponding grid. The ratings of all the criteria for each possible solution are added to determine each solution's score. The scores are then used to help decide which solution deserves the most attention.

Solutions Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3
Hire new personal 3 4 4
Train the workers we have 5 4 3
Simplify the process 2 1 3

Deficiency
Failure to meet a set performance standard.

Delegative leadership
A style of leadership in which the leader entrusts decision making to an employee of a group of employees. The leader is still responsible for their decisions.

Deming's 14 points
Management philosophy to help organizations increase their quality and productivity:
1. Create constancy of purpose for improving product or service.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Stop dependency on inspection to achieve quality
4. End the practice of awarding business on price alone - minimize cost by working with a single vendor.
5. Constantly improve every process for planning, production, and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Adopt and institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between staff areas.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas and goals for the workforce and management.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride in workmanship and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
14. Put everyone in the organization to work to accomplish the transformation.

developing
The art of developing the competence and confidence of subordinate leaders through role modeling and training and development activities related to their current or future duties.

diversity
Committing to establish an environment where the full potential of all employees can be tapped by paying attention to, and taking into account their differences in work background, experience, age, gender, race, ethic origin, physical abilities, religious belief, sexual orientation, and other perceived differences.

efficiency
A measure (as a percentage) of the actual output to the standard output expected. Efficiency measures how well someone is performing relative to expectations.

empowerment
A condition whereby employees have the authority to make decisions and take action in their work areas, jobs, or tasks without prior approval. It allows the employees the responsibility normally associated with staffs. Examples are scheduling, quality, or purchasing decisions.

Environment
1. The political, strategic, or operational context within the organization. 2. The external environment is the environment outside the organization.

Esprit
The spirit, soul, and state of mind of an organization. It is the overall consciousness of the organization that a person identifies with and feels a part of.

Ethical climate
The "feel of the organization" about the activities that have ethical content or those aspects of the work environment that constitute ethical behavior. The ethical climate is the feel about whether we do things right; or the feel of whether we behave the way we ought to behave.

Evaluation
Judging the worth, quality, or significance of people, ideas, or things.

Executing
The ability to complete individual and organizational assigned tasks according to specified standards and within certain time criteria or event criteria.

Feedback
The flow of information back to the learner so that actual performance can be compared with planned performance.

Five focusing steps
In the Theory of Constraints, a process to continuously improve organizational profit by evaluating the production system and market mix to determine how to make the most profit using the system constraint. The steps consist of:
1. Identify the constraint to the system.
2. Decide how to exploit the constraint to the system.
3. Subordinate all nonconstraints to the constraint.
4. Elevate the constraint to the system
5. Return to step 1 if the constraint is broken in any previous step, while not allowing any inertia to set in.
Five why's
The practice of (Japanese) asking "why" five times when confronted with a problem. By the time the fifth why is answered, they believe they have found the ultimate cause of the problem.



Flexibility
The ability of a system to respond quickly, in terms of range and time, to external or internal changes.

flextime
An arrangement in which employees are allowed to choose work hours as long as the standard number of work hours are met. Also, some flextime systems require that the hours fall within a certain range, e.g. 5:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M.

follow-up
Monitoring of job, task, or project progress to see that operations are performed on schedule.

honor
A state of being or state of character, that people possess by living up to the complex set of all the values that make up the public moral code. Honor includes: integrity, courage, loyalty, respect, selfless-service, and duty. Honor demands adherence to a public moral code, not protection of a reputation.

hoshin planning
A Japanese strategic panning process in which a company develops up to four vision statements that indicate where the company should be in the next five years. Goals and plans are developed based on the vision statements. Audits are conducted periodically to monitor progress.

human nature
The common qualities of all human beings.

improving
A focus on sustaining and renewing the development of individuals and the organization (with a time horizon from months to decades) that requires a need for experimentation and innovation with results that are difficult to quantify. Usually it entails long-term, complex outcomes.

influencing
The key feature of leadership, performed through communicating, decision making, and motivating.

integrity
A moral virtue that encompasses the sum total of a person's set of values and moral code. A breach of any of these values will damage the integrity of the individual. Integrity, comes from the same Latin root (integritas) as the word "integer," refers to a notion of completeness, wholeness, and uniqueness. Integrity also entails the consistent adherence of action to one's personal moral beliefs.

job enlargement
An increase in the number of tasks that an employee performs. It is associated with the design of jobs to reduce employee dissatisfaction.

job enrichment
An increase in the number of tasks that an employee performs and an increase in the control over those tasks. It is associated with the design of jobs and is an extension of job enlargement.

kaizen
The Japanese term for improvement. It involves both workers and managers.

leadership
The process of influencing people while operating to meet organizational requirements and improving the organization through change.

learning
An essential shift or progress of the mind where recreation is evident and enjoins activities such as re-engineering, envisioning, changing, adapting, moving into, and creating the future.

Learning curve
A curve reflecting the rate of improvement in performing a new task as a learner practices and uses her newly acquired skills.

Loyalty
The intangible bond based on a legitimate obligation; it entails the correct ordering of our obligations and commitments. Loyalty demands commitment to the organization and is a precondition for trust, cooperation, teamwork, and camaraderie..

Management by objectives (MBO)
A participative goal-setting process that enables the manager or supervisor to construct and communicate the goals of the department to each subordinate. At the same time, the subordinate is able to formulate personal goals and influence the department's goals.

Model
(1) A person that serves as a target subject for a learner to emulate. (2) A representation of a process or system that show the most important variables in the system in such a way that analysis of the model leads to insights into the system.

Morale
The mental, emotional, and spiritual state of an individual.

motivating
Using an individuals wants and needs to influence how the person thinks and what does. Motivating embodies using appropriate incentives and methods in reinforcing individuals or groups as they effectively work toward task accomplishment and resolution of conflicts / disagreements. Coupled with influence, motivating actively involves empowering junior leaders and workers to achieve organizational goals and properly rewarding their efforts as they achieve the goals.

Motivation
The combination of a person's desire and energy directed at achieving a goal. It is the cause of action.

Operating
A focus on action to meet the immediate situation (with a time horizon from minutes to months) that requires standard procedures and structures with an expectation of prompt, measurable results. Usually it has a relatively clear linkage between cause and effect and contains much hard data often conveniently available for decision making.

Operating efficiency
A ratio (percentage) of the actual output of a department as compared to the desired or planned output.

Optimization
Achieving the best possible solution to a problem in terms of a specified objective function.

Participative leadership
A style of leadership in which the leader involves one or more employees in determining what to do and how to do it. The leader maintains final decision making authority.

Performance efficiency
A ratio (percentage) of the actual output of a person as compared to the desired or planned output.

Performance rating
Observation of a person's performance to rate productivity in terms of the performance standard

Performance standard
A criterion or benchmark against which actual performance is measured.

Planning
A course of action for oneself and others to accomplish goals; establishing priorities and planning appropriate allocation of time and resources and proper assignment of people to achieve feasible, acceptable, and suitable goals.

Plan-do-check-action (PDCA)
Sometimes referred to as the Shewhart Cycle, for the inventor - Walter A. Shewhart. A four step process for quality improvement:
Plan - A plan to effect improvement is developed.
Do - The plan is carried out, first, on a small scale if possible.
Check - The effects of the plan are observed.
Action - The results are studied and observed to determine what was learned and what can be predicted.

Process improvement
Activities designed to identify and eliminate causes of poor quality, process variation, and non-value added activities.

Productivity
An overall measure of the ability to produce a product or service. It is the actual output of production compared to the actual input of resources.

Program
A significant long-term activity, as opposed to a project. Normally defined as a line item in the organization's budget.

Project
An endeavor with a specific objective to be met within a prescribed time and dollar limitation.

quality
Conformance to the requirements of a stated product or service attribute.

respect
The regard and recognition of the absolute dignity that every human being possesses. Respect is treating people as they should be treated. Specifically, respect is indicative of compassion and consideration of others, which includes a sensitivity to and regard for the feelings and needs of others and an awareness of the effect of one's own behavior on them. Respect also involves the notion of treating people justly.

Selfless service
the proper ordering of priorities. Think of it as service before self. The welfare of the organization come before the individual. This does not mean that the individual neglects to take care of family or self. Also, it does not preclude the leader from having a healthy ego or self esteem, nor does it preclude the leader from having a healthy sense of ambition. It does, however, preclude selfish careerism.

Self-directed work team
A small independent, self-organized, and self-controlling group in which members plan, organize, determine, and manage their duties and actions, as well as perform many other supportive functions.

Seven tools of quality
Tools that help an organization understand its processes in order to improve them:
cause and effect diagram (Ishikawa diagram) - A tool developed by Kaoru Ishikawa for analyzing process dispersion. It illustrates the main causes and subcauses leading to an effect or symptom. It is sometimes referred to as a fishbone chart because it resembles a fish skeleton
check sheet - A data recording tool designed by the user to facilitate the interpretation of results.
control chart - A graphic comparison of actual performance with precomputed control limits. The performance data consists of groups of measurements selected in sequence of production that preserves the order. It is used to detect assignable causes of variation in a process as opposed to random variation.
flowchart - A type of planning and control chart designed to show graphically the relationship between planned performance and actual performance over time. It was named after its originator, Henry L. Gantt. It follows job progress, where one horizontal line represents the time schedule and another adjacent line represents the actual performance of the project.
histogram - A graph of contiguous vertical bars representing a frequency distribution in which the groups of items are marked on the x axis and the number of items in each class is indicated on the y axis. The pictorial nature allows people to see patterns that are difficult to see in a table of numbers.
Pareto chart - A graphical tool for ranking causes from most significant to least significant. It is based on the Pareto principle which states that a small percentage of a group accounts for the largest fraction of the impact, value, etc. That is 80% of the effects come from 20% of the possible causes.
scatter chart - A graphical technique used to analyze the relationship between two variables. Two sets of data are plotted on a graph, with the y axis used for the variable to be predicted, and the x axis used for the variable to make the prediction.


Skills (competencies)
Those abilities that people develop and use with people, with ideas, and with things, hence, the division of interpersonal, cognitive, and technical skills.

Standard
An established norm against which measurements are compared. The time allowed to perform a task including the quality and quantity of work to be produced.

Standard time
The length of time that should be required to perform a task through one complete cycle. It assumes an average worker follows prescribed procedures and allows time for rest to overcome fatigue.

Stress
The real or perceived demand on the mind, emotions, spirit, or body. Too much stress puts an undo amount of pressure upon us and drives us into a state of tension. Controlled stress is good as it is what motivates us.


Supervising
The ability to establish procedures for monitoring and regulating processes, tasks, or activities of employees and one's own job, taking actions to monitor the results of delegated tasks or projects.

Theory of constraints (TOC)
A management philosophy developed by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt that is broken down into three interrelated areas - logistics, performance measurement, and logical thinking. Logistics include drum-buffer-rope scheduling, buffer management, and VAT analysis. Performance measurement includes throughput, inventory and operating expense, and the five focusing steps. Logical thinking includes identifying the root problem (current reality tree), identifying and expanding win-win solutions (evaporating cloud and future reality tree), and developing implementation plans (prerequisite tree and transition tree).

Total employee involvement
An empowerment technique where employees participate in actions and decision making that were traditionally reserved for management.

Total quality management (TQM)
Describes Japanese style management approaches to quality improvement. It includes the long term success of the organization through customer satisfaction and is based on participation of all members of the organization in improving process, products, service, culture, etc.

Trait
A distinguishing quality or characteristic of a person. For a trait to be developed in a person, that person must first believe in and value that trait.

Values
Ideas about the worth or importance of things, concepts, and people.


What-if-analysis
The process of evaluating alternate strategies by answering the consequences of changes to the way a job, task, etc. is changed.

Worker efficiency
A measure (usually computed as a percentage) of worker performance that compares the standard time allowed to complete a task to the actual worker time to complete it.

Work sample
The use of number of random samples to determine the frequency with which certain activities are performed.
BY HERBERT MWESIGYE (mwesigyes@yahoo.co.uk) (MA LHS 2004/2006 MUK)

THE IMPACT OF COMPUTER UTILIZATION IN BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS

Among the electronic devices, we have radios, televisions, computers, typewriters, and mobile phones to mention but a few. In the first place, a computer is an electronic device, which accepts or receives, stores, processes data for output information. A computer has been preferred to other electronic devices because of its speed, efficiency, being adaptable and flexible.

One of the reasons why a computer has made greater impact on the society is its wider use in the business environment. Very many businesses have realised the benefits of computers. For instance, in most money markets (stock exchange) you only need to sit in front of your computer, whether in your office or at home and trade shares with various centres worldwide without going to those particular centres physically. Today E commerce has been more visible to computers.

Recent advancement in scientific research have been possible mainly to the use of computers for example new drugs have been introduced for example ARV’S; exploration into space is possible and in places where human beings cannot survive; machines equipped with various computers are sent into space and data transmitted back to. Earth

In addition to the above, architectural construction has greatly improved through the use of computers. Its possible to have a look to a house you are planning to build both on the outside and inside, furnish and paint it all manipulated on a computer top. This enables one to furnish his according to his taste.

Computers have a great impact on society in the field of advertising. Many companies prefer to advertise on the Internet than to use other electronic devices like television, radios mobiles and many other electronic devices. This extensive and persuasive advertising of companies and their products on the computer Internet has a great impact on widening of the market that greatly leads to development of the advertising companies.


With the development of computers, the Internet has emerged. Today, one can purchase goods using Internet technology(e-business), which eases commerce and business in general if it comes to electronic procurement. This reduces on the costs involved in acquiring the goods or services and saves time leading to increased profits of the purchasing individuals.


Computers can do near to impossible jobs. They can be used to perform tasks which can be impossible without them for example welding delicate parts, working in radio active environments, handling airtime reservations, weather forecasts to enable farmers to plan properly.


Another reason why a computer has made greater impact on society is that, it can store huge amounts of data in very small space and stored information is also very easy to organise, manipulate and retrieve as compared to other electronic devices and which eases commerce.


Compared to other electronic devices computers are greatly preferred for their speed; they are extremely fast. They may carry out millions of calculations per second, which eases the work of accountants and auditors.This has stimulated the business environment today.

Computers are known to be so accurate that they hardly make any mistakes if correctly used. In fact they are capable of detecting and correcting any mistakes made, hence if a computer is given the right information it will always produce the right output. This introduces the computer jargon garbage in garbage out. Its for this reason therefore that accountants prefer to use a computer compared to any other electronic device , hence its greater impact on society.

Computers are artificially intelligent. They can respond to requests given to them and provide solutions. This is accomplished by the power of the programmes installed in them. Evidence of this is given in industrial robotics.


Due to wide spread of computer technology, there has been increased efficiency in communication to business sectors for example in banks like Stanbic which connects with its other branches using computer technology. This reduces costs of movement and saves time.



On the other hand, computers have a negative impact on society in a way that;

They bring about unemployment for example in super markets a computer only does a job that can be done by more than two persons. This discourages investment and savings to some people who are not exposed to computer technology


Computer technology has induced a lot of pornography to the society where most people are more attracted to leisure and neglect work where most of the time is spent on watching pornography on computers, which has limited creativity in the business environment.


Compared to other electronic devices, computers are very expensive in terms of purchasing, setting up trained personnel compared to other electronic devices.


Computers get outdated/ depreciated and its costs of proper maintenance are high. In addition, very few people are equipped with skills of preparing computers compared to other electronic devices.


Failure problems may arise when computers cannot be used in case they are damaged. This can bring an organisation to a halt if no back-ups exist. This greatly leads to collapse of business.


Through computers, organisational information is being misused or abused. Information of one organisation can easily be exposed to another especially in perfect competing organisations where the reaction may be negative.The issue of hacking makes the use of computers unreliable.


Computers react negatively on human health where by some diseases like eye defects, laziness, which may develop into pressure because of lack of exercises and it,



Can affect the business as some workers (experts) may be meant to leave jobs.


In some instances a computer may create errors in case it gets a virus, which may give wrong results to people like accountants.


In conclusion therefore, its true that computers have had a greater impact on society compared to the other mentioned electronic devices much as where there is good there is bad to some extent.




NOTES

An introduction to information Technology Second Edition by E.S. Waburoko

Raph Stair, Computers in Today’s world, Irwing publishers (1996)

Kigongo-Bukenya, I.M.N. (2000) “Safeguarding the Information Professional and the
User: the case for regulation in the library and information profession in Uganda”. IN:
Proceedings of the 1st Annual Library and Information Science Conference for Uganda,
8-10 November, Kampala. Kampala, Uganda Library Association.
Magara, E. (2000). “Library and Information Science Professional Organization in
Uganda: The Future Perspective”. IN: Proceedings of the 1st Annual Library and
Information Science Conference for Uganda, 8-10 November, Kampala. Kampala,
Uganda Library Association.
Nassanga, G. (1994): The Role of the Media in Creating Images of Women: A Survey of Women's Portrayal in the Uganda Mass Media". Kampala: Uganda Media Women's Association.
Nassanga, G. (2002): Improving Information Delivery Systems Targeting Women through Development Communication. Ph.D. Thesis, Makerere University.
Nalubega, R. (2001): A study of research information utilization in the Ministry of health in Uganda. Masters. Thesis, Makerere University.

Noela, J. (2004): Role of ICTS for the performance of SMES in Tanzania: a survey of enterprises in Dar es Salaam city. MBA (Marketing) 2004 University of Dar es Salaam, Faculty of Commerce and Management.
Museveni, Y.K (2006): National Resistance Movement (NRM) Election Manifesto 2006, Kampala, Uganda.
Omona, W. (2001): The impact of information and communication technology (ICT) in accessing and disseminating health information in selected Health Institutions in Kampala District, Research report Makerere University Main library.

Supporting Women's Use of Information Technologies for Sustainable Development

1. Introduction
The central question of this study concerns African women's use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This includes issues of access, the benefits African women experience and can expect to experience from ICTs, and the role they can and do play in the production and dissemination of information.
The study is organised into three sections. The first four headings look at the situation of African women vis a vis their social, technological and information contexts. The second section looks at barriers to women's full use of ICTs, and strategies for overcoming those barriers. This section is based on examples of women's experiences and activities. The final section contains guidelines and recommendations for future projects and research to facilitate women's participation in the information society.
2. Women in African Society
In assessing and promoting women's access to and use of ICTs in Africa, it is important to understand the gendered nature of the social, economic, policy and technology systems which frame opportunities for women. Women's needs for information are also structured according to their gendered roles and responsibilities, which in turn influence their use of and response to ICTs.
Women's place in African society is markedly distinct from that of men in almost all parts of life. Views of women's capability, purpose and needs are strongly held, defining the boundaries of what women expect of themselves and what they are expected by the rest of society to achieve. Their purpose is generally defined to consist of marriage, reproduction and domestic" duties. Further, in many parts of Africa, women move away from their families upon marriage while men stay at home with their wives and continue to contribute to the family economy. Boys and men are therefore more highly valued, and more investment is made in their education, health, and future income-earning potential. It is likely that more investment is made emotionally in the boys as well, leading to a lesser sense of self worth on the part of girls. As a result, girls and women take on second-class status in the home, developing fewer skills used outside the home, setting more limited goals for themselves, and gaining less access to education and health care. For this reason, a strongly articulated issue for African women is the need to change traditional attitudes, and for women to recognise within themselves the capability of transcending the limits socially ascribed to them.
The colonialist and post-colonialist focus on the cash economy marginalises women, whose triples roles in reproduction, subsistence production and community management are not valued quantitatively or economically. Despite the critical importance of women's contributions to the African economy, women's work as a result is not visible" or recognised. Unmarried women who earn income generally turn it over to male members of the family. As a result, women are generally poorer than their brothers and husbands, and those who lead households without male heads are the poorest of all up to 1/3 of households in developing countries.
Rural women in Africa are predominantly illiterate, being taken out of school at an early age to save school fees, to marry, to ease their mother's workload or because of pregnancy which often occurs at an early age. In Guinea-Bissau, for example, 76% of women are illiterate. Those who continue in school tend to follow traditional or socially accepted streams for women which are non-scientific and non-technological, since science, technology and maths are generally considered incompatible with their reproductive and domestic sphere of their responsibilities and therefore inappropriate for women.
The effects of lower paid, lower skilled employment opportunities, lack of recognition of the triple roles of women, less autonomy and lower status in the household are exacerbated by the increasing hardships of environmental degradation and the cutting of social services by structural adjustment programs. As a result women's time is a critical resource in short supply. Any systems or activities meant to improve their lives and increase their empowerment must be perceived by women to save time or increase their efficiency rather than add to the already overly long list of activities in a day. The daily schedule for these activities must also be flexible, in view of the strategies women use to accomplish their tasks. These include multitasking, cooperation with networks of women, and the breaking up of tasks into smaller discrete units.
The representation of women's concerns in national, regional and international policy is low, in Africa as elsewhere. Women are poorly represented in policy making bodies at all levels and in most sectors of African society. National governments' records of implementation of gender equity in national policies are generally poor; while governments have failed to follow up on many of the policies they signed on to in international conventions and treaties. Work to address these issues by women's NGOs and other advocacy groups is impeded by lack of communication between various levels and among different sectors of governments.
3. Meeting Women's Information Needs
The importance of information and of technologies to transmit and disseminate information for development in Africa is well recognised. However, the issues discussed above should make clear that access for women to ICTs cannot be assumed to "naturally" occur when non gender- differentiated approaches and technologies are implemented. In fact, as noted by the IDRC Gender and Information Working Group, most of the positive effects of the 'information revolution' have bypassed women." There has been little research done on women's information needs and access to appropriate information in developing countries. While this is changing, the 'information highway' is still predominantly male-oriented, and often a forum for gender discrimination, intimidation and even harassment. The profound, gendered implications of ICTs for both men and women in employment, education, training, and other productive and personal development areas of life mean that women need encouragement and support to take their place in the information revolution. For example, the concentration of women in clerical ICT work does not translate farther up the ICT hierarchies. What will the need for increased technical and operational skill levels mean for women's employment in ICTs in the future? Studies show that men continue to crowd out women's access to the training required for higher skilled work. On the other hand, women in Africa are engaging in formal and informal entrepreneurial activities on a large scale: There is no doubt that women are the main economic force in developing countries." As economies become more and more information-driven, the issues of women's access to inproduce and disseminate it will be increasingly important to Africa overall.
The field of information and communication constitutes an increasingly significant element of science and technology (S&T), and will increasingly influence the content and mechanisms in developing countries for education in S&T, communications, and influence the creation of communities for learning, interaction and participation in community, national and international life.
As identified by the IDRC Gender and Information Group, the critical information issues for women are
1. type of information - what kind, access to it, and gender-consciousness
2. information technology process - availability of technologies to women, their ease of use, policy processes around these, and the effects on women. Active involvement of women in the identification and definition of their information needs, and in the choice of mechanisms and processes to meet these needs is critical for their productive participation in production and dissemination of information as well as definition of and access to the information they need.
Viewed in this light, access to information can be seen as a central empowerment issue. Control over the kinds of information they need and produce – communications – is a fundamental aspect of empowerment for women, as is the ability to organise and mobilise for their concerns.
3.1 International policy statements
Equitable access to ICT technology and the autonomy to receive and produce the information relevant to their concerns and perspectives are therefore critical issues for women. Recent important international policy documents have recognised the gender implications of the new technologies. The Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women states that:
Women should be empowered by enhancing their skills, knowledge and access to information technology. This will strengthen their ability to combat negative portrayals of women internationally and to challenge instances of abuse of power of an increasingly important industry...Women therefore need to be involved in decision making regarding the development of the new technologies in order to participate fully in their growth and impact.
The Platform calls for increased access and participation of women to expression and decision making in the media and ICTs, in order to overcome negative portrayals and stereotypes of women in media and communications, and to encourage the presentation of balanced, non- stereotyped and diverse images of women.
Despite the conception that women engage in solely domestic activities which require a lower level of skill and innovation, NGOs and policy bodies are beginning to recognise and highlight the knowledge, innovation and abilities possessed by women.
The recent Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Africa Strategy Meeting in Johannesburg identified four priority theme areas: supporting electronic networks, promoting strategic use of information and communication technologies among partner communities, developing information content and tools, lobbying and advocacy. While its recommendations do not focus solely on women, the importance of supporting women's participation in these areas is clearly stated as an important issue for the "Africa Information Society."
The Report of the Gender Working Group of the UN Commission on S&T for Development, which was unanimously ratified by the Commission, highlighted the gender dimension of S&T development planning and implementation; and emphasised the centrality of women's technological activities, as practised in subsistence agriculture, natural resource management, health care, and entrepreneurial activities, to sustainable and equitable development.
The Gender Working Group Report further recognises the importance of women's participation and control over ICTs for their work in the formal sector and in improving business efficiency of women in the informal sector.
3.2 Women are important contributors to knowledge for development
Women's needs with respect to ICTs, then, do not concern only access to education and training that will support their participation, but the social and policy acknowledgement that what women already do is technology, appropriate and worthy of recognition, and, further, an important resource for development.
Support of women's existing technology activities, recognition of their role as possessors of most of the indigenous knowledge in developing countries, and support of their potential for contributions to S&T are critical to community development. Reasons for this include the benefits of taking advantage of a valuable resource for development, equity and recognition of the rights of women to equal access to personal and professional development, and benefitting from the skills and innovation that emerge from women's perspectives and responsibilities. Surveys of women innovators in Kenya and the Philippines show that women's inventions tend to have direct application to improving family and community wellbeing or increasing efficiency. Examples include a power tiller built to women's physical specifications and their agricultural practices, an improved cloth diaper, improved diagnostic kit for leishmaniasis, and a fireless cooker.
It becomes clear that an important task for the new information technologies is not only to allow women to gain information but to disseminate the information they already possess and generate.
3.3 Empowering women through ICTs
Communications technologies are important for the distribution of alternate, balanced and equitable portrayals of women and their potential. They are also important for facilitating analysis of women's situation and developing active strategies to improve that situation. Karen Banks of GreenNet makes the point that women's ICT activities take on a dynamic of their own...that is, the activity is more of a movement, gathering momentum supported by a network of peers utilising ICTs for communication, coordination and information and experience sharing." They help women to develop confidence and experience in expressing their viewpoints publicly by allowing space for experimentation and enabling them to find allies across communities, nations and regions. Two examples illustrate this: a woman in South Africa, recently working on a campaign for women's reproductive and health rights, posted a message to the APC africa.women mailing list concerning campaigns and information from other African countries. Women from two other African countries responded with information on precedent legislation which could help the advocacy campaign in South Africa. In another case, a Senegalese woman, unable to find data locally on the number of women Ministers in African governments, contacted the international APC women's network through its mailing list. A woman in Geneva with access to UN agency information was able to fax relevant information to Senegal, so that her colleague was able to use this information to support advocacy concerning women's participation in African governments.
Other advantages of ICTs for women include the much lower cost of publication, once the initial financial investment is made, which encourages women to articulate their views publicly. The new kind of communication space which ICTs introduce is decentralised, de- hierarchicalised and allows the instantaneous 'registration' of many voices and viewpoints. The result can be a hybridised, genuinely integrated product, with possibilities for new kinds of discussion. ICTs are allowing the development of alternative modes of communicating and acting which go beyond rhetoric into the exploration of new models for action.
The explosion of electronic communication among women around the world in the run-up to the Beijing conference is an example of the use of ICTs by women as a tool for information dissemination, communication and organisation. World Wide Web sites set up to disseminate information on the Conference saw 158,722 requests for information before the conference alone. Email distribution took place through listservs (Beijing-95 and Beijing-Conf), electronic conferences set up by the Association for Progressive Communication (APC), and the International Women's Tribune Centre newsletter, Globalnet. These fora encouraged communication and information-sharing among hundreds of thousands of women around the world. A notable example of the role of ICTs in facilitating women's global lobbying occurred as a response to attempts by the Chinese organisers to restrict and control the access of NGO Forum participants to the official governmental conference; and to restrict the entry of certain groups into China. The power of the immediate global response of women to these and other restrictions was acknowledged by the Secretary-General of the UN, who agreed to oversee negotiations with the Chinese hosts on the concerns expressed by women about the Conference organisation. In addition the organisers agreed not only to back down on some of their more restrictive policies but also to facilitate communication between the NGO Forum and the Government conference.
Aside from strengthening women's voice, ICTs can benefit women in other ways. They can facilitate participation among women in different sectors and in different regions. They can provide the information that women need to improve their own wellbeing and that of their families, and to more efficiently fulfil their triple roles. The introduction of computers into offices has improved the quality of worklife for women in clerical and administrative occupations. ICTs allow the exchange of views, opinions and news that might not be possible in other media under government censorship and control. They have also been used to protect unpopular leaders in authoritarian countries: through publication of their ideas, up-to-the- minute status reports, they provide a vehicle for international expressions of concern and demonstrate to authoritarian governments that their actions are visible to the world. For example, during apartheid, the reporters of Africa Information Afrique (AIA) in South Africa (many of whom were women) used modems and computers to transmit news reports out of the country.
4. Barriers for Women in Africa to the Full Use of ICTs
The barriers to ICT use and access are many in Africa, and well documented. The cost of internet access at all levels makes it inaccessible for the majority of the African population. Computers and modems are imported from industrialised countries with accompanying increases in transportation and duties as well as disadvantageous exchange rates. The cost of online access is prohibitively expensive for most. Further, telephone lines are generally undependable, while the electricity supply can be erratic. Several women's groups in francophone Africa, for example, have had their modems shorted by electrical surges during thunderstorms. Other problems include lack of access to training, lack of technical information, lack of computer parts and repair, high rates of technological obsolescence and lack of human skills and know-how. As well, language is a barrier, especially in francophone Africa, since most training packages, software, and electronic conferences and journals are in English.
According to workshop participants at a recent APC Africa Strategy Meeting, key issues for ICT development in Africa are:
o Relevant African information ("content") needs to be produced, managed and delivered appropriately within Africa. The raw information heritage is too valuable to be trusted to others. Almost no resources are directed to this need.
o Telephone and other communication infrastructure beyond the cities remains under-funded - a problem that liberalization cannot solve. Private investment in de-regulated markets has so far generally concentrated in the major cities.
o The little international investment that there is in technical training and capacity building - a critical need, especially to bring more women into networking - too often neglects the particular needs of Africa.
Additionally, cultural attitudes and problems pose challenges for the non-hardware aspects of technology implementation. These include lack of experience in incorporating electronic networks into inter-organisational communication and the tendency to locate communications technologies in Director's or Deputy Director's offices.
These barriers to ICT use are exacerbated for women as a result of their lower economic and social status, their lack of training and literacy, their concentration in lower-level and entry- level employment, their lack of autonomy, and their lack of time:
The economic hardships in our countries make it impossible for women, who have to pay school fees for children and to cater for other basic needs, to save money to buy computer hardware, for example. That is why after attending computer courses, if one does not have a computer in the office to practice, then one will lapse back into illiteracy because she cannot afford to buy a computer for herself...many men are already computer literate because they have more time to themselves, access to ICTs and a supportive environment for them to acquire whatever new skill comes up.
Women professionals also experience difficulties. A woman lawyer in Uganda recognises the importance of international internet connectivity for information, support and advocacy, but has not been able to afford or obtain a separate phone line. To use e-mail, she drives 20 kilometres to the University library, presents a copy of the information to be sent either in manuscript or diskette, and pays one U.S. dollar per page to send a message and 50 cents U.S. per page to receive a message. She has to wait two days to pick up replies, but most e-mails she sends never arrive at their destinations, because the addresses are keyed in by the library personnel, who, she reports, "tend to make mistakes" in keying in the addresses.
The general and widespread decreased access to education and training experienced by African women has several ramifications for their use of ICTs:
o High rates of illiteracy among African women are the first obstacle to ICT use.
o Language issues are intensified for women, with less time, money and access for learning English - the dominant language of ICTs – or for translation of existing information and training documents into French or local languages.
o Women have less access to basic computer literacy courses, let alone advanced computer training.
As referred to in many of the examples above, women's time is at a premium. A survey undertaken by the APC found that barriers to ICT use include the issues of information overload and the time consumed in searching for useful, practical information. One respondent commented that in some ways the Internet is a tool for those with lives of leisure."
Social influences on women's relationship to technology also affect women's attitudes toward ICTs. The tendency to direct women into non-technological professions and responsibilities means that women feel "fear and embarrassment" when dealing with ICTs. A study in Nigeria revealed that women considered the word "technology" to have male connotations, even though "information" seemed more feminine. Some even believed that working with ICTs would drive women mad. These examples indicate a high level of discomfort with new information technologies.
Women generally are not involved in ICT-based professions in either the North or South, although this is starting to change slowly. When they are employed in this sector, it tends to be in the low-paying and less prestigious positions. Strong hierarchicalisation in institutions and industry mean that because of their lower position, women do not gain access to the computer equipment even if they have more computer ability and need for it. A common complaint at a workshop on 'Women and the Internet" at the NGO Forum in Beijing was that computers and modems tend to go to the (male) Director's office where they remain unused, instead of to the (female) receptionist or secretary who is willing and able to use the computer for communications and document production (personal observation).
Compartmentalisation of departments can cause different problems: a researcher at a research institute in Dakar does not have actual email access, even though the University has an account. The reason: there is one account for the entire Institute, which is placed in the computer centre. To send and retrieve messages, the researcher has to physically bring a copy of the message on paper to the centre, and hand it over to the male technician for transmission. Similarly with reception of messages. Therefore convenience of transmission is lost, as is privacy. There can also be substantial time lags between transmission and reception. Other institutional problems include lack of knowledge of available computer facilities and lack of training. These obstacles are exacerbated for women by the fact that they tend to be clustered in junior, part-time, and temporary positions, thus finding themselves at the bottom of the technological ladder.
In the NGO sector, women's organisations tend to be information-poor in general in addition to a lack of familiarity with ICTs, lack of training, lack of reliable telephone lines and lack of funds. Focus by NGOs on "on the ground" development efforts can lead to a mistrust of ICTs or the perception that they are not appropriate for developing countries. This is especially true for those NGOs dealing with the poorest, where a focus on basic needs and conditions of a minimum quality of life can take priority over "luxuries." Again, since women make up the majority of the poorest, their focus on the necessities will mitigate against their acceptance, or even awareness, of ICTs.
For those women's NGOs who do take advantage of information gained through ICTs, or who have access to ICTs, use can be sporadic or partial. Many groups which gained online access as a result of plugging in to the Beijing process lost interest after the Conference ended. This was due to lack of recognition of the potential uses and to technical difficulties. (Scarcity of technical service providers allows them to charge higher rates; this tends to disadvantage women's groups.) Other groups which do maintain their online use may play only a passive role in receiving information, not attempting to produce or circulate their own contributions to virtual discussion. The lack of networking and information exchange among women of different sectors within Africa, i.e. among secretaries, activists and researchers, sets up further barriers for the best use and circulation of information for women's empowerment.
Other barriers to access for women emerge for those who do not have professional access to ICTs, and lack of encouragement for use of ICTs by women's NGOs on the part of parent organisations.
5. Overcoming Barriers: Women Take Hold of ICTs
From a preliminary survey of African women's groups, ICT professionals, African APC networks and the World Wide Web, it is apparent that African women are just beginning to use ICTs; they are still in a tiny minority of ICT users. The evidence that women are using ICTs for their development concerns is scarce. That being said, it is also apparent that many innovative and exciting projects are being initiated or are in the planning stages.
At the same time, it is important to ensure that women's participation in ICTs be appropriate to their situation, perspectives and concerns. They should be supported in creating: their own technological processes and abilities; virtual spaces free of harassment and supportive of non- traditional views of women's abilities; and content that supports their concerns and allows them to fulfil their productive, reproductive and community management roles more efficiently and effectively. The following examples of African women's use of ICTs indicates a strong potential for the innovative use of new technologies to support these goals. Attempts to support and encourage women's participation in ICTs should learn from and build on the examples of these pioneering efforts.
5.1 Overcoming illiteracy
As discussed above, a fundamental barrier to women's use of ICTs in developing countries is illiteracy. This is true for Africa. The danger in such a situation is that ICTs will widen and deepen the gap between the haves and have-nots as economies become more and more information-based. However, two different approaches to this issue illustrate that ICTs can in fact help to overcome illiteracy. The Center for Communications and Women's Self- Employment, in Quakchott, Mauritania, like many successful literacy projects, ties literacy training to a package of skills and services provided to support women's entrepreneurial activities. The Center provides classes aimed at self-employment, such as sewing, cleaning and drying of fish, rug weaving and reading lessons. The reading lessons are intended to allow women to more efficiently manage their day-to-day entrepreneurial activities, but also pertain to the recognition that "for women, the biggest problem is information." For this reason, lessons in computer technology and typing are also offered. A similar approach was taken by the Community of Living Water in South Africa who worked with the "Masizakhe" group of women in Kayamandi, South Africa. The purpose of the project was to support women's organic gardening activities. ICTs were used in two ways: to deliver information on organic gardening techniques and resources, and to teach English language skills via CD-ROM. Two web sites in particular were used by the group, one at Ohio University, and the Life magazine Gardening Encyclopedia. Reading skills, initially developed by use of CD-ROMs, were supplemented by adult education information found over the Internet. This use in fact sparked a community initiative to donate used clothing to finance the women's enrollment in additional adult education courses available on the local network, SANGOnet.
5.2 Facilitating education and training for women and girls
Two separate ICT initiatives are currently developing to facilitate access to higher levels of education and ICT technical training. They provide examples of how ICTs can facilitate education and training for women in different sectors. The program "Synergie Genre et Developpement" (SYNFEV) at ENDA in Dakar, runs a "Communication for Women" programme with support from the APC network GreenNet. The Communication for Women program emerged from the pre-Beijing process, as SYNFEV began to download, translate and distribute conference information to its local and regional partners and networks. (see Case Study 1). Its post-Beijing strategy is to build on the momentum of the Beijing process to continue electronic networking in francophone Africa around women's health and rights issues. SYNFEV coordinated a workshop for an initial group of 15 NGO representatives from different francophone Africa countries as the initial catalyst group. This workshop provided to participants:
o training in the use of FIDO networks
o technical support and training from the ENDA system administrator and a female technician from GreenNet
o modems for the 12 non-Senegalese participants, provided by CABECA/PADIS and GreenNet
o support for the workshop costs from an external donor.
Each participant left the workshop with a modem, installation and configuration disks, and addresses for local internet/network access. An electronic conference was also set up, on "Rights and health for francophone Africa women", "femmes.afrique", on GreenNet and moderated by SYNFEV.
A second initiative, the "African Women Global Network" (AWOGnet) is currently being set up at Ohio State University by an African woman based at the university, to support the needs and concerns of women and children in Africa. The intent is to link up various organisations and institutions "whose activities are directed towards improving the standards of living for African women and children, especially those within the Continent of Africa." The major focus of AWOGnet will concern better educational infrastructure and support, although it is recognised that this goal is interconnected with issues and activities to natural resource management, agricultural development, refugee and orphanage services, and other socio- cultural issues. The key activity will be the designing and implementing of technical and other support services, including distance education for students and teachers in Africa which is especially targeted to women and children, and which will contribute to increasing Internet connectivity in African countries. While still in the early stages, and in danger of having objectives that are too broadly defined, this project is worth watching for its potential contribution to the education of African women at various levels and in various sectors.
The potential of CD-ROMs as an education medium is yet to be explored on a general scale, although it cannot be addressed outside the context of technology provision, servicing and training. The experience of the project for African Research Libraries of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which has been working with African researchers and senior administrators on the use of CD-ROM and other technologies for information delivery and access in sub-Saharan Africa, could be relevant here, although its work has been mainly with universities and other institutions. The use of CD-ROMs at the local level has not yet been widely attempted, but according to some represents the best opportunity for the widespread education of girls and women.
5.3 Supporting women's entrepreneurial activities
The support of women's entrepreneurial activities is an important ICT benefit for African women which has not yet been realised. A recent needs assessment survey conducted by GreenNet, sent to over 200 women's groups in Africa, found that there was strong interest in the potential of ICT to increase women's income generation. This relates both to women's entrepreneurial activities and to increased levels of skills with concomitant increased opportunities for more highly-paid employment. Timely information on policies, production methods, and support as well as advertising and marketing, can make important contributions to the success of enterprises. This has not yet been fully explored in the context of African women's business information needs. A Gender, Science and Development Programme/UNIFEM conference held at the University Harare, Zimbabwe on "Engendering International Trade: Women in the PTA Region" highlighted the difficulty for women entrepreneurs in Southern Africa to get the information they need. Workshop participants emphasised the importance of access to information on trade policies at national, regional, and international levels, and called for increased access to computerised databases, improved communications and information dissemination among women entrepreneurs, and advertising of the information resources available to them. In addition, the Internet and WorldWide Web present an important opportunity for national and international marketing and advertising. Women's groups in Africa have used ICTs to facilitate fair trade" with international partners. An increasing number of groups in the North which are importing Southern goods for distribution present their product information on the Web; this also presents opportunities for increased business support and markets, if African women can take advantage of them. Swasti Mitter refers to the importance for women of access to commercial knowledge and business skills for small and medium enterprises. The Self-Employment Centre in Mauritania referred to above incorporates training in computers, typing and literacy to support women's entrepreneurial activities at the local level, while in the experience of SYNFEV, women's groups and associations formed at local levels often form around economic or entrepreneurial activities. As a key element in local self-sufficiency, these groups need support to encourage ICT business-related skills and activities.
5.4 Potential roles for African women's NGOs
The rapid growth of women's organisations at all levels and their demonstrated ability in development education, training and activities make them a key element of any strategy to encourage women's participation in ICTs. They are generally trusted by local communities, are flexible in operation and have demonstrated great innovation and creativity in framing and organising development projects. Several women's NGOs have extensive networks and operations across Africa, and are thus well-placed to work with technical organisations to develop ICT training and implementation programmes. These include the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre & Network (ZWRCN), the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Isis-Wicce (Uganda), ABANTU for Development (South Africa), African members of the Once and Future Action Network (OFAN), and others. Maria Musoke refers to the importance of sensitising the heads of women's NGOs concerning the importance of ICTs, and, for example, of including budgets for equipment and online access in their proposals and program plans. "If there are, say, 10 established NGOs each with an average membership of 50 women, at least over 500 women would be conversant with ICTs. The sensitisation of women heads of NGOs is, therefore, important because it has a multiplier effect."
5.5 ICT delivery and access systems
Women's NGOs also potentially could play a role in facilitating the distribution and production of information by women in Africa. Since cost, technology expertise, repair and infrastructure issues will ensure that ICTs stay out of the reach of most individuals for the foreseeable future, alternative systems of access, delivery and information will need to be developed that are more appropriate to the situation of Africans. This is especially true for women, who tend to have less economic power, training and technical expertise.
Strategies for women should focus on email and listserv/conference systems. Studies worldwide show that women tend to use email more than other Internet services, for reasons of time, cost and level of technical ability. The African situation lends itself more to email services generally (see the APC Holy Family Communiqué), but again, women's situation and income tend to cluster them in the simpler technology systems. In South Africa, a concern is that IT publications and the IT milieu" are concerned only with the top end of the market, faster machines, and most impressive graphics. The situation of much of the population means that this is relevant to only a few; more attention should be paid to the great deal than can be achieved by the simpler ICTs.
The majority of women who have access today do so from research institutions, governments and some businesses. Access among poorer and rural classes is currently non-existent, but critical for Africa's development. A technical mix of transmission systems will most benefit these African women, which combines networks, fax, computer communications and even WWW connectivity and connects them to larger off-line or low-tech dissemination networks. Women at Beijing discussed local distribution of information downloaded from the Internet by a communications centre or NGO, through verbal interaction and education. Other possible means include the use of street theatre (already proven an effective dissemination medium), radio and TV, and even music. The experience of the Zambia Association for Research and Development (ZARD), which downloaded information on the Fourth UN World Conference on Women and distributed it regionally, including to local libraries, is an example of the success of this kind of distribution system. One of the challenges in a system such as this, however, is filtering of information which naturally occurs as a result of the choice of the downloader concerning which information is important enough to distribute. This could be resolved by frequent consultation with the receptor groups.
5.6 Women's time constraints
Women's lack of time influences the form and content of ICTs. Most women will not perceive the benefits of ICTs, nor will they be able to use them to their full potential, unless they can see an immediate benefit or result of participation in ICTs. Personal experience with other gendered electronic fora indicates that women generally do not have the same time or patience for chat", philosophical discussion and generalised networking, but instead are much more practical in their assessment of the benefits of ICTs. Women want hard, factual data, e.g., information on practical health and educational issues, and government policy documents in their country and in other African countries. They are therefore interested in specific thematic and sectoral information systems which they perceive as fulfilling certain practical goals. This is demonstrated by the fact, for example, that women's ICT use around the world was catalysed by women's interest in information generated in the course of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women.
For these reasons, promoting women's ICT participation will mean focusing on the sectors in which ICTs will be of most use to women in any of their triple roles. Women have developed or are developing networks and communication projects in sectors they consider crucial:
o the conference facilitated by SYNFEV is focusing on women's rights and health (Case Study 1);
o legal information networks, as supported by LAWA (Case Study 3)
o the GENNET listserv based in the University of Cape Town is intended to facilitate communication between people teaching and research gender-related issues in the Western Cape region (Case Study 5);
o the African Gender Institute is planning to develop a "Womens Net" as a wider Gender Information Network for South Africa. It currently facilitates email information exchange among librarians and documentalists working in gender equity and justice information, as well as a pan-African working group which communicates regularly through email (Case Study 5);
o the Reproductive Health Alliance (RRA) in Johannesburg, South Africa, started using ICTs to send regular messages about events, to distribute minutes, organise Alliance activities, send out RRA policy statements, distribute a questionnaire, drafts of the legislation and the RRA Constitution (Case Study 2);
o a member of the Healthnet network in Uganda is developing a proposal to examine women's use of and access to health information; the success of the Healthnet in supporting basic health care in Africa is established.
Other areas in which ICTs are considered to contribute are environmental/natural resource management and food production. Women in Africa are important natural resource managers and produce and process much of the subsistence food crops. Their access to current information is important, but so is their role in disseminating information in this area. As holders of most of the developing world's indigenous knowledge, women are recognised by the UNCSTD as central to achieving more sustainable community development.
5.6 Implementing Women-Friendly ICT Systems
What becomes clear from these discussions and case studies, then, is that access for women in Africa will depend critically on where the technologies are located, while the most efficient and beneficial use of ICTs is closely connected to the kind of information produced and distributed, i.e. information that directly supports women's activities and responsibilities. Since personal ownership of ICTs for the vast majority of African women is not feasible for the foreseeable future, this means the question of where and how they can gain access to ICTs is central. This includes institutional, sectoral and geographical contexts. Currently, it is only middle- class and professional women who use ICTs.
In order to facilitate access for women from other classes and sectors, the indications from this survey are that ICTs will need to be located in local institutions to which women have open and equal access, such as health centres, women's NGOs, women's employment centres, libraries, women's studies departments and institutes, and perhaps even churches. The location in these types of contexts also pertains to the practical, specific kind of information that women require as a result of their time constraints. For example, placing internet access in a local health centre will facilitate women's access to the health information they need for themselves and their children, by providing access to information for which there is a specific need at the same time as making a health-related visit. When women can understand and experience the benefits of ICTs, they are quick to use them. Establishing telecommunications centres in local communities is also a potentially useful strategy, if gender obstacles to their access by women are taken into account. Information production and distribution strategies will also be an important consideration, in order to make the most of each point of access. They will need to be flexible, mixed-media and multi-technology systems in order to effectively reach the greatest number of women in Africa.

AIDS IN UGANDA

Young people and HIV/AIDS in Uganda
Young people in Uganda have never known a world without HIV/AIDS. Since 1982, when the country’s first cases of HIV were detected on the shores of Lake Victoria in Rakai district, AIDS has killed an estimated 940,000 Ugandans, including 78,000 in 2003 alone. Most of these have been men and women of childbearing age, leaving close to one million Ugandan children without parental care, in addition to those whose parents are sick or dying. The impact of AIDS on children and young people is seen in their own risk of HIV infection: as AIDS impoverishes families, young people—especially young girls—are likely to be withdrawn from school and forced into exploitative situations to survive. Ignorance and denial fuel HIV even further, leaving young people without the critical information that could help them prevent infection. As of 2002, according to government estimates, HIV prevalence among young people in Uganda stood at an estimated 4.9 percent, with rates of 6.5 percent in major towns and 4.1 percent in rural areas.2
Although Uganda is widely recognized as the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to experience a significant drop in HIV prevalence, the extent of this decline has been exaggerated.3 The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that national HIV prevalence in Uganda fell from 12 percent in the early 1990s to just over 4 percent in 2003, though some of this decline is due to HIV-related deaths.4 Declines in urban areas have been more dramatic, from approximately 30 percent in three sites in 1992 to an average of 9.1 percent at the same three clinics in 2002.5 Local organizations working with communities affected by AIDS have challenged recent government figures as too low and estimated HIV prevalence to be between 10-17 percent nationally.6 In addition, reported declines in national HIV prevalence may mask some regional and demographic variations. In three sentinel sites—Mbarara, Mbale, and Kilembe—HIV prevalence between 2001 and 2002 either stagnated or rose. HIV rates tend to be consistently higher in Uganda’s urban areas than in rural ones—8 percent compared to 5 percent among the general population, and 6.5 percent compared to 4 percent among young people.
Uganda’s success against AIDS has not been felt equally by those at highest risk of infection. In Gulu, in northern Uganda where there has been a protracted and brutal civil war since 1986, HIV prevalence in 2002 was estimated at 12 percent in the general population and 8 percent among young people; the general figure is higher than in 2001, although rates are lower than in the early 1990s.7 HIV prevalence among military recruits increased from 3 percent to 13 percent in five sites from 1997 to 1999.8 The highest HIV prevalence in Uganda is found among sex workers, 47 percent of whom were HIV-positive in a 2002 survey compared to 28 percent in 2000.9 According to data collected by the AIDS Information Centre (AIC), a leading nongovernmental organization in the field of voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT), a significant percentage of women in sex work are girls aged fifteen to twenty-four.
The combination of economic, social, biological, and behavioral factors that render young Ugandans vulnerable to HIV, especially girls, is not perfectly understood. Sex accounts for the vast majority of HIV infections in Uganda, as in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Ugandans are estimated to have their first sexual experience as teenagers, the median being 16.7 years for girls and 18.8 years for boys as of 2001.10 By age seventeen, more than 50 percent of Ugandan girls have had sex, usually with someone older.11 Among girls aged fifteen to twenty-four, 31 percent report that their first sexual partner was three to four years older, and 11 percent report that their first sexual partner was ten or more years older.12 According to the Uganda AIDS Commission, “Ugandan youth begin sexual activity at fairly young ages and with little sexuality information.”13
The phenomenon of girls having sex with older men, often out of economic need, is thought to account for a significant number of new HIV infections in Uganda. Age disparities both increase the likelihood of sexual coercion and limit girls’ ability to demand fidelity and condom use. Early sex may also lead to early marriage: as of 2001, 32 percent of girls aged fifteen to nineteen in Uganda had been married, compared to only 6 percent of boys.14 Among married girls, a fifth were in polygynous unions.15 The combination of early marriage and polygyny further increases girls’ and young women’s HIV risk, as men often engage in concurrent sexual relationships without using condoms. The payment of bride price in connection with many marriages fosters the perception that a husband “owns” his wife and can demand sex from her without her consent. Domestic violence, which according to the United Nations affects 40 percent of Ugandan women, further inhibits girls’ ability to control the terms of their sex lives (including negotiating condom use) and exposes them to HIV.16 In 2001, only 4 percent of married men in Uganda reported having used a condom the last time they had sex, compared to 59 percent of unmarried men.17 While most women knew that condoms would protect them against HIV, only 27 percent of girls aged fifteen to nineteen and 36 percent of women aged twenty to twenty-four said they could convince their partners to use them.18
In 2002, six girls in Uganda were reported infected with HIV for every boy.19 Of the estimated 530,000 Ugandans living with HIV in 2003, over half were women and girls.20 In Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, the AIDS Information Centre reported in 2002 that 10.3 percent of girls and women aged fifteen to twenty-four seeking an HIV test for the first time tested positive, compared to 2.8 percent of boys and men in that age group.21 The AIC data also found that girls were entering into prostitution at a young age: of 218 sex workers surveyed, 65 percent were girls and young women aged fifteen to twenty-four.
The human right to HIV/AIDS information
HIV/AIDS is a disease that is fueled by stigma, denial, and ignorance. While Uganda boasts high levels of awareness of HIV—close to 100 percent of survey respondents in 2000 stated they had heard of the disease22—dangerous myths about HIV/AIDS persist. In the same survey, close to one quarter of Ugandans who said they had heard of AIDS agreed with the statement that HIV could be contracted from a mosquito bite.23 Both men and women harbored discriminatory attitudes towards people living with AIDS, such as the view held by roughly half of Ugandans that a female teacher living with HIV should not be permitted to go on teaching.24 This is a disturbing finding in Uganda, where the stigma associated with AIDS is thought to be less powerful than in Africa generally.
Widespread awareness of HIV/AIDS in Uganda, moreover, does not translate into knowledge of how to prevent infection—particularly among women and girls. In 2001, some 13 percent of Ugandan women did not know any method of avoiding AIDS, compared to 5 percent of men.25 Women were less likely than men to know that condoms prevent HIV, less likely to know that limiting one’s number of sexual partners prevents HIV, and less likely to know that a healthy-looking person can be infected with HIV. Women and girls who were familiar with modes of HIV transmission were less likely than men to put them to use: in 2001, 69 percent of girls aged fifteen to nineteen said they knew condoms would protect them from HIV, whereas only 32 percent said they could obtain them. The corresponding figures for boys were 83 percent and 64 percent. Over 20 percent of young people surveyed in Kampala in 2002 believed that those who used condoms were “promiscuous.”26
Such gender disparities in knowledge of HIV prevention may be explained partly by girls’ unequal access to formal education. In 2001, over one-quarter of Ugandan women without schooling knew no way of protecting themselves from HIV, compared to only 2 percent of women who had attended secondary school or higher.27 Yetwhile school has become more accessible to Ugandans of both sexes in recent years, it continues to be less accessible to girls. As of 2001, four years into Uganda’s free education policy, 9 percent of Ugandan girls had never been to school compared to 2 percent of boys.28 Men were also more likely to stay in school, with 66 percent of young men aged fifteen to nineteen in school in 2001, compared to 44 percent of young women.29
Access to information about HIV/AIDS without discrimination is not simply a public health imperative—it is a human right. International treaties ratified by Uganda recognize that all people have the right to “seek, receive and impart information of all kinds,” including information about their health.30 The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child requires states to “ensure that all segments of society, in particular parents and children, are informed, have access to education and are supported in the use of basic knowledge of child health.”31 The Committee on the Rights of the Child, the U.N. body responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, states in its general comment on HIV/AIDS that children have the right to access adequate information related to HIV/AIDS prevention. The Committee has emphasized that:
Effective HIV/AIDS prevention requires States to refrain from censoring, withholding or intentionally misrepresenting health-related information, including sexual education and information, and that, consistent with their obligations to ensure the right to life, survival and development of the child (art. 6) States parties must ensure that children have the ability to acquire the knowledge and skills to protect themselves and others as they begin to express their sexuality.32
Access to health information is also essential to realizing the human right to the highest attainable standard of health and, ultimately, the right to life.33 Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) specifically obliges governments to take all necessary steps for the “prevention, treatment and control of epidemic . . . diseases,” such as HIV/AIDS.34 The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the U.N. body responsible for monitoring the implementation of the ICESCR, has interpreted article 12 as requiring “the establishment of prevention and education programmes for behaviour-related health concerns such as sexually transmitted diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS.”35 In language similar to that of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the ICESCR committee notes:
States should refrain from limiting access to contraceptives and other means of maintaining sexual and reproductive health, from censoring, withholding or intentionally misrepresenting health-related information, including sexual education and information, as well as from preventing people’s participation in health-related matters. . . . States should also ensure that third parties do not limit people’s access to health-related information and services.36
The United Nations International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, while not binding, similarly call on states to take positive steps to “ensure the access of children and adolescents to adequate health information and education, including information related to HIV/AIDS prevention and care, inside and outside school, which is tailored appropriately to age level and capacity and enables them to deal positively with their sexuality.”37
Uganda and the U.S. Global AIDS Initiative
Ugandan AIDS policy is strongly influenced by the United States, which significantly increased its international assistance to HIV/AIDS programs in 2003. Under President George W. Bush’s Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS programs in Uganda doubled in 2004.38 As of August 2004, the United States had budgeted approximately U.S.$159 million for HIV/AIDS programs in Uganda for fiscal year (FY) 2005.39 The legislation authorizing PEPFAR requires that 55 percent of HIV/AIDS funds be used for the treatment of people living with AIDS, 15 percent for care and support of people living with AIDS, and 20 percent for HIV prevention. Uganda’s U.S.-funded HIV prevention budget for FY2005 is therefore estimated at U.S.$31.8 million.
For young people at risk of HIV/AIDS, the cornerstone of the United States’ HIV prevention strategy is the promotion of sexual abstinence until marriage. “Abstinence until marriage” programs are defined as programs whose sole purpose is to highlight the benefits to be gained by abstaining from sexual activity until marriage, and marriage is in turn held up as the expected standard of human sexual activity. Abstinence-only approaches may be contrasted with comprehensive sex education, which supports the choice not to have sex but also includes information about condoms and other safer sex options for young persons who are or who become sexually active. They may further be contrasted with educational programs that caution young girls about sources of HIV risk in marriage, such as infidelity, marital rape, domestic violence, polygyny, and widow inheritance. Abstinence-only approaches withhold information about the health benefits of condoms and contraception (beyond their failure rates) in the belief that such information contradicts the message of abstinence.
Despite numerous and unrefuted government-funded studies discrediting abstinence-only approaches as an exclusive HIV prevention strategy, the U.S. Congress requires that at least 33 percent of all HIV prevention money under PEPFAR be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs, with the remainder spent on HIV testing and targeted outreach (including condom promotion) for “high-risk” populations (defined as “prostitutes, sexually active discordant couples (where only one partner is HIV positive), substance abusers, and others”),40 safe blood and improved medical practices, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.41 The U.S. government singles out “faith-based organizations” as particularly qualified to implement abstinence-until-marriage programs. The U.S. Five-Year Global HIV/AIDS Strategy, the document that guides the implementation of PEPFAR programs, elaborates on abstinence education as follows:
Delaying first sexual intercourse by even a year can have significant impact on the health and well-being of adolescents and on the progress of the epidemic in communities. . . . The strategies for youth . . . encourage abstinence until marriage for those who have not yet initiated sexual activity and “secondary abstinence” for unmarried youth who have already engaged in intercourse. FBOs [faith-based organizations] are in a strong position to help young people see the benefits of abstinence until marriage and support them in choosing to postpone sexual activity. Programs will help youth develop the knowledge, confidence, and communication skills necessary to make informed choices and avoid risky behavior.42
While U.S. law does not explicitly define abstinence-until-marriage programs for the purposes of PEPFAR, years of experience with similar programs in all fifty U.S. states provides an indication of their main objectives. The U.S. government has funded abstinence education domestically since 1981; in FY2004, appropriations for these programs reached a historical high of U.S.$138.25 million.43 All federally-funded abstinence-only programs must meet an eight-part definition found in the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (commonly known as the Welfare Reform Act), which defines “abstinence education” as follows:
“Abstinence education” means an educational or motivational program which:
A. has as its exclusive purpose, teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
B. teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school age children;
C. teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
D. teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity;
E. teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
F. teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society;
G. teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and
H. teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity.44
As discussed below, a slightly modified version of this eight-part definition appears in a draft policy issued by the Uganda AIDS Commission in November 2004 to guide U.S.-funded abstinence-until-marriage programs in Uganda.45 Many of the architects of the U.S. global AIDS strategy are the same individuals who have a long history of supporting and implementing abstinence-only programs in the United States.
While numerous studies have demonstrated the ineffectiveness of U.S. abstinence-only programs, few have analyzed the content and delivery of abstinence curricula to see what participants are actually being taught.46 Analysis of these curricula is relevant to the Ugandan context, as domestic experience with (and support for) abstinence-only programs is largely what led the U.S. government to export these programs abroad. In 2002, Human Rights Watch published Ignorance Only: HIV/AIDS, Human Rights and Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Programs in the United States, a case study of abstinence education in the state of Texas.47 The report disclosed numerous ways in which U.S.-funded abstinence-only programs distort or otherwise restrict information about condoms, impede participants’ access to comprehensive HIV/AIDS information and AIDS experts, and encourage young people to “pledge virginity” despite the demonstrated risks of such pledges as an HIV prevention strategy.48 In 2004, at the request of Congressman Henry Waxman, the Special Investigations Division of U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Government Reform found scientific errors and distortions in eleven abstinence-only curricula being used by sixty-nine federal grantees in twenty-five U.S. states.49 The errors and distortions concerned, among other things, the effectiveness of condoms against HIV and other STDs, the health risks of sexual activity, and the causes of HIV transmission.
Studies such as these provide an important sign of what is to come in countries like Uganda, where the United States has committed significant funds to abstinence-until-marriage programs. None of these studies is cited in any policy document or publication related to abstinence-until-marriage programs in Uganda or under PEPFAR, nor is any study demonstrating the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs.
The acronym “ABC”—A for abstinence, B for being faithful, and C for condom use—is often used to describe the U.S. (and Ugandan) approach to preventing sexually transmitted HIV internationally. On the surface, ABC appears to promote condoms alongside abstinence and fidelity as an effective HIV prevention strategy. A closer examination of the U.S. AIDS strategy, however, reveals that ABC is disaggregated as Abstinence for unmarried youth, Being faithful for married couples, and Condom use for “those who are infected or who are unable to avoid high-risk behaviors (such as discordant couples (where only one partner is HIV positive)).”50 As noted above, the strategy defines “high-risk” populations as “prostitutes, sexually active discordant couples, substance abusers, and others.” Thus, for unmarried young people who are not working in prostitution, the intervention message is abstinence only. Even where condoms are promoted to “high-risk” groups, the strategy stipulates that condoms should not detract from the overall message that “the best means of preventing HIV/AIDS is to avoid risk all together”—that is, to abstain from sex until marriage.
The U.S. Global AIDS Strategy has evolved in a climate of increasing censorship and distortion of information about condoms and safer sex.51 In 2002, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removed a fact sheet on the effectiveness of condoms from its website and replaced it with a new fact sheet which, while factually accurate, eliminated instructions on how to use a condom properly and evidence indicating that condom education does not encourage sex in young people.52 Information on condom effectiveness was similarly altered on the website of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).53 Guidelines proposed by the CDC in 2004 require that AIDS organizations receiving federal funds include information about the “lack of effectiveness of condoms” in any HIV prevention educational materials that mention condoms.54 In 2002, the CDC erased from its website an entire section entitled “Programs that Work,” which had highlighted the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education programs.55
Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has appointed as high-level HIV/AIDS advisers physicians who deny the effectiveness of condoms (either against AIDS or other STDs), such as Senator Tom Coburn and Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., president of the pro-abstinence-only Medical Institute for Sexual Health (MISH) based in Texas.56 Coburn, who has stated that “the American people [should] know the truth of condom ineffectiveness, ” served as co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS (PACHA) until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. He was replaced by Anita Smith, a vocal advocate of abstinence-only programs. Coburn is also widely known for his efforts to require cigarette-type warnings on condom packages stating that they offer “little or no protection” against human papilloma virus (HPV), some strains of which cause cervical cancer.57 Condom use is in fact associated with lower rates of cervical cancer and HPV-associated disease, though the precise effect of condoms in preventing HPV is unknown.58 McIlhaney’s Medical Institute for Sexual Health, which promotes abstinence-only sex education messages, produced a comprehensive monograph on condoms stating that condoms do not make sex “safe enough” to warrant their promotion for STD prevention despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. McIlhaney has also stated in testimony before the U.S. Congress that there is “precious little evidence” in support of comprehensive sex education programs.


[2] STD/AIDS Control Programme, Ministry of Health, HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report: June 2003, p. 10.
[3] Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), MEASURE Evaluation and Uganda Ministry of Health (MOH), AIDS in Africa During the Nineties: UGANDA: A review and analysis of surveys and research studies (2003), p. 1; Justin O. Parkhurst, The Ugandan success story? Evidence and claims of HIV-1 prevention", The Lancet, vol. 360 (2002), pp. 78-80.
[4] Estimates of national HIV prevalence in Uganda vary. In 2002, the STD/AIDS Control Programme of the Uganda Ministry of Health estimated that 6.2 percent of the national population was infected with HIV. It should also be noted that trends in HIV prevalence are not as good a measure of HIV prevention as trends in HIV incidence, which measure new HIV infections in a given year. STD/AIDS Control Programme, 2003 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, p. 6.
[5]Ibid.
[6] Rory Carroll, “Uganda’s AIDS success story challenged,” The Guardian, September 23, 2004.
[7] STD/AIDS Control Programme, 2003 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, pp. 6, 10.
[8] Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization (WHO), Epidemiological Fact Sheets on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections: Uganda (2004 Update), p.2.
[9] STD/AIDS Control Programme, 2003 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, p. 29.
[10] Those surveyed were women between twenty and forty-nine, and men between twenty and fifty-four. Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and ORC Macro, Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2000-2001 (Calverton, MD: UBOS and ORC Macro, 2001), p. 79.
[11] ORC Macro, Reproductive Health of Young Adults in Uganda: A Report Based on the 2000-2001 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (Calverton, MD: ORC Macro, 2002), pp. 12-13.
[12] Ibid., p. 13.
[13] Uganda AIDS Commission, “National Young People HIV/AIDS Communication Program for Young People: Concept Paper” (2001).
[14] This includes those who were widowed, divorced or separated. ORC Macro, Reproductive Health of Young Adults in Uganda, p. 19.
[15] Ibid., p. 21.
[16] Human Rights Watch, Just Die Quietly: Domestic Violence and Women’s Vulnerability to HIV in Uganda, Vol. 15, No. 15(A) (August 2003).
[17] ORC Macro, Reproductive Health of Young Adults in Uganda, p. 15.
[18] Ibid., p. 41.
[19] Makerere University Institute of Public Health and Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa, Knowledge, Attitude, Beliefs & Practices on HIV/AIDS Care, Prevention and Control: A Quantitative Baseline Survey, Kampala District, Uganda (2003), p. 1.
[20] Joint UNAIDS/WHO, Epidemiological Fact Sheets: Uganda, p. 2.
[21] While HIV prevalence declined among boys between 2001 and 2002 (from 3.7 percent to 2.8 percent), it rose slightly among girls (from 10.1 percent to 10.3 percent).
[22] UAC/MEASURE/MOH, AIDS in Africa During the Nineties, p. 17.
[23] Ibid, p. 21.
[24] UBOS/ORC Macro, Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2000-2001, p. 174.
[25] Ibid., p. 168.
[26] Makerere University and Academic Alliance, Quantitative Baseline Survey,table 3.3.
[27] UBOS/ORC Macro, Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2000-2001, p. 169.
[28] ORC Macro, Reproductive Health of Young Adults in Uganda, p. 5.
[29] Ibid., p. 8.
[30] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), article 19; Convention on the Rights of the Child, G.A. res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989), article 13.
[31] Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), article 24(2)(e).
[32] Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 3 (2003) HIV/AIDS and the rights of the child, 32nd Sess. (2003), para. 16.
[33] Committee on Economic and Social Rights, General Comment 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, 22nd Sess. (2000), para. 12(b), note 8.
[34] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), adopted December 16, 1966, entered into force January 3, 1976, GA Res. 2200 (XXI), 21 UN GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 49, UN Doc. A/6316 (1966), art. 12.
[35] Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), The right to the highest attainable standard of health, para. 16.
[36] Ibid., paras. 34-35.
[37] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UNAIDS, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights: International Guidelines, U.N. Doc. HR/PUB/98/1 (1998), para. 38(g).
[38] Human Rights Watch interview with Ambassador James Kolker, United States Embassy in Uganda, November 22, 2004.
[39] Fact sheet on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, http://www.avert.org/pepfar.htm (retrieved January 30, 2005).
[40] Office of the United States Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: U.S. Five-Year Global HIV/AIDS Strategy (Washington, D.C.: United States Department of State, 2004), p. 27.
[41] H.R. 1298, United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, ss. 402(b)(3), 403(a). The Act does not specify a level of assistance for HIV prevention, but it caps such assistance at 20 percent of HIV/AIDS funds, or a maximum of U.S.$3 billion.
[42] OGAC, PEPFAR Five-Year Strategy, pp. 24, 29.
[43] Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), “Overall Federal Spending for Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs,” State Profiles: A Portrait of Sexuality Education and Abstinence-Only-Until Marriage Programs in the States (FY2003 edition). President Bush requested an increase to U.S.$268 million dollars for abstinence-until-marriage programs for FY2005.
[44] 42 U.S.C. § 710(b)(2).
[45] Swizen Kyomuhendo, Martin Ssempa, Lillian Lamalatu, Stephen Langa, Joseph Kiwanuka, and Edward C. Green, “Uganda National Abstinence and Being Faithful Policy and Strategy on Prevention of Transmission of HIV: Draft Policy and Strategy” (Uganda AIDS Commission, November 2004), p. iv.
[46] United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform – Minority Staff Special Investigations Division, The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs, report prepared for Rep. Henry A. Waxman (December 2004).
[47] Human Rights Watch, Ignorance Only: HIV/AIDS, Human Rights and Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Programs in the United States: Texas: A Case Study, Vol. 14, No. 5(G) (September 2002).
[48] See Peter Bearman and Hannah Brückner, "Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges as they Affect Transition to First Intercourse," American Journal of Sociology, vol. 106, no. 4 (2001), pp. 859-912; Bearman and Brückner, “After the Promise: the STD Consequences of Adolescent Virginity Pledges,” 2004, http://www.yale.edu/socdept/CIQLE/cira.ppt (retrieved November 10, 2004).
[49] Committee on Government Reform, Abstinence-Only Education Programs; see also, Martha E. Kempner, “Toward a Sexually Healthy America: Abstinence-only-until-marriage Programs that Try to Keep our Youth ‘Scared Chaste’” (New York: Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, 2001).
[50] OGAC, PEPFAR Five-Year Strategy, p. 29.
[51] See, e.g., Nicholas D. Kristof, “The Secret War on Condoms,” The New York Times, January 10, 2003; Marie Cocco, “White House Wages Stealth War on Condoms,” Newsday, November 14, 2002; Caryl Rivers, “In Age of AIDS, Condom Wars Take Deadly Toll,” Women’s eNews, December 10, 2003, http://womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1633/context/archive (retrieved February 16, 2004); Art Buchwald, “The Trojan War,” The Washington Post, December 11, 2003.
[52] Compare U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC), “Condoms and Their Use in Preventing HIV Infection and Other STDs” (September 1999), available at http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs/pdf_inves/pdf_admin_hhs_info_condoms_fact_sheet_orig.pdf with CDC, “Male Latex Condoms and Sexually Transmitted Diseases” (2002), available at http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs/pdf_inves/pdf_admin_hhs_info_condoms_fact_sheet_revis.pdf.
[53] Compare U.S. Agency for International Development ( USAID), “The Effectiveness of Condoms in Preventing Sexually Transmitted Diseases,” http://www.usaid.gov/pop_health/aids/TechAreas/condoms/condom_effect.html (retrieved January 28, 2003) with USAID, “USAID: HIV/AIDS and Condoms,” http://www.usaid.gov/pop_health/aids/TechAreas/condoms/condomfactsheet.html (retrieved July 10, 2005).
[54] CDC, “Proposed Revision of Interim HIV Content Guidelines for AIDS,” 69 Fed. Reg. 115, 33824, June 16, 2004.
[55] Compare CDC, “Programs that Work” (archived version at http://web.archive.org/web/20010606142729/www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/rtc/index.htm) with CDC, “Programs that Work” (http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/rtc/).
[56] See Rep. Henry A. Waxman, “The Effectiveness of Abstinence-Only Education,” in Politics and Science: Investigating the State of Science Under the Bush Administration, http://democrats.reform.house.gov/features/politics_and_science/example_abstinence.htm (retrieved February 7, 2005);H. Boonstra, “Public Health Advocates Say Campaign to Disparage Condoms Threatens STD Prevention Efforts,” The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, March 2003, p. 2.
[57] Proponents of abstinence education have long sought to disparage condoms by speculating about the link between condom usage and cervical cancer. The legislation authorizing PEPFAR compels the president to report on the “impact that condom usage has upon the spread of HPV in Sub-Saharan Africa,” a mandate that many view as an effort to undermine confidence in the use of condoms against HIV. H.R. 1298, s. 101(b)(3)(W).
[58] CDC, “Male Latex Condoms and Sexually Transmitted Diseases” (2002); see also, C.J.A. Hogewoning et al., “Condom use promotes regression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and clearance of human papilloma virus: a randomised clinical trial,” International Journal of Cancer, vol. 107 (2003), pp. 811-816; M.C.G. Bleeker et al., “Condom use promotes regression of human papilloma virus-associated penile lesions in male sexual partners of women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia,” International Journal of Cancer, vol. 107 (2003), pp. 804-810.