Looking for Consultants - short assignment for UNESCAP on egov and gender

[Akanksha Babbar]

Dear friends

I write this to check if you can help us with identifying country consultants in Kazakhstan, South Korea, Philippines, and the Pacific islands, for a short term research assignment. IT for Change is working with the United Nationals Regional body - The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UN ESCAP) -  to undertake a rapid research, based on case studies, to influence the Beijing plus 20 inter-governmental process (focussing on women's rights articulated in the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) document).

ESCAP, in partnership with United Nations Project Office on Governance (UNPOG), wants to undertake this study on “e-Government for women’s empowerment” to enhance the capacity of governments to use e-Government as a tool to innovate for women’s empowerment by increasing knowledge and awareness of good practices in this area.

The project is looking for researchers who will work with IT for Change and undertake a quick study (based on desk research and field visits) to build a gender-based understanding about  egovernment practices in  Kazakhstan, South Korea, Philippines, and a Pacific country. The rationale is build a body of work on how innovations in e-Government can contribute to realising gender equality and to  policies required to strengthen the contribution of ICT and e-Government to women’s empowerment.  Particular focus will be on the delivery of e-Government services to advance the political, social and economic autonomy of women through the improved communication and access to information, facilities, educational, business and other resources, and networks.

The key challenge is to be able to identify up and running initiatives in the domain of e-government that have a clear focus on women's empowerment. There are not too many initiatives that incorporate a gendered analysis of the situation on the ground. However, practices that have attempted to bring in an inclusionary perspective, and have, as a result of the architecture and implementation design, impacted women favourably, will be a good starting point for this exploratory research.

The Beijing document, in 1995, little expected that the world will be a new place because of ICTs... But the 'plus 20 review' process requires a solid grounding in contemporary issues. IT for Change is currently developing the framework for the country studies.

1. We would be grateful for leads on country consultants who can document case studies (based on desk research and field visits) about gender sensitive egovernment initiatives in their countries (urban or rural, covering public information delivery or services),

2. We also welcome information on ICT initiatives of governments that were designed for women or had a positive impact on women's rights, in Kazakhstan, South Korea, Philippines, and the Pacific islands

3. We would also like to be pointed to other countries in the Asia Pacific, where case studies on e-government for women's empowerment may be feasible

Request you to please reply to [e-mail], cc [e-mail]