Social Context in Development Communication: Reflecting on Gender and Information and Communication Technologies for Development in Ghana

Introduction

Like most contributors to this issue, I (first author) was at the University of Iowa in the early 1980s and profoundly influenced by Dr. Joe Ascroft, ¹ his compelling concept of development support communication (DSC) and the brilliant students he recruited globally, several from Africa.

Encouraged by Dr. Ascroft, I spent the summer of 1985 in East Africa, including attending the 1985 Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi. Experiencing the Nairobi conference and diverse women with clashing agendas were illuminating. In 1985, third world feminism and feminist standpoint theory, intersectionality and post-colonial approaches were just beginning to emerge; but the urgency of developing these approaches, recognizing complex social intersections informed by local identities was abundantly clear at that conference.

Later, I moved to the University of Oregon and was fortunate in the 1990s to receive two Fulbright grants in Kenya and in Ghana. Those years spent in East and West Africa led to enduring friendships with African scholars and also provided first-hand opportunities to observe projects in the field and converse with planners. I gained further insight into longstanding critiques of modernist development, including feminist critiques.

Following the lead of Dr. Ascroft, I initiated a course on Communication in Developing Countries and began recruiting and collaborating with graduate students, including students from the Global South, such as Dr. Janet Kwami, co-author of this chapter. At the same time, Srinivas Melkote and I reconnected again after our years at the University of Iowa and agreed to co-author the second edition of his book, originally titled Communication for Development in the Third World. ²

This essay, an example of work that builds on Dr. Ascroft’s lessons, reports collaborative research on information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) in Ghana. ³ We highlight two parallel dialogues—on ICT and on gender—that have been advanced globally and in many countries such as Ghana. New ICTs are prone to the same biases as the older ICTs. Further, the dialogue on ICTs may use the rhetoric of inclusivity; but in practice, women and girls remain at the margins of decision-making and implementation. This research, like most of my work over more than three decades, is in large part inspired by Dr. Ascroft but extended to address the promise of new ICTs and to account for gender roles.

ICT4D—Using New Information and Communication Technologies to Facilitate Socio-economic Development

As the first decade of the new millennium drew to a close, it became clear that a major subfield of scholarship, policy and practice, that is, information and communication technologies for development or ‘ICT4D’, had emerged within and beyond the already broad field of communication, development and social changes. Though the roles of new ICTs in development were discussed in the 1980s and 1990s, the accelerated diffusion of digital technologies around the turn of the century greatly increased the possibilities for global information sharing and accelerated development. The looming millennium coincided with technological innovations and initiatives that inspired reflection and dialogue.

This essay traces the emergence and ascendance of ICT4D initiatives in the context of major global events. Many scholars and activists have critiqued ICT4D for repeating the same modernist mistakes of earlier decades, noting further that ICT4D tends to focus on ‘have’ and ‘have not’ countries and global regions, neglecting variance within countries and regions. The African region is of particular interest in ICT4D discussions, as data show that the African region continues to have fewer Internet users than elsewhere (ITU, 2016). However, large geographic comparisons often neglect consideration of gender and intersecting social divisions that cross boundaries—such as ethnicity, economic class, religion, age and disability—thereby exacerbating rather than narrowing digital divides.

This review focusses primarily on Ghana in West Africa. Notably, Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian, was the U.N. Secretary-General at a pivotal time in the ICT4D dialogues. Ghana has been lauded as an example of ICT4D success for other African countries. At the same time that Ghana has undertaken many ICT initiatives, a largely parallel dialogue on gender, following the 1995 Women’s Summit in Beijing, has gained traction. To what extent, then, has gender been a central consideration in ICT leadership and projects and vice versa?

We summarize the major events that helped spark global and regional attention to ICT4D, as well as Ghana’s initiatives in relation to these events. We include critiques and initiatives resistant to facets of ICT4D, emphasizing gender critiques. A joint International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the UNESCO report show that the Internet gender gap is growing and calls for action (ITU, 2013b). Hence, in Ghana, as elsewhere, a gender lens is important in assessing ICT4D policies and strategies. Using the case of Ghana, we discuss the gender and other intersecting divides evident with the ascendance of ICTs, and the complex contradictions that benefit many while also widening gaps and creating negative side effects.

ICT4D and Communication for Development

The term ICT4D is contested and its meaning may vary depending on what ICTs and development are presumed to comprise. We accept Gillian Marcelle’s (2000) often-cited definition of ICTs, as including both old or ‘legacy’ media and newer digital technologies. Hence, there is no bright line between old and the new ICTs; they overlap, evolve rapidly (the meaning of ‘new’ is ever-changing) and co-exist; and an older form may be more appropriate than a newer form in a particular context. In addition, ICTs include applications and services and not just hardware and gadgets.

Thus, ICT4D seeks to examine social changes in developing countries as a result of ICTs. Within the mainstream of ICT4D policy and discourse, development is a re-articulation of modernization achieved through economic growth under globalization. Hence, most references to ICT4D are in the context of using ICTs to leapfrog the different stages of development to catch up to the North. Castells (1999) expresses this view as follows: ‘the availability and use of information and communication technologies are a pre-requisite for economic and social development in our world. They are the functional equivalent of electricity in the industrial era’ (p. 3). The United Nations, through its various institutions, actively promotes ICT4D as a tool for economic and social development around the world, particularly in developing countries.

In contrast, we take a critical stance on development and communication therein (see Melkote & Steeves, 2001, 2015; Steeves & Kwami, 2012). Critical perspectives on ICT4D emphasize the use of new technologies for social change by engendering citizen participation and empowerment (Association for Progressive Communication, 2011a; Unwin, 2009). ICT4D policies and initiatives at both the global and local levels are seen as central to bridging the digital divide and aiding economic development through access to new ICTs.

We likewise view communication for development, therefore ICT4D, not predominantly as a process of marketing and networking in the global economy, but ideally as a complex process that leads to a better, more socially just world via the engendering of citizen participation and empowerment (e.g., Melkote & Krishnatray, 2010; Melkote & Steeves, 2015; Unwin, 2009). Our stance recognizes the importance of considering multiple factors that may affect outcomes, including the ownership and control of the means of communication and networking; the narratives that dominate media and ICT discourse; social movements and local knowledge production; spirituality and religion as communication; and the embodied experience of communication, requiring attention and physical engagement. Social divisions that cross these considerations are many and include gender, nation, ethnicity, economic class, caste, race, religion, age and disability. Our critical stance is perhaps best described as feminist, intersectional, post-colonial and post-development in orientation (Porras & Steeves, 2009).

We recognize that initiatives intended to empower can often harm and oppress in complex ways and that marginalized groups must, therefore, find ways to resist and/or creatively manipulate projects intended to help them. In fact, development has such a contested history that the term development itself has been rejected by many in favour of terms such as ‘post-development’, ‘communication for social change’ and ‘communication for social justice’ (Melkote & Krishnatray, 2010; Melkote & Steeves, 2015; Unwin, 2009). Hence, a post-development, feminist perspective rejects the dominant narrative and looks at how varied local groups encounter globalization, how they deal with macro-level power dynamics and how they generate counter-narratives (e.g., Babb, 2001; Lind, 2003; Porras & Steeves, 2009).

Global, Regional and National Milestones in ICT4D Discourse, 2000–present

The discourse around ICTs, broadly defined, is not new and is often traced to Lerner’s The Passing of Traditional Society (1958), and the modernist belief in the power of technologies to quickly westernize traditional societies. Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations (1962) served to further reinforce modernist assumptions about the superiority of Western lifestyles. The subsequent failures of most technology-intensive projects, their top-down strategies, their negative side-effects and their biases, including gender biases, resulted in a plethora of critiques and initiatives that continued through the 20th century to the present and have been reviewed in detail elsewhere (see, e.g., Harding, 2006; Melkote & Steeves, 2015). ⁴ Post-colonial critiques, closely examining the problematics of colonial histories and neo-colonial ventures, including analyses of voice, agency and hybridity, additionally are relevant (Said, 1978; Shome & Hegde, 2002).

The Millennium Summit held in 2000 in New York City debated the role of the United Nations in the 21st century and ways to address continued global inequities related to extreme poverty. The 192 member states agreed on eight interrelated Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to achieve by 2015: eradicate extreme hunger and poverty; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development.

The need for technological support to achieve the MDGs helped catalyze subsequent events, including the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s creation of a multi-stakeholder in 2001, United Nations Information Communication Technologies Task Force, to analyze multiple ICT4D topics, such as Internet governance and implications of ICTs for the MDGs. Even earlier, beginning in 1998, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had been proposing a summit on the information society within the UN system, ever since the United States-based corporation ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) was created and was perceived as steadily seeking control over the Internet’s globally shared resources (Klein, 2005, p. 9). Timing the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) planning while ICANN was young and more vulnerable therefore could give UN members and civil society more voice in Internet governance and matters related to the digital divide between the have and have-not countries.

As a result of the above and other initiatives, UN General Assembly Resolution 56/183 (21 December 2001) directed the international community to hold a WSIS in two phases: in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005. During the period leading up to WSIS Geneva, three preparatory meetings were held in Geneva and numerous regional meetings were held on every continent (Klein, 2005, p. 5). Additionally, in 2002, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan challenged Silicon Valley to invent technologies appropriate and affordable for rural villages in the developing world, inventions that would then help ground WSIS. Numerous countries created policies for universal access during this timeframe, policies that also aimed to support the eight MDGs, presuming that ICT4D benchmarks could align nicely with MDGs and help support them.

Like other summits, the broad and inclusive participation in WSIS by heads of nation states, NGOs, industry and media helped give voice to oppressed groups and allowed them to advance and legitimize their agendas (Klein, 2005). The fact that each nation has an equal vote on summit outcomes was a factor, as developing countries always outnumber wealthier ones. The two-phase structure of WSIS also bolstered participation, publicity and therefore support for resulting documents intended to advance policy and provide resources in the UN, in participating governments and in civil society.

WSIS was successful in substantially increasing and framing public discourse around ICTs and the digital divide. In addition, WSIS did successfully challenge ICANN’s claim on Internet governance via the timing of the conference (as previously noted). WSIS also advanced global discourse on free and open-source software (FOSS), as an alternative to monopolies such as Microsoft; and WSIS legitimized the allocation of global resources to address the digital divide (Klein, 2005).

Within the UN system, the UNDP supported WSIS outcomes via numerous projects aimed to address the digital divide. In civil society, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) stands out for its activism both during and after WSIS. APC describes itself as ‘both a network and an organization’ that aims ‘to empower and support organizations, social movements and individuals in and through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to build strategic communities and initiatives for the purpose of making meaningful contributions to equitable human development, social justice, participatory political processes and environmental sustainability’ (Association for Progressive Communications [APC], 2011a). APC’s projects since WSIS are numerous and include initiatives to: monitor progress in meeting WSIS goals; support access to ICTs in developing countries; support open access; support broadly participatory Internet governance; support environmental sustainability via ICTs; and support gender equality, which is one of the Millennium Development Goals (APC, 2011b). ICT applications were perceived as important in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

As the 2015 deadline approached, there was a widespread acknowledgement of the inability of many countries to meet many of the MDGs. While some progress had been made, success in achieving the goals was uneven and a subject of critique by the Global South (Bond, 2006; Briant Carant, 2017). In July 2014, the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) proposed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the global development agenda for the next 15 years (2015–2030). ⁵ The UN acknowledges that ICTs are essential to fast-forward progress towards achieving each of the 17 SDGs under the slogan of ‘ICTs for a Sustainable World #ICT4SDG’ (ITU, 2016). The Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has noted in the landmark Fast Forward Progress report ⁶ that ‘The link between technology and women’s rights is clearly reflected in SDG 5 on gender equality and the empowerment of women, which includes a specific target on utilizing technology and ICTs to realize women’s and girls’ empowerment’ (Mlambo-Ngcuka, n.d., p. 41).

The Context of Ghana

Located on the Gulf of Guinea between three Francophone countries, Ghana is about the size of the US state of Oregon, geographically with a population of at least 25 million and around 100 different ethnic groups and sub-groups. Formerly the British Gold Coast, Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve independence in 1957 from the British. Following independence, Ghana’s path to multi-party democracy was somewhat tumultuous involving a series of coups and a long ban on political parties, during which media and telecom-munications were almost entirely government controlled.

In 1992, Ghana’s constitution was amended to restore multi-party politics, and the country has since held peaceful elections every 4 years. Also, aside from periodic ethnic disputes in the north, Ghana has stayed relatively free of the internal conflict that has plagued many African countries. Ghana’s economy also has been relatively strong. The primary exports are gold and cocoa, and in 2007 a large oilfield off the coast was discovered. A recent New York Times story named Ghana a contender for ‘the world’s fastest growing economy’ (McDonnell, 2018). Despite these seemingly positive trends, a majority of Ghanaians still are small landholders working in agriculture and manufacturing only accounts for a small fraction—less than ten per cent—of the GDP. While on paper, the overall performance of Ghana’s economy has been quite robust, a majority of Ghanaians do not benefit from this growth. Growth has been driven largely by the extractive sub-sector, with low job creation impact, while manufacturing and agriculture, which provide better employment, continue to dwindle (Aryeetey & Baah-Boateng, 2015). In essence, like most African countries, Ghana consumes what it does not produce and produces what it does not consume. Ghana remains a poor country with an average salary of around US$2 per day.

There are several intersecting social divisions that tend to affect which Ghanaians, including females, have greater opportunities to advance economically, including factors such as living in the more prosperous and fertile south versus the barren north; rural versus urban location; ethnic group (women and girls have greater power in matrilineal societies such as the Ashanti versus patrilineal ones); age; and disability. None of these variables are absolute, as urban poverty may be much worse than rural poverty. Interestingly, religious diversity tends not only to be tolerated, but also to be celebrated in Ghana. Although nearly two-thirds of Ghanaians are Christians, most Ghanaians respect all religious beliefs and often blend beliefs and traditions.

Gender disadvantage affects all categories of Ghanaians, aside from a select few of great wealth and political stature. In general, Ghanaian females are less literate than males, have lower incomes, work predominantly in the informal market, have greater health risks and are less likely to advance in government and private sector (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2016). ⁷

ICT4D and Gender in Ghana

Ghana, like many developing countries, has made several attempts to incorporate ICTs into its development agenda. In 1996, during the lead-up to WSIS, the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) was launched by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) as a strategic action plan for ICT development in Africa (Ojo, 2016). However, it was not until 2003, as a result of AISI and WSIS discussions, that Ghana’s government made progress in developing a policy document to guide the implementation and use of ICTs.

The process of formulating Ghana’s comprehensive national ICT policy was launched in March 2001 and involved four phases: developing the framework; drafting the policy; developing the implementation plan; and the actual implementation. An eight-member National ICT Policy and Plan Development Committee was created in August 2002 and formulated ‘an integrated ICT-led socio-economic development policy and plan for Ghana’, the implementation of which would accelerate Ghana’s socio-economic development process. The national strategic framework for engaging the information economy, the Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) policy document, was written in 2003 and passed into law in 2004. The policy’s vision is to improve Ghanaians’ quality of life by enriching their well-being through the use of ICTs as the main engines for accelerated socio-economic growth.

The policy outlines strategies for integrating ICTs in different sectors including agriculture, education, health, commerce and governance. It draws on key deve-lopment objectives captured in policy frameworks such as the Vision 2020 Socio-Economic Framework, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRS I and II), the Ghana Science and Technology Policy and the Coordinated Programme for Economic and Social Development of Ghana, all of which envision the use of ICTs. Based on these broader socio-economic objectives, the ICT4AD policy presents 14 priority areas of focus (Republic of Ghana, 2003).

While strides have been made in some areas, many of the policy aspirations of Ghana and most African countries are far from being realized. Ojo (2016) details the many socio-political and institutional reasons why AISI’s goal of digitally connecting all African villages by 2010 was not successful. Alhassan (2004) notes that ‘the faith in digital solutions in countries such as Ghana is fundamentally flawed…’ (p. 100), as countries often fail to address other pre-existing ‘divides’ and exclusions, including by gender, that ICTs alone cannot erase (Kwami, 2010).

Early calls for the integration of gender into Ghana’s national ICT policy were pushed by NGOs, activists and feminist scholars led by Abantu for Development, an NGO that has sought to advance women’s success in public life. At the beginning of the new millennium, Abantu identified ICTs as a key programmatic theme for 2001–2004 and focussed on highlighting the gender equality implications of ICT development in Ghana and Africa (Abantu for Development, 2001). Taking the lead on integrating gender in ICTs in Ghana, Abantu organized a landmark ICT conceptualization workshop in April 2001, which brought together stakeholders and culminated in the drafting of a gender-sensitive policy framework intended to guide national-level policy making (p. 46). The framework outlined key gender issues that need to be addressed, premised on the fact that ICT policy efforts were generally technocentric and failed to consider gender and other social concerns that exacerbated digital disparities among various population segments.

Similar problems had been identified by global activist organizations such as Association for Progressive Communication (APC), noted earlier, which includes gender and ICTs in its agenda. According to APC, it is very difficult for activists to push social issues relating to ICTs as opposed to issues related exclusively to infrastructures, such as schools and health-care facilities: ‘When they want to go beyond infrastructure the reactions they receive are not always positive. The culture regarding social applications of ICTs and broaching the issue of gender is a bit surreal’ (APC, 2002, p. 4).

As a result of the efforts of Abantu locally and organizations like APC globally, there were attempts in Ghana’s ICT policies to address gender issues. Though there was just one woman on the National ICT Policy and plan development committee, the committee sought the active engagement of women’s views. As part of the consultative process, ⁸ various public fora were organized to garner public opinion on how to design a national strategy for integrating ICTs into Ghana’s developmental goals. One such forum with representatives from women’s organizations and groups comprising government agencies, NGOs, religious bodies and traditional women’s leaders was held to involve women in the process. The committee concluded as follows:

A key conclusion at the meeting was that women could benefit greatly if they were empowered with the information communication technology. They also agreed that information technology could be an effective tool for the political empowerment of women; education and disseminating information and indigenous knowledge; and strengthening women’s participation in the political process. ⁹

While Ghana’s ICT4AD policy makes mention of using ICTs to address issues of gender equality, the exact strategy on ICTs and gender is not clearly articulated. The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, formerly the ministry of women and children (MOWAC), has the mandate to promote gender equity and gender mainstreaming policies and is responsible for implementing the so-called national strategy on ICTs and gender as part of the overall national ICT policy. ICT strategies outlined for achieving these gender-specific objectives include:

Ensuring that girls and women exploit their innovative capacity to create, design and use ICT products by ensuring that the implementation of the ICT policy addresses these gender issues.

Three problems arise from the above objectives and strategies. First, while acknowledging girls and women, the policy does not discuss how these objectives will be accomplished or make any firm commitment to address structural gender inequities beyond sector-level applications of ICTs. Second, the policy does not present a clear gender analysis that identifies and addresses gendered access to or impacts of ICTs in a concrete manner. Rather, the strategy focusses more on the ministry level application of ICTs without identifying any gender-specific national or local priorities. Thus, even though gender is mentioned in the policy, the objectives and strategies outlined above do not present a clear articulation of how gender analysis should be integrated into its implementation. The third problem is the fact that Ghanaian women are lumped together as one category without considering the varying social locations of Ghanaian women. The policy seems to overlook the fact that the gender question is also a question of economic class and geographic location, as poor women living in rural areas are most neglected by ICT projects and they are also most affected by the negative impacts (Kwami, 2010). Other social dimensions that could factor in include ethnicity, language, literacy, age and disability.

The government’s commitment to integrating gender into the current ICT policy remains elusive. To date, the national strategy on gender and ICT may be well intended on paper, but is yet to translate into practice. Kwapong (2007) notes that ‘despite the wide recognition of the role of ICT in national development, a successful ICT program planning and implementation to accelerate empowerment of women in Ghana is beset by several institutional, technical, political, economic and social challenges’ (para 7).

In May 2015, the Government of Ghana approved the National Gender Policy as its ‘commitment in the promotion of women’s human rights and empowerment with the ratification of key International Instruments, to the Millennium Development Goals and Ghana’s National Development Frameworks’. Led by the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, the theme was ‘Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment into Ghana’s Development Efforts’. While the policy seeks to enhance women’s rights by providing a framework for addressing inequalities, it fails—like the above discussed MOWAC ICT policy—to adequately address ICTs and gender issues in any meaningful way. The policy references ICTs in only one instance in the entire document, stating the following: ‘Promote ICT friendly environment for all schools, workplaces, homes, social centers among others particularly for women’.

The above policy critiques show that while it is well acknowledged that ICT disparities are gendered, the lack of systematic collection of sex-disaggregated data on ICT access and use in Africa (and in Ghana in particular) impacts gender-sensitive ICT policy making. Deen-Swarray, Gillwald, and Morrell (2012) in one of the few disaggregated surveys of ICT and gender in Africa note, ‘a digital divide between men and women prevails across Africa, the cause of the divide is complex. Patriarchy and societal systems that favour men over women play a role in preventing women’s access and use’ (p. 3).

In addition, following Maslow’s hierarchy, policymakers often perceive and advocate for what they deem more pressing gender issues—such as basic health—rather than gender inequities and issues in relation to ICTs. As one development practitioner puts it: ‘Gender is integrated in the current ICT policy just on paper. There is no real commitment to ensuring real gender equity when it comes to actual implementation’ (R. Mensah Kutin, personal interview, July 10, 2007).

Another explanation relates to how ICTs are predominantly conceptualized. ICTs tend to be discussed by the government and most other large institutions as more of a technical phenomenon than a social one. However, many feminist scholars point out that ICTs, in fact, are socially constructed, like all technologies, and therefore require the unveiling of the gendered discourse surrounding ICTs, often shrouded in patriarchy (Gajjala, 2014; Hafkin, 2002; Huyer, 2006; Rathgeber, 2000; Rosser, 2005; Schradie, 2015; Stamp, 1989).

ICTs furthermore tend to be grouped as one, even though they present different realities for people in different contexts (Kwami, 2010; Slater & Kwami, 2005). ICTs, even new ones, cannot be bundled together, as there may be great differences in access—for instance, to mobile phones and/or the radio versus the Internet (Kwami, 2010; Kwami, Wolf-Monteiro, & Steeves, 2011). Ethnographic studies in Ghana reveal that while Internet use is widespread in urban areas, it is predominantly used to chat with or e-mail foreigners, with relatives in the North and for information gathering (Burrell, 2008, 2009, 2012; Slater & Kwami, 2005). Although the Internet is increasingly becoming an important educational and communication tool for segments of Ghana’s population, among males within poor and marginalized groups, the Internet is commonly used in fantasy and ‘escape’ mode as a poverty reduction strategy that is often conducted via the deliberate misrepresentation of self for quick material gain, as in the case of Internet fraud, referred to as ‘sakawa’ (see Burrell, 2008). Mobile phones, on the other hand, are central to everyday practices of communicating with existing and embedded social networks, including complex family, business or social connections that constitute both resources and obligations (e.g., Kwami, 2016). Thus, mobile phones, more than the Internet, allow Ghanaians to maintain familial and social networks, especially between urban and rural areas relations. With the convergence of technologies, radio is available via the mobile phone as well, plus the popularity of WhatsApp allows for social sharing of media content and group communication. Hence, the mobile phone presently offers more potential as a development tool for many communities in Ghana than the standalone Internet via a computer, which is largely out of reach due to limitations of money or literacy, or used predominantly for (gendered) fantasy ventures. We support the view that any ICT-led intervention has to work in tandem with the dominant local framing of the technology and everyday situated contexts, which include the consideration of gender.

The reality is that in Ghana, as in most of the global South, there has been a clear gendered construction of ICTs that privilege males in terms of ICT access, use and decision-making. In general, men and boys have more access to ICTs due to greater resources, training and leisure time; and men are at the helm of ICT policymaking and institutions. Though there is some evidence that attitudes towards ICTs as a whole may be similar between selected groups of males and females (Sarfo, Amartei, Adentwi, & Brefo, 2011), attitudes often do not lead to equal access and use. Also, while a few women have managed to break the mould to actively engage in ICT as heads of ICT organizations, they remain the exception. Gender disparities are more apparent in terms of social class as the few women actively engaged in ICT in the formal sector tend to be educated elite. Despite their miniscule participation at the level of policymaking, Ghanaian women’s informal sector roles are central to the telecommunication economy. This, therefore, requires policymakers to pay attention to digital inequities that further marginalize women in the information society.

Research in Ghana illustrates the gendered nature of ICT access and use in everyday practices that require policy attention and sensitivity to differential impacts and needs. Kwami’s (2010) multi-site study of community information centres (CICs) in urban, peri-urban and rural communities revealed gendered practices around ICT access and use, such as fewer females, using CICs, due to financial and time constraints. Kwami’s survey found that males went to the CICs significantly more often than females. In a study of Internet cafés in diverse neighbourhoods in Accra, Fair, Tully, Ekdale and Asante (2009) confirmed the Internet café as a gendered space where young men in their late teens, 20s and early 30s spent considerably more time than women. Kwapong’s (2007) survey of the three regions in Ghana (Upper East, Ashanti and Greater Accra) found that differences in the socio-economic status of rural female households’ influenced their choice of information delivery technology and their willingness to pay it. Steeves (2013) and Steeves and Kwami (2017) analyzed the one laptop per child (OLPC) pilot project in Ghana and found, among other problems, that the project did not consult with recipients or stakeholders at the grass roots, with Ghana’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, or with other gender advocacy groups. As a consequence, the project did not consider gender, ethnicity or other social intersections that could affect what recipients bring to their experiences of the technology and therefore the ways in which the project exacerbated rather than reduced digital inequities.

In Ghana, differences in gender roles are linked to the power differential between males and females with regard to males’ greater control of material and immaterial resources. For instance, Kwami (2010) found that males were more likely to make big purchases such as mobile phones, sign up for training, buy more mobile units or spend more money going to the Internet café, thus, gaining access more easily to digital technologies than females. Steeves and Kwami (2017) observed large gender differences in youths’ leisure time, including the time to use digital technologies. An individual’s work environment may also affect access to digital resources. While such access may seem gender-neutral at face value, traditional gender roles, institutional structures and economic realities force disproportionate numbers of females into the informal sector where opportunities for access to new ICTs are limited. Additionally, narratives from women respondents reveal gender-specific needs and issues pertaining to how ICTs are deployed. Gendered variables include micro-enterprise obligations, literacy, women’s triple burden and gender-based violence, all of which are often neglected or totally ignored in ICT policy and projects such as the CICs. Related factors such as access to money, time constraints, cultural values and decision-making opportunities affect women’s meaningful participation in the implementation of ICTs in rural and urban communities (Kwami, 2010; Steeves & Kwami, 2017).

In sum, while Ghana’s government has made some efforts to include gender in its ICT policy documents, these have been more cosmetic than substantial. Policies are largely gender-neutral in tone and emphasize the technological aspects at the expense of social processes, applications and impacts. In their survey on ICT and gender in Africa, Deen-Swarray et al. (2012) note that women have less access to ICTs than men and digital inequity increases as the technologies and services become sophisticated and expensive, requiring higher income and education levels to access and operate. Effective ICT policies will require consideration of structural and social inequities in gender relations that often render women’s experiences invisible and make them passive agents of projects, thus limiting the possibilities for transformation, empowerment and social change.

Conclusion—From Digital Divide to Digital Inequity

Ghana has played an active role in global discussions about ICTs and produced a comprehensive policy in 2003. Ghana has also been an active participant in global discussions about women and gender, resulting in Ghana’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Women’s Manifesto of 2004 and many other initiatives. Ghana’s ICT4AD policy does acknowledge the question of gender equity; however, it does not present a nuanced analysis and fails to clearly outline a strategy for implementation. Gender is thus treated as a supplementary issue that is inserted in the policy without an actual commitment to assure that equity is achieved in practice. Likewise, ICTs have mentioned Ghana’s National Gender policy, but not in a specific or meaningful way. Therefore, though gender equity objectives regarding ICTs are addressed in Ghana’s relevant policies, there are no clear strategies for achieving them, or benchmarks for monitoring and evaluating gender equity. Ghana is hardly unique in this regard. As ICTs are often deemed gender neutral, many policies fail to consider gender as an important issue. We believe a gender analysis is essential in ensuring that policies and implementation strategies are inclusive of everyone, addressing the needs of and impacts on males and females in an equitable manner. This analysis should be nuanced and historically grounded, recognizing intersections, as well as the post-colonial critique of western interventions and technologies.