GENDER

Mobile technology is making inroads in African countries, with cellular phones being used daily to access business market updates and for communication among business partners. Lesotho is one such country, where five local women from different villages of Lesotho who are in the farming business have, through a pilot project run by the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), managed to improve the running of their businesses by using cellular phones.

The Mobile Active 08 conference is underway in Johannesburg from 13 to 15 October 2008 with fascinating presentations, one being on how women, in particular, have benefited from the use of mobile technology. “When a woman’s position improves, the environment benefits and while technology improves it also affects gender relations”, Dr Kutoma Wakunuma said in her presentation that aimed to unravel the social economic implications of cellular phones among women in Africa.

The Mobile Active 08 conference is underway in Johannesburg from 13 to 15 October 2008 with fascinating presentations, one being on how women, in particular, have benefited from the use of mobile technology. “When a woman’s position improves, the environment benefits and while technology improves it also affects gender relations”, Dr Kutoma Wakunuma said in her presentation that aimed to unravel the social economic implications of cellular phones among women in Africa.

The Mobile Active 08 conference is underway in Johannesburg from 13 to 15 October 2008 with fascinating presentations, one being how, particularly women, have benefited from the use of mobile technology.

 Mobile technology is making inroads in African countries with cellular phones being used to daily access business market updates and for communication among business partners.

We're in Uganda for the CJA in-country training. Yesterday, we had a session covering the difference in the kind of news coverage between mainstream media and citizen journalism. Participants had a look at two Ugandan newspapers, to assess the kind of stories that are covered: the Daily Monitor, and the Red Pepper -- seeing these are the only two newspapers readily available at our hotel. As we looked through the two papers, I found myself utterly shocked by the Red Pepper. This is a sensationalist tabloid, rather like the Voice and Die Son, which we get in Cape Town. But it's way worse than anything I've seen before.