Strategies, platforms, tools and training. Invitation to participate in an online discussion and information sharing e-consultation. 11-24 February 2004.

Women'sNet, with the support of the Food and Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) Dimitra Project, is hosting an International Workshop on the above topic from 23-25 February 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

To increase the number of voices in the workshop and to widen the space for dialogue and the sharing of experiences, information and resources we are hosting a 2 week e-consultation forum from 11-24 February 2004 and you are warmly invited to participate.

Not all those interested in attending the workshop can be funded and we feel that it is imperitive that more voices are included in the workshop deliberations. One way of doing this is through an e-consultation.

We will create a synergy between the workshop and the e-consultation by presenting the outcomes of the e-consultation at the start of the workshop and circulating the final outcomes document post the workshop.

This is also a space to share input from the workshop presenters as well as resources related to the topic.

To join either email jenny@apcwomen.org or go here and follow the instructions.

**Goals of the e-consultation**

Here are the goals of the e-consulation with some meta questions which we will use to guide our discussions. These are merely guides to frame the e-consultation and we welcome your questions.

1.Explore the different strategies and platforms used by development organizations to facilitate rural women's expression of their issues and their concerns.

*What are the lessons from and challenges of projects that use different media to capture women's voices?
*In your view, do particular communication technologies and media platforms (television, radio, Internet, etc) lend themselves better to certain applications like facilitating policy inputs, economic empowerment activities, etc. targeted at women in rural areas?

2.Understand how to make existing information infrastructure more gender inclusive and responsive to the information and development needs of rural and disadvantaged women.

*What are the opportunities and challenges facing rural information centres?
*How can these information centres be used to facilitate rural women's development?
*What strategies and processes have worked in the different contexts where you work/live, in making existing public access infrastructure more accessible for women and inclusive of their concerns?

3.To explore how a broadcasting model is used in different parts of the continent to address rural women's issues and concerns and broaden their participation in decision-making over matters that impact on their living conditions

*How are radio and television broadcasting being used to advance women's human rights?
*How can we use radio for women's empowerment?
*What are the strategies and opportunities for linking rural women with radio?
*What are the difficulties experienced in linking women with public, private and community broadcasters? And does this make a sustainable impact on their programming?

4.To highlight different training initiatives that specifically target rural women, as well as initiatives that facilitate the work of ICT trainers.

*What training initiatives that specifically target rural women are effective and sustainable?
*What are the ingredients that make these effective?
*What initiatives that facilitate the work of ICT trainers are working and why?

Throughout our e-consultation we encourage people to contribute personal and organizational stories, resources, activities and events that would contribute to the discussion and to the workshop deliberations.