GINKS Focus Grouop

Key results analysis questionnaires

Margaret Kyiu gave a presentation of the key results:

Annual review 2008 based on 115 questionnaires, 77 online and 44 filled on paper

24% who filled in were female (26% of the members of GINKS are women, this is almost same)

83% had education up to the tertiary level as against 100% in 2007 and 85% in 2006

45% live in the capital city as against 69% in 2007 and 75% in 2006

74% of respondents said the objectives of the network are clear

37% said they had not achieved their goals for participating

67% of respondents experienced awareness

Knowledge sharing is 69% (up by 19%)

Lobbying and advocacy and policy participation is 52%

Gender impact is 51%

More female (64%) see gender impacts than male (47%).

Group discussions

The participants were divided into 4 groups, with each group given a focus to deliberate upon and come up with recommendation which will form bases for the action plan.

 

impressions of the Focus Group meeting

 Group 1 Lobby, Advocacy & Policy Influencing

• In what areas should GINKS be able to advocate for or to influence policy?
• How
  members could be more involved in Lobbying, Advocacy and Policy influence?
• In which ways could we engage policy makers the more?

On the first issue, the group said that GINKS must prepare and present paper (inputs) to parliament when passing a bill

On HOW MEMBERS CAN GET INVOLVED, the group came up with the following:

• Build capacity of members in lobbying and advocacy
• Constitute committee on lobbying and advocacy for the network
• Team up with organisers with ICT skills
• Use of educational institutions
• Collate views from members in the communities in the rural areas

On WAYS TO ENGAGE POLICY MAKERS, the group said that GINKS should involve
them in GINKS activities

Interact more and more with them to ensure their commitment

Pick and follow up on their statements (for GINKS)

Seek
for their sponsorship (for GINKS)

Group 2 Low female participation in the network

• Why is Female participation is still low in the network and How can we improve it; and
• Why members feel that the viewpoint of men and women are not well integrated in activities and how it can we improve

On
why female participation is low on the network, the members of group 2 gave the
following reasons:

• Non conscious efforts to involve women in ICT
• Time of network activities
• Socio-cultural factors
• Techno
  centric nature of ICT

They thus recommended the following as ways through which this can improve:

• Conscious efforts to involve more women in activities of the network
• Good
  timing of network activities
• Education / awareness creation
• Practical
  orientation on ICT tools
• Activities / issues more beneficial to women

On why members feel that the viewpoint of men and women are not well integrated in activities, they said that it is due to Lack of effective participation in the network by women. They thus
recommended that

• issues that concern and interest women should be raised; and
• women
  participation should be encouraged

 Group 3 High educational level of members

• Why there is a skew in GINKS towards tertiary education and how we can reach out to
  people outside tertiary education (Secondary, primary,) in terms of membership
  and services; and
• How we should reach out to people who cannot read and write

On the first issue, the group held the view that there is actually no tilt but a decline in the tertiary level, but that the secondary and primary level is a national problem. They thus
recommended that:

• Govt should build more conducive learning environments for secondary  and primary schools
• GINKS and other private stakeholders should advocate for ICT policies friendly to
  primary to secondary schools, so that people that end up stopping at those levels will still have adequate e-literacy
• Infrastructural issues should be dealt with also
• GINKS
  should advocate that the school authorities in primary and sec school to give the students more access to computer labs and for trainers to be provided for the schools
• Contact
  with organisations that work with SMEs (especially membership organisations) in order to set up trainings in the use of ICTs
• Awareness is also necessary

On reaching out to the people who cannot read and write, the group recommended the repackaging of information through mediums and languages they can understand – e.g, pictures, video, radio

Group 4 Non achievement of goals

• What kind of goals do members expect to achieve within GINKS?
• Why do members don’t achieve their goals? How can we improve on it?
• Why do so many people from rural areas not achieve their goals? How do we improve it?

In answering these questions, the group 4
members in analysing the fact that 37% of GINKS members are not aware of the objectives of the organisation, held that familiarity with GINKS objectives is a necessary foundation to whether or not the members achieve their goals. They based their assessment on the following thematic areas:

• Information and knowledge sharing
• Networking (through the networking, one can also meet his aspirations)
• Knowledge and skills acquisition for local content development
• Conferences and workshops

Mismatch objectives

• Unrealistic expectations (people’s intention to attend many conferences, programmes etc.)
• Awareness creation – Raising the level of awareness and objectives of GINKS
• Practicing on the skills we have acquired and sharing those skills with others

Easy / regular access to ICT tools (infrastructure)

• Low education level