Archive for May 24th, 2009
Posted on May 24, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Technology and Community Development
Eric Kumah asked:
TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
KUMAH ERIC JUNIOR
MARCH 2009
ABSTRACT:
In today’s world, technology has invaded many aspects of human life. From its gigantic influence on our education and professional development, to the more subtle presence of little gadgets littering our homes, technology is almost everywhere.
The reasons for such pervasiveness would boil down to some characteristics that technology by itself possesses. One such characteristic, which is of major interest to many scholars, is the seeming lack of barriers to the spread of technology. It easily penetrates societies and even to remote communities, and once it reaches its destination and catches on, it becomes seemingly difficult to stop its spread. As a result of this, consumer technology like cellular phones, computers, PDAs, radios and televisions have become commonplace in places like Africa, even with all the barriers one would have envisaged.
Sadly, it does not need much analysis to realize that even though technology usage is growing rapidly in Africa, we still have numerous developmental problems in our continent. This is a situation where advanced technology is coexisting with underdevelopment in Africa. With all the power that technology wields, it will be a useful exercise to study the ways in which it can be used to solve some of those very problems it has come to meet. In essence, using our little gadgets to solve our big problems.
This is the background against which this study is undertaken. Asking whether our problems can be solved at all, then enumerating instances where development projects that utilize technology have been put to work, and concluding by examining the cases and drawing lessons from them.
CHAPTER. 1.
INTRODUCTION
The limits to what the human mind can conceive and achieve are increasing. More discoveries have been made, more things have been created, more theories have been proved and disproved, more machines have been made and more problems have been created. Scientific technology has been the driving force behind all these. Science has indeed proved to be a powerful tool which has touched many people and has shaped many communities.
According to the Concise Oxford dictionary 10th edition, technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. Clearly from this definition we can see that scientific knowledge may exist theoretically but it only becomes technology when it is used in practical settings. For example we may say the knowledge of the rules of up-thrust and buoyancy is theoretical, however practical utilization of these rules to manufacture airplanes could be termed aircraft technology.
Again according to the Concise Oxford dictionary 10th edition, a community is the people of an area considered collectively, while development is explained to mean to grow or cause to grow and become larger or more advanced. By deduction, community development could be explained to be the growth or advancement of a group of people.
Today, the world has become highly technological, and things which in the seventies would have passed for science fiction are now so commonplace that they have almost become necessities. From every corner of the world, technology has global acceptance, it is ubiquitous and has the ability to dramatically change situations.
Any attempt to ascribe reasons for this pervasiveness of technology will have many suggestions, some of which are that machines have been proven more efficient than humans at some tasks, machines are less error prone, impartial and never get tired like humans. Another could be the increased sophistication of humans and the attendant need for equally complicated messengers to help us perform many tasks, which is linked to the interesting nature of technology that once a more advanced way of doing something is found, it becomes almost unthinkable to try to do it by "old fashioned" means.
With such large scale interplay of these and many more factors, there is little reason to be surprised by the sudden emergence of automatic machines to handle the little tasks of old; cleaning floors, washing clothes, cutting bread, mixing cake etc. the list goes on and on.
And that is far from all and the list of innovative possibilities is endless. In truth, some of these innovations have shaped the world and there are many examples to cite. The discovery of electricity and the radio wave both changed the world. Today, computers are changing the world even faster. Now with cellular phones, new opportunities have come and our imagination has become the only limiting factor. We can only wait for the next big thing to be created and who knows what it will be?
The picture of technological advancement is not a completely rosy one. Indeed, there are some minuses to science as well, such as the introduction of new forms of danger which come as a consequence of innovative forms of technology, for example the nuclear bomb came from nuclear technology, unforeseen genetic mutations are as the result of genetic engineering, and the numerous and little talked about chemicals which can destroy the ozone or warm the planet.
The seriousness of the disadvantages of technology have prompted some people to argue that technological advancement, which is an example of scientific development, is making us more of advanced entities but less of humans. In other words, we have become better scientists, bankers and professionals and worse human beings. Martin Luther King puts this argument succinctly when he said "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power, we have guided missiles and misguided men."
The disadvantages that technology brings are issues which require serious examination to ascertain what can be done to eliminate them or at least minimize their effects since technology has definitely come to stay, and it would be to our advantage to learn how to work with it in ways that will be the most beneficial to us.
But despite the disadvantages listed here and the many more unnamed, we have seen that we can still derive many benefits from science and given that we live in, or at least come from, a part of the world where development is still a big headache, we should be the first to start a serious study of this phenomenon and see how best we can use it to our advantage. We may be surprised to see that there is a great viability in using our little gadgets to solve our big problems.
Let us make it clear that the aim of this paper is not to present technology as the magic cure that will clear our multitude of problems in a whiff, technology alone will not solve Africa’s problems because our problems are too complex, too deep and too overwhelming for any simplistic scheme to be successful. We can only achieve success when if have a more comprehensive approach to the problem, to include solid commitment to serious research, establishment of the appropriate structures, and the taking of required initiatives. It will be incorrect to assume that technology in itself is inherently good, and just implementing it alone will be enough to achieve any good result3. Though technology may be able to do anything, people must have the vision to drive it in the right direction.
Only with this knowledge can we make any meaningful gains in the development agenda.
In our particular context, Africa has proved that advanced technology could coexist with underdevelopment. People have satellite televisions whilst there are no teachers in the classrooms, we have mobile devices and pocket PCs and devices but our streets are still not named properly, there is still a large number of illiterates among the people who own and use cell phones, spreading of healthcare information is still a challenge even though a lot of people have access to radio and TV. This sorry list is endless.
CHAPTER 2:
CAN TECHNOLOGY REALLY ADDRESS OUR PROBLEMS?
From healthcare, access to water and life expectancy, to governance, industrialization and even the quality of human life, there are numerous problems confronting African communities.
Today we are said to be living in the information age, an era where access to information is the new driving force of the world. The proliferation of the Internet and World Wide Web has reduced the whole world to a massive audience with unprecedented access to vast quantities of information. This communication is unencumbered and the formation of alliances is unhindered by physical distance, national or political borders4. With all the dynamics that this modernity brings, technology stands tall as a favourite to achieve any meaningful sustainable development for many reasons.
Principal among such reasons is the fact that there is improved awareness of underdevelopment among Africans themselves, which could be due to the information age, and an improved belief that our situations can be turned around. This is markedly different from decades ago when there was a lot of resignation and despair among black professionals. Evidence to support this would be the observation that much more thought is being directed at the Africa integration agenda and greater attention being paid to the Economic partnership agreements (EU- ECOWAS).
Another positive indicator is the growing number of trained and competent technological professionals on the face of the continent. Granted, the improved numbers by themselves will not be a good indicator, but with the holistic approach talked about earlier, one can see a sign of hope which shows that there is very high potential for success in a well though out scheme to utilize technology to solve our developmental problems.
Another good point is the individual work that is being carried out by different groups using different approaches (studies of the indigenous chieftaincy system for e.g.) at trying to solve the same problems. This is clear evidence to state that beyond the level of commitment, there have been actual attempts at problem solving. Even if some of such attempts have not been successful due to the numerous challenges in the way, the experiences have been gained and lessons have been drawn from them which would be utilized for future use.
Finally there are areas where major strides have already been made in Africa. Statistics show for example that there have been remarkable improvements in girl student enrollments in places like Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia5. This is definitely a feather in our cap and such areas may serve as boosters to face the remaining dark spots.
All these imply that we might be closer than ever to solving our problems, and all that may be left will be a few giant pushes forward.
This is where technology comes into the picture. It is the one thing that seems to know no barriers, catches on easily and has the power to transform even the most remotely inaccessible locations on earth to budding business towns. It is ubiquitous. Its innovations accelerate by the month. As a result, it is the most probable tool to achieve anything meaningful.
In the early 90’s, scholars described Africa as being left in a technological apartheid 6. Today however, with increased globalization perhaps a slightly better picture can be painted. Even though Africa is not in the league of the innovators of the most novel initiatives and we may not be making as good use of technologies as we ought to, or as some others are, we would still have something positive to report. For example, in some cases, Africa actually has comparable human and hardware resources. Therefore, "apartheid" would no longer be a precise definition of the situation as it stands.
As stated earlier in this paper, technology alone will not solve our problems. But with very serious considerations using active participation, a comprehensive and well though out scheme that incorporates technology will be a very viable solution.
However taking a look at all the attempts made so far and their attendant challenges and effects if any, one may say confidently that will all the proper accompanying compliments, technology will made very significant gains in spurring the development agenda on.
CHAPTER 3:
HOW IS TECHNOLOGY BEING USED TO SOLVE PROBLEMS?
Across many countries around the world, people have made serious strides at utilizing technological knowledge to solve all manner of problems. Many issues have arisen out of such attempts, and below are very brief summaries of some of those places where practical scientific knowledge has been utilized for the growth of the community.
3.1 ELECTIONS
In Africa’s recent governance history, elections have always been a challenge. It is hard to find a totally free and fair voting exercise, whilst contested elections, unfair processes, non transparent irregularities and simple ineffectiveness are commonplace. With a background of poverty, it is not too difficult to understand why the stakes are so high in African politics and why power is very lucrative in this part of the world. This not withstanding however, there is a good number of unrests that could have been avoided if any election is proven to be fair, free and transparent to an appreciable degree.
Attaining this ideal degree has proved difficult for reasons of the complex interplay of some factors including, a government founded electoral commission, a winner takes all setting, and no motivation to commit to the right virtues. Knowing that power is so lucrative when you come from this winner takes all setting, it is really hard to let go of control of the electoral process. This is one motivation for the dishonourable acts that unfortunately we see quite often.
Because elections are highly involving and they require elaborate programs that span a series of locations (from a voter’s home to the polling station, the collation center, the electoral commission headquarters, the public domain and back to the voter’s home), It follows that unless you are trying to make public exhibition of your nefarious activity, you would need to be tactical to be successful at such dishonorable acts. The tactics employed may vary but they invariably entail series of acts that are designed to prevent information from getting into the public domain. So that for example, figures could be changed anytime so long as the original and authentic ones do not get into the hands of the public.
If democratic leadership were genuinely understood, there will be no attempt at election rigging. But since we are currently not in that ideal stage, election monitoring is one tool we can exploit to at least cut the ability for cheating.
Mobile phone technology is being used in election monitoring in some African countries under a new system of election monitoring called "parallel reporting". Parallel reporting is simply an approach to election monitoring whereby independent observers spread news of the votes counted at the basic level, which is the polling station. The figures are then relayed to an independent center where they are collated and cross checked with official figures announced by the electoral commission.
One advantage of this scheme is seen that it will make it increasingly difficult for an electoral commission to attempt to fraudulently sway the results in the favour of any of the contesting parties. The spreading or relaying of the results figures are done largely with mobile phones. Senegal is an example of a country where this project has been successful.
3.2 HEALTHCARE
The statistics obtained from healthcare research are interesting. Figures show that a large number of the world’s HIVAIDS afflicted people live in Africa. At the same time, one of the growing markets for consumer electronics such as mobile devices, handheld PC etc may be found here in Africa. This represents a population overlap, and it is only prudent that some amount of research has been directed towards attempting to find ways to incorporating technology in the treatment of the numerous diseases on the face of the continent7.
Tuberculosis (TB) has long been known to be one of the deadliest diseases known to man. Apart from the threat that this highly infectious bacterial disease presents to human life, it also enjoys some additional notoriety for lowering the sufferer’s immune system to make it easy for other diseases, which may have various degrees of harmfulness, to attack the sufferer.
As if that were not enough, TB has a deadly habit of mutating at the least case of drug non adherence. Therefore any TB caregiver knows that a patient who demonstrates non compliance with drug rules is clearly not interested in getting healed. As a result of this, over the years, ways to enforce religious adherence of medication have been tried but success has largely eluded caregivers.
In South Africa, there is a very laudable project, the SimPill’s award-winning Adherence System project, which uses a real-time management system to increase adherence to medications prescribed to treat chronic illnesses – particularly tuberculosis, which is a significant cause of death of people living with HIV.
3.3 SOCIAL ISSUES
Serious projects that utilize technology to address social issues have been implemented in South Africa. One such idea named Fahamu’s Umn Yango (meaning ‘doorway’ in isiZulu) has been implemented to curb domestic violence by equipping people with cell phones as tools to monitor and report abuse. Under this scheme, victims use cell phones to call a predefined and popular number and give details of the abuse.
The fear of being victimized has always made it difficult for victims, witnesses or relatives to step up and lodge complaints to the relevant authorities. There are examples of places where people had reported abuses and had been picked upon by the abuser. We have had friends of a victim reporting an abuse of their friend only to go home to be abused themselves by their spouses as punishment for "poking their noses in other people’s business". These good citizens were made to pay the price for exposing a wrong thing.
This fear has been totally eliminated under this project because of the provision of anonymity, the telephone call could be made in secret, and even the details of the reporter are not always required. This is a sharp contrast to the situation in the past where victims, neighbours, or witnesses were required to walk into a police station to make a formal report.
Apart from successes chalked in the number of reports that are received, there has also been a reduction in the numbers of abuse cases. This may be partly due to the deterring feeling among would-be abusers that, any passerby holding a mobile phone might just make sure they get a visit from a police detective for spouse battering.
3.4 ANIMAL FARMING
Technology has also been put to good use in farming.
Farmers who rear cattle in small herds, over time, develop a personal relationship with the animals, the farmer knows all of them and can notice a missing animal or a sick one with just a glance. However, because it takes months of careful observation of the behaviour of every cow to know every animal well enough to take note when there is an infection or when an animal does not ruminate properly, this task would be ineffective if it were performed by a human shepherd with a large herd.
To remedy this situation, the technology of vocal tags has been developed in Europe. This project employs a tag, which is a belt fitted with sensors and worn around each animal’s neck. These sensors monitor several indicators such as the animal’s rate of rumination, voice clarity, digestion and breathing and send the data collected to a central computer.
Over time the computer knows what is normal for every cow and will notify the shepherd when something goes wrong with a cow.
The advantage of this project is that a farmer can take quick and specific action like giving treatment to the particular animal involved. This removes the need to give general treatments to the whole herd, which is both time and money wasting.
These are some of the ways that technology is being used towards increased development.
CHAPTER 4
WHAT LESSONS HAVE BEEN LEARNT?
No matter how promising an idea or project sounds, there are bound to be problems encountered in the deployment of the project. In achieving the above projects, following are some of the problems one is likely to be faced with:
In the election monitoring program, misinformation has been identified to be one of the problems starring the program in the face. It is true that when all the information is not localized in the hands of government, then a lot more transparency will be achieved, but it is also true that mass misinformation remains an unpleasant possibility.
Another problem could arise when there is a situation where people do not necessarily trust the degree of independence of the so called independent observers. It may lead to a problem where parties could cast a slur on the reputation of the observers so as to use the resulting mistrust to set the stage for a possible rejection of the results.
Overall this is a laudable idea and if a means of verification were added, the figures would mean much more to a lot of people.
Whilst celebrating the successes chalked, it is important to note that a number of other factors needed to progress before a state could move towards a more democratic model of governance. According to African political expert, Sheldon Gellar, these changes include: strengthening independent media, growing and ensuring freedom of civil society, decentralizing power, ceding more control to local governments, empowering women and improving judicial systems to ensure independence and power to punish.
Governance is one area that is set to reap some benefits of this phenomenon when used judiciously, unilateral rule and arbitrary action may be reduced towards a more participatory approach to leadership in Ghana
Technology could help achieve those goals to some extent, as communication was the key to overcoming oppression.
In some of the cases, such as the election monitoring or domestic violence reporting, the internet could be used to provide communities with means to communicate, to organize and obtain good information which is not controlled by the government. However, this is not practical in Africa since only a tiny percentage of Africans have affordable access to internet.
In the healthcare project, basic mismanagement has been identified as one of the reasons why many projects seem to skid to halt after being piloted. Needed funds are not always available to those who need them.
Another problem observed was that the people who will be using the project are not always consulted in the designing and planning of the ideas, so there is a lack of communication between beneficiaries, health professionals, technologists, and managers.
Another problem was the theft of cell phones. Although cell phones are a relatively low-cost technology, they still hold considerable value in poverty-stricken areas, and are commonly stolen. And, such theft is likely to rise as these devices become more and more complex. However this is quite debatable since some analysts argue that losing a cell phone to a thief is less of a financial loss than losing a more costly machine.
In the domestic violence project one stumbling block was the communication gap between the various parties involved in the system. Feedback was largely missing and people could not tell whether their input was useful – or received, and in some cases, police officers who receive messages reporting violence against women may not be prepared to respond.
Another problem was the unfortunate situation where some unscrupulous people made the work more difficult for the authorities by raising false alarms. This could be addressed by education and the incorporation of punitive measures.
However to use effective punitive measures, even more advanced technology will be required, for example to pinpoint a particular cell phone subscriber, and take action against them like blocking their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Cards etc.
And the usual problem of financing in many projects is ever present as well, and it is the more predominant one in the animal rearing project.
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
Granted, there are challenges that exist in using technology to achieve development goals, but such efforts still hold great potential and the costs of any obstacle will not stand in comparison to the threat of underdevelopment and poverty. So we can only strive to work harder at such solutions.
Our development attempts and efforts should think more seriously about sustainability and scalability. One important consideration in this direction is the affordability of the programmes we plan and develop. The more affordable options have a higher chance of success, so the fact that most of the development projects do not require any extraordinarily complex or new gadgets is indeed pleasant to note.
Also throughout the creation and deploying of any project, enough consultation should be carried out to ensure that there is a general buy-in into the idea from the creators to the beneficiaries. This will make an idea command a common sense of ownership.
The quality of the management should also be improved and measures should be put in place to ensure the right things are done.
Identifying the problem is half the solution. We already now have greater awareness and we have made some attempts at solving them. Putting our acts together to draw the lessons and re-strategizing with a new approach -technology, is definitely the way to go. I am confident of the viability of this new approach.
CITED REFERENCES
1 Steere M. Cell phones promise fairer elections in Africa. Cable News Network [Online]2009. Available from http://edition.cnn.com/europe. Accessed 2009 Feb 6.
2 Wikipedia. Technology.Wikipedia.org[online]2009.
Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology. Assesed 2009 March 27
3 Macha N. Will Technology solve Africa’s problems?. Global Voices Online[Online]2009. Available from http://globalvoicesonline.com/ Accessed 2009 Feb 6.
4 Finnis A.J. Learning in the Information Age.Twinisles[Online]2009.
Available from http://dev.twinisles.com/research/learninfoage.htm. Accessed 2009 March 27
5 Kitetu, C. Gender in Education: An overview of developing trends in Africa.
Available from www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/groups/crile/docs/crile54kitetu.pdf. Accessed 2009 March 27
6 Castells M. Information Technology Globalization and Social Development.[Abstract]. In UNRISD Discussion Paper No. 114.September 1999.p11.
7 Walvaren K. Did you say cell phones for development? Association for Progressive Communications.[Online]2007.Available from http://www.acp.org/en/home. Accessed 2009 Feb 6.
Caffeinated Content
TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
KUMAH ERIC JUNIOR
MARCH 2009
ABSTRACT:
In today’s world, technology has invaded many aspects of human life. From its gigantic influence on our education and professional development, to the more subtle presence of little gadgets littering our homes, technology is almost everywhere.
The reasons for such pervasiveness would boil down to some characteristics that technology by itself possesses. One such characteristic, which is of major interest to many scholars, is the seeming lack of barriers to the spread of technology. It easily penetrates societies and even to remote communities, and once it reaches its destination and catches on, it becomes seemingly difficult to stop its spread. As a result of this, consumer technology like cellular phones, computers, PDAs, radios and televisions have become commonplace in places like Africa, even with all the barriers one would have envisaged.
Sadly, it does not need much analysis to realize that even though technology usage is growing rapidly in Africa, we still have numerous developmental problems in our continent. This is a situation where advanced technology is coexisting with underdevelopment in Africa. With all the power that technology wields, it will be a useful exercise to study the ways in which it can be used to solve some of those very problems it has come to meet. In essence, using our little gadgets to solve our big problems.
This is the background against which this study is undertaken. Asking whether our problems can be solved at all, then enumerating instances where development projects that utilize technology have been put to work, and concluding by examining the cases and drawing lessons from them.
CHAPTER. 1.
INTRODUCTION
The limits to what the human mind can conceive and achieve are increasing. More discoveries have been made, more things have been created, more theories have been proved and disproved, more machines have been made and more problems have been created. Scientific technology has been the driving force behind all these. Science has indeed proved to be a powerful tool which has touched many people and has shaped many communities.
According to the Concise Oxford dictionary 10th edition, technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. Clearly from this definition we can see that scientific knowledge may exist theoretically but it only becomes technology when it is used in practical settings. For example we may say the knowledge of the rules of up-thrust and buoyancy is theoretical, however practical utilization of these rules to manufacture airplanes could be termed aircraft technology.
Again according to the Concise Oxford dictionary 10th edition, a community is the people of an area considered collectively, while development is explained to mean to grow or cause to grow and become larger or more advanced. By deduction, community development could be explained to be the growth or advancement of a group of people.
Today, the world has become highly technological, and things which in the seventies would have passed for science fiction are now so commonplace that they have almost become necessities. From every corner of the world, technology has global acceptance, it is ubiquitous and has the ability to dramatically change situations.
Any attempt to ascribe reasons for this pervasiveness of technology will have many suggestions, some of which are that machines have been proven more efficient than humans at some tasks, machines are less error prone, impartial and never get tired like humans. Another could be the increased sophistication of humans and the attendant need for equally complicated messengers to help us perform many tasks, which is linked to the interesting nature of technology that once a more advanced way of doing something is found, it becomes almost unthinkable to try to do it by "old fashioned" means.
With such large scale interplay of these and many more factors, there is little reason to be surprised by the sudden emergence of automatic machines to handle the little tasks of old; cleaning floors, washing clothes, cutting bread, mixing cake etc. the list goes on and on.
And that is far from all and the list of innovative possibilities is endless. In truth, some of these innovations have shaped the world and there are many examples to cite. The discovery of electricity and the radio wave both changed the world. Today, computers are changing the world even faster. Now with cellular phones, new opportunities have come and our imagination has become the only limiting factor. We can only wait for the next big thing to be created and who knows what it will be?
The picture of technological advancement is not a completely rosy one. Indeed, there are some minuses to science as well, such as the introduction of new forms of danger which come as a consequence of innovative forms of technology, for example the nuclear bomb came from nuclear technology, unforeseen genetic mutations are as the result of genetic engineering, and the numerous and little talked about chemicals which can destroy the ozone or warm the planet.
The seriousness of the disadvantages of technology have prompted some people to argue that technological advancement, which is an example of scientific development, is making us more of advanced entities but less of humans. In other words, we have become better scientists, bankers and professionals and worse human beings. Martin Luther King puts this argument succinctly when he said "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power, we have guided missiles and misguided men."
The disadvantages that technology brings are issues which require serious examination to ascertain what can be done to eliminate them or at least minimize their effects since technology has definitely come to stay, and it would be to our advantage to learn how to work with it in ways that will be the most beneficial to us.
But despite the disadvantages listed here and the many more unnamed, we have seen that we can still derive many benefits from science and given that we live in, or at least come from, a part of the world where development is still a big headache, we should be the first to start a serious study of this phenomenon and see how best we can use it to our advantage. We may be surprised to see that there is a great viability in using our little gadgets to solve our big problems.
Let us make it clear that the aim of this paper is not to present technology as the magic cure that will clear our multitude of problems in a whiff, technology alone will not solve Africa’s problems because our problems are too complex, too deep and too overwhelming for any simplistic scheme to be successful. We can only achieve success when if have a more comprehensive approach to the problem, to include solid commitment to serious research, establishment of the appropriate structures, and the taking of required initiatives. It will be incorrect to assume that technology in itself is inherently good, and just implementing it alone will be enough to achieve any good result3. Though technology may be able to do anything, people must have the vision to drive it in the right direction.
Only with this knowledge can we make any meaningful gains in the development agenda.
In our particular context, Africa has proved that advanced technology could coexist with underdevelopment. People have satellite televisions whilst there are no teachers in the classrooms, we have mobile devices and pocket PCs and devices but our streets are still not named properly, there is still a large number of illiterates among the people who own and use cell phones, spreading of healthcare information is still a challenge even though a lot of people have access to radio and TV. This sorry list is endless.
CHAPTER 2:
CAN TECHNOLOGY REALLY ADDRESS OUR PROBLEMS?
From healthcare, access to water and life expectancy, to governance, industrialization and even the quality of human life, there are numerous problems confronting African communities.
Today we are said to be living in the information age, an era where access to information is the new driving force of the world. The proliferation of the Internet and World Wide Web has reduced the whole world to a massive audience with unprecedented access to vast quantities of information. This communication is unencumbered and the formation of alliances is unhindered by physical distance, national or political borders4. With all the dynamics that this modernity brings, technology stands tall as a favourite to achieve any meaningful sustainable development for many reasons.
Principal among such reasons is the fact that there is improved awareness of underdevelopment among Africans themselves, which could be due to the information age, and an improved belief that our situations can be turned around. This is markedly different from decades ago when there was a lot of resignation and despair among black professionals. Evidence to support this would be the observation that much more thought is being directed at the Africa integration agenda and greater attention being paid to the Economic partnership agreements (EU- ECOWAS).
Another positive indicator is the growing number of trained and competent technological professionals on the face of the continent. Granted, the improved numbers by themselves will not be a good indicator, but with the holistic approach talked about earlier, one can see a sign of hope which shows that there is very high potential for success in a well though out scheme to utilize technology to solve our developmental problems.
Another good point is the individual work that is being carried out by different groups using different approaches (studies of the indigenous chieftaincy system for e.g.) at trying to solve the same problems. This is clear evidence to state that beyond the level of commitment, there have been actual attempts at problem solving. Even if some of such attempts have not been successful due to the numerous challenges in the way, the experiences have been gained and lessons have been drawn from them which would be utilized for future use.
Finally there are areas where major strides have already been made in Africa. Statistics show for example that there have been remarkable improvements in girl student enrollments in places like Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia5. This is definitely a feather in our cap and such areas may serve as boosters to face the remaining dark spots.
All these imply that we might be closer than ever to solving our problems, and all that may be left will be a few giant pushes forward.
This is where technology comes into the picture. It is the one thing that seems to know no barriers, catches on easily and has the power to transform even the most remotely inaccessible locations on earth to budding business towns. It is ubiquitous. Its innovations accelerate by the month. As a result, it is the most probable tool to achieve anything meaningful.
In the early 90’s, scholars described Africa as being left in a technological apartheid 6. Today however, with increased globalization perhaps a slightly better picture can be painted. Even though Africa is not in the league of the innovators of the most novel initiatives and we may not be making as good use of technologies as we ought to, or as some others are, we would still have something positive to report. For example, in some cases, Africa actually has comparable human and hardware resources. Therefore, "apartheid" would no longer be a precise definition of the situation as it stands.
As stated earlier in this paper, technology alone will not solve our problems. But with very serious considerations using active participation, a comprehensive and well though out scheme that incorporates technology will be a very viable solution.
However taking a look at all the attempts made so far and their attendant challenges and effects if any, one may say confidently that will all the proper accompanying compliments, technology will made very significant gains in spurring the development agenda on.
CHAPTER 3:
HOW IS TECHNOLOGY BEING USED TO SOLVE PROBLEMS?
Across many countries around the world, people have made serious strides at utilizing technological knowledge to solve all manner of problems. Many issues have arisen out of such attempts, and below are very brief summaries of some of those places where practical scientific knowledge has been utilized for the growth of the community.
3.1 ELECTIONS
In Africa’s recent governance history, elections have always been a challenge. It is hard to find a totally free and fair voting exercise, whilst contested elections, unfair processes, non transparent irregularities and simple ineffectiveness are commonplace. With a background of poverty, it is not too difficult to understand why the stakes are so high in African politics and why power is very lucrative in this part of the world. This not withstanding however, there is a good number of unrests that could have been avoided if any election is proven to be fair, free and transparent to an appreciable degree.
Attaining this ideal degree has proved difficult for reasons of the complex interplay of some factors including, a government founded electoral commission, a winner takes all setting, and no motivation to commit to the right virtues. Knowing that power is so lucrative when you come from this winner takes all setting, it is really hard to let go of control of the electoral process. This is one motivation for the dishonourable acts that unfortunately we see quite often.
Because elections are highly involving and they require elaborate programs that span a series of locations (from a voter’s home to the polling station, the collation center, the electoral commission headquarters, the public domain and back to the voter’s home), It follows that unless you are trying to make public exhibition of your nefarious activity, you would need to be tactical to be successful at such dishonorable acts. The tactics employed may vary but they invariably entail series of acts that are designed to prevent information from getting into the public domain. So that for example, figures could be changed anytime so long as the original and authentic ones do not get into the hands of the public.
If democratic leadership were genuinely understood, there will be no attempt at election rigging. But since we are currently not in that ideal stage, election monitoring is one tool we can exploit to at least cut the ability for cheating.
Mobile phone technology is being used in election monitoring in some African countries under a new system of election monitoring called "parallel reporting". Parallel reporting is simply an approach to election monitoring whereby independent observers spread news of the votes counted at the basic level, which is the polling station. The figures are then relayed to an independent center where they are collated and cross checked with official figures announced by the electoral commission.
One advantage of this scheme is seen that it will make it increasingly difficult for an electoral commission to attempt to fraudulently sway the results in the favour of any of the contesting parties. The spreading or relaying of the results figures are done largely with mobile phones. Senegal is an example of a country where this project has been successful.
3.2 HEALTHCARE
The statistics obtained from healthcare research are interesting. Figures show that a large number of the world’s HIVAIDS afflicted people live in Africa. At the same time, one of the growing markets for consumer electronics such as mobile devices, handheld PC etc may be found here in Africa. This represents a population overlap, and it is only prudent that some amount of research has been directed towards attempting to find ways to incorporating technology in the treatment of the numerous diseases on the face of the continent7.
Tuberculosis (TB) has long been known to be one of the deadliest diseases known to man. Apart from the threat that this highly infectious bacterial disease presents to human life, it also enjoys some additional notoriety for lowering the sufferer’s immune system to make it easy for other diseases, which may have various degrees of harmfulness, to attack the sufferer.
As if that were not enough, TB has a deadly habit of mutating at the least case of drug non adherence. Therefore any TB caregiver knows that a patient who demonstrates non compliance with drug rules is clearly not interested in getting healed. As a result of this, over the years, ways to enforce religious adherence of medication have been tried but success has largely eluded caregivers.
In South Africa, there is a very laudable project, the SimPill’s award-winning Adherence System project, which uses a real-time management system to increase adherence to medications prescribed to treat chronic illnesses – particularly tuberculosis, which is a significant cause of death of people living with HIV.
3.3 SOCIAL ISSUES
Serious projects that utilize technology to address social issues have been implemented in South Africa. One such idea named Fahamu’s Umn Yango (meaning ‘doorway’ in isiZulu) has been implemented to curb domestic violence by equipping people with cell phones as tools to monitor and report abuse. Under this scheme, victims use cell phones to call a predefined and popular number and give details of the abuse.
The fear of being victimized has always made it difficult for victims, witnesses or relatives to step up and lodge complaints to the relevant authorities. There are examples of places where people had reported abuses and had been picked upon by the abuser. We have had friends of a victim reporting an abuse of their friend only to go home to be abused themselves by their spouses as punishment for "poking their noses in other people’s business". These good citizens were made to pay the price for exposing a wrong thing.
This fear has been totally eliminated under this project because of the provision of anonymity, the telephone call could be made in secret, and even the details of the reporter are not always required. This is a sharp contrast to the situation in the past where victims, neighbours, or witnesses were required to walk into a police station to make a formal report.
Apart from successes chalked in the number of reports that are received, there has also been a reduction in the numbers of abuse cases. This may be partly due to the deterring feeling among would-be abusers that, any passerby holding a mobile phone might just make sure they get a visit from a police detective for spouse battering.
3.4 ANIMAL FARMING
Technology has also been put to good use in farming.
Farmers who rear cattle in small herds, over time, develop a personal relationship with the animals, the farmer knows all of them and can notice a missing animal or a sick one with just a glance. However, because it takes months of careful observation of the behaviour of every cow to know every animal well enough to take note when there is an infection or when an animal does not ruminate properly, this task would be ineffective if it were performed by a human shepherd with a large herd.
To remedy this situation, the technology of vocal tags has been developed in Europe. This project employs a tag, which is a belt fitted with sensors and worn around each animal’s neck. These sensors monitor several indicators such as the animal’s rate of rumination, voice clarity, digestion and breathing and send the data collected to a central computer.
Over time the computer knows what is normal for every cow and will notify the shepherd when something goes wrong with a cow.
The advantage of this project is that a farmer can take quick and specific action like giving treatment to the particular animal involved. This removes the need to give general treatments to the whole herd, which is both time and money wasting.
These are some of the ways that technology is being used towards increased development.
CHAPTER 4
WHAT LESSONS HAVE BEEN LEARNT?
No matter how promising an idea or project sounds, there are bound to be problems encountered in the deployment of the project. In achieving the above projects, following are some of the problems one is likely to be faced with:
In the election monitoring program, misinformation has been identified to be one of the problems starring the program in the face. It is true that when all the information is not localized in the hands of government, then a lot more transparency will be achieved, but it is also true that mass misinformation remains an unpleasant possibility.
Another problem could arise when there is a situation where people do not necessarily trust the degree of independence of the so called independent observers. It may lead to a problem where parties could cast a slur on the reputation of the observers so as to use the resulting mistrust to set the stage for a possible rejection of the results.
Overall this is a laudable idea and if a means of verification were added, the figures would mean much more to a lot of people.
Whilst celebrating the successes chalked, it is important to note that a number of other factors needed to progress before a state could move towards a more democratic model of governance. According to African political expert, Sheldon Gellar, these changes include: strengthening independent media, growing and ensuring freedom of civil society, decentralizing power, ceding more control to local governments, empowering women and improving judicial systems to ensure independence and power to punish.
Governance is one area that is set to reap some benefits of this phenomenon when used judiciously, unilateral rule and arbitrary action may be reduced towards a more participatory approach to leadership in Ghana
Technology could help achieve those goals to some extent, as communication was the key to overcoming oppression.
In some of the cases, such as the election monitoring or domestic violence reporting, the internet could be used to provide communities with means to communicate, to organize and obtain good information which is not controlled by the government. However, this is not practical in Africa since only a tiny percentage of Africans have affordable access to internet.
In the healthcare project, basic mismanagement has been identified as one of the reasons why many projects seem to skid to halt after being piloted. Needed funds are not always available to those who need them.
Another problem observed was that the people who will be using the project are not always consulted in the designing and planning of the ideas, so there is a lack of communication between beneficiaries, health professionals, technologists, and managers.
Another problem was the theft of cell phones. Although cell phones are a relatively low-cost technology, they still hold considerable value in poverty-stricken areas, and are commonly stolen. And, such theft is likely to rise as these devices become more and more complex. However this is quite debatable since some analysts argue that losing a cell phone to a thief is less of a financial loss than losing a more costly machine.
In the domestic violence project one stumbling block was the communication gap between the various parties involved in the system. Feedback was largely missing and people could not tell whether their input was useful – or received, and in some cases, police officers who receive messages reporting violence against women may not be prepared to respond.
Another problem was the unfortunate situation where some unscrupulous people made the work more difficult for the authorities by raising false alarms. This could be addressed by education and the incorporation of punitive measures.
However to use effective punitive measures, even more advanced technology will be required, for example to pinpoint a particular cell phone subscriber, and take action against them like blocking their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Cards etc.
And the usual problem of financing in many projects is ever present as well, and it is the more predominant one in the animal rearing project.
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
Granted, there are challenges that exist in using technology to achieve development goals, but such efforts still hold great potential and the costs of any obstacle will not stand in comparison to the threat of underdevelopment and poverty. So we can only strive to work harder at such solutions.
Our development attempts and efforts should think more seriously about sustainability and scalability. One important consideration in this direction is the affordability of the programmes we plan and develop. The more affordable options have a higher chance of success, so the fact that most of the development projects do not require any extraordinarily complex or new gadgets is indeed pleasant to note.
Also throughout the creation and deploying of any project, enough consultation should be carried out to ensure that there is a general buy-in into the idea from the creators to the beneficiaries. This will make an idea command a common sense of ownership.
The quality of the management should also be improved and measures should be put in place to ensure the right things are done.
Identifying the problem is half the solution. We already now have greater awareness and we have made some attempts at solving them. Putting our acts together to draw the lessons and re-strategizing with a new approach -technology, is definitely the way to go. I am confident of the viability of this new approach.
CITED REFERENCES
1 Steere M. Cell phones promise fairer elections in Africa. Cable News Network [Online]2009. Available from http://edition.cnn.com/europe. Accessed 2009 Feb 6.
2 Wikipedia. Technology.Wikipedia.org[online]2009.
Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology. Assesed 2009 March 27
3 Macha N. Will Technology solve Africa’s problems?. Global Voices Online[Online]2009. Available from http://globalvoicesonline.com/ Accessed 2009 Feb 6.
4 Finnis A.J. Learning in the Information Age.Twinisles[Online]2009.
Available from http://dev.twinisles.com/research/learninfoage.htm. Accessed 2009 March 27
5 Kitetu, C. Gender in Education: An overview of developing trends in Africa.
Available from www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/groups/crile/docs/crile54kitetu.pdf. Accessed 2009 March 27
6 Castells M. Information Technology Globalization and Social Development.[Abstract]. In UNRISD Discussion Paper No. 114.September 1999.p11.
7 Walvaren K. Did you say cell phones for development? Association for Progressive Communications.[Online]2007.Available from http://www.acp.org/en/home. Accessed 2009 Feb 6.
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Posted on May 24, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
The Functions of Management
Patrick E Cavanaugh asked:
Management performs various functions such as planning, organization, leadership, and control. Planning, what will we do in the future, and management in following that plan. Organization, realizing that plan by optimizing the company’s potential. Leadership is the ability to guide others and motivate them to perform their role in achieving the plan. Management controls the measurement of progress against the company’s plan.
Operations management is that part of our business and is concerned with the production of services. It involves making sure that business operations are profitable. It is the management of all of our resources. It is to control of our services to our customers. It is the management of our human resources. Operations management focuses on planning, scheduling and running of our service organization. Ideally, these activities should all focus on the best performance.
The way that management makes plans and controls the outcome is through systems. Systems’ thinking is the belief that the component parts can be understood in their relationship to the whole. Just as some new thinking in the fields of health propose that the best approach to achieving health of the body is through the holistic concept. Another way of looking at this is to say that none of the component parts have any individual or unique value without the whole. As a matter of fact, systems thinking can be used to study any kind of system.
The way that we approach the systems management of my painting company is to define relationships between all the parts of our company. This is why we have procedure manuals, employee manuals, job descriptions, management and scheduling customers and jobs, management of and scheduling of sales and marketing, and management of production. All systems function as a whole in order to achieve a single goal or purpose of making money through performing a painting service.
Create a video blog…instantly.
Management performs various functions such as planning, organization, leadership, and control. Planning, what will we do in the future, and management in following that plan. Organization, realizing that plan by optimizing the company’s potential. Leadership is the ability to guide others and motivate them to perform their role in achieving the plan. Management controls the measurement of progress against the company’s plan.
Operations management is that part of our business and is concerned with the production of services. It involves making sure that business operations are profitable. It is the management of all of our resources. It is to control of our services to our customers. It is the management of our human resources. Operations management focuses on planning, scheduling and running of our service organization. Ideally, these activities should all focus on the best performance.
The way that management makes plans and controls the outcome is through systems. Systems’ thinking is the belief that the component parts can be understood in their relationship to the whole. Just as some new thinking in the fields of health propose that the best approach to achieving health of the body is through the holistic concept. Another way of looking at this is to say that none of the component parts have any individual or unique value without the whole. As a matter of fact, systems thinking can be used to study any kind of system.
The way that we approach the systems management of my painting company is to define relationships between all the parts of our company. This is why we have procedure manuals, employee manuals, job descriptions, management and scheduling customers and jobs, management of and scheduling of sales and marketing, and management of production. All systems function as a whole in order to achieve a single goal or purpose of making money through performing a painting service.
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Posted on May 24, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
The Ultimate Manager
John Parks asked:
professional who has a strong desire to work through your career and advance through the ranks of your unique organization? Do you have a strong desire to become a leader in your company and have a ton of responsibility? If you answered yes then you may consider the position of CEO. In this article, we will discuss the role of a CEO and the things you should keep in mind if you want to become a CEO. Are you ready? Let’s begin. First of all, you must have lofty goals. Most people plan a level or two above their current level and choose tasks they feel will get them there. If you hold the lofty goals of becoming Chief Executive Officer though you need to take a much more holistic approach to your job selection. Understanding the Role of the CEO is absolutely critical to those who hold that lofty ambition. Even if you fall short of ever becoming CEO though thinking about your career in terms of what you need to do to become CEO will most certainly help prepare you for a Vice President Role. Second, you must understand that as a CEO, the buck stops with you. In most of your other roles throughout your career you will have a domain of influence and a domain of control. For higher-level decisions though you will always refer to someone above you. As CEO there is no one above you. The board will be there for consultation but at the end of the day the difficult decisions are yours to make. You can consult both the board and others in your organization but the responsibility of the decisions are yours and yours alone. Given this your preparation for sitting in that position of power is by necessity quite extensive. Third, in preparing for a role as CEO you have a few different areas you need to focus on including depth of knowledge, breadth of knowledge, leadership, and the ability to market or sell your unique product or service offering. If anyone of these pieces is missing then you face a serious uphill battle in the leadership role. As CEO you bear ultimate responsibility for all aspects of your company and so you should spend some time in roles that expose you to research and development, marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. Having this broad expertise will allow you to have credibility and will ensure others respect and follow your lead. Keep in mind that you only gain this breadth and depth by holding management level positions in several different areas of your organization before progressing to the top job. To gain this knowledge and expertise, always make sure that you embrace roles that may be a stretch for you so that you get used to operating outside your normal area of expertise. Finally and most importantly you should spend a good part of your career as a people manager and focus on honing the skills of people management. In conclusion, at the end of the day in understanding the role of the CEO the most important thing to remember is that you are the ultimate manager in the organization and your ability to delegate and motivate others will be the source of your success or failure. Good luck! For more information on CEO’s, visit http://ceomicroblog.com and http://managermicroblog.com
Create a video blog
professional who has a strong desire to work through your career and advance through the ranks of your unique organization? Do you have a strong desire to become a leader in your company and have a ton of responsibility? If you answered yes then you may consider the position of CEO. In this article, we will discuss the role of a CEO and the things you should keep in mind if you want to become a CEO. Are you ready? Let’s begin. First of all, you must have lofty goals. Most people plan a level or two above their current level and choose tasks they feel will get them there. If you hold the lofty goals of becoming Chief Executive Officer though you need to take a much more holistic approach to your job selection. Understanding the Role of the CEO is absolutely critical to those who hold that lofty ambition. Even if you fall short of ever becoming CEO though thinking about your career in terms of what you need to do to become CEO will most certainly help prepare you for a Vice President Role. Second, you must understand that as a CEO, the buck stops with you. In most of your other roles throughout your career you will have a domain of influence and a domain of control. For higher-level decisions though you will always refer to someone above you. As CEO there is no one above you. The board will be there for consultation but at the end of the day the difficult decisions are yours to make. You can consult both the board and others in your organization but the responsibility of the decisions are yours and yours alone. Given this your preparation for sitting in that position of power is by necessity quite extensive. Third, in preparing for a role as CEO you have a few different areas you need to focus on including depth of knowledge, breadth of knowledge, leadership, and the ability to market or sell your unique product or service offering. If anyone of these pieces is missing then you face a serious uphill battle in the leadership role. As CEO you bear ultimate responsibility for all aspects of your company and so you should spend some time in roles that expose you to research and development, marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. Having this broad expertise will allow you to have credibility and will ensure others respect and follow your lead. Keep in mind that you only gain this breadth and depth by holding management level positions in several different areas of your organization before progressing to the top job. To gain this knowledge and expertise, always make sure that you embrace roles that may be a stretch for you so that you get used to operating outside your normal area of expertise. Finally and most importantly you should spend a good part of your career as a people manager and focus on honing the skills of people management. In conclusion, at the end of the day in understanding the role of the CEO the most important thing to remember is that you are the ultimate manager in the organization and your ability to delegate and motivate others will be the source of your success or failure. Good luck! For more information on CEO’s, visit http://ceomicroblog.com and http://managermicroblog.com
Create a video blog
Posted on May 24, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
loveleenchawla asked:
Normal 0 WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
ABSTRACT
Women constitute almost 50% of the world’s population. As per as their social status is concerned, they are not treated as equal to men in all the places. Empowering may be understood as enabling people, especially women to acquire and possess power resources, in order to make decision on their own or resist decisions that are made by others that affect them. A person may said to be powerful when he/she has control over a large portion of power resources in society. The extent of possession of various resources such as personal wealth, such as land skills, education, information, knowledge, social status, position held, leadership trains, capabilities of mobilization.
It is now widely believed that empowerment of women i.e., providing equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities to women, will go a long way in removing the existing gender discrimination. Women empowerment in contemporary Indian society in forms of their work, education, health and media images in the forms of
their work, education, health and media images in the context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their participation in social and political activities, their legal status in terms of marriage, divorce and inheritance of property, seeking wealth care should be taken into consideration. Empowerment in terms of knowledge and awareness of ones own life and society including legal raise their status with regarded to the lives. While empowerment deals with her or his expectation arising out of the situation. Similarly, a role deals with duties and obligations wile empowerment deals with rights. For instance, it is commonly assumed that the most is a woman, a wife a cook, a teacher of her children and daughter-in-law and so on.
Introduction
Women constitute almost 50% of the world’s population. As per as their social status is concerned, they are not treated as equal to men in all the places, through in the western countries women are treated on par with men in most of the fields, their counterpart in the east suffers from many disabilities. The disabilities on the one hand and the inequalities between men and women on the other, have given rise to what is known “Gender problem”. All one the world and particularly in South and East Asia and Africa the gender problem has assumed importance during the recent years the gender issue has become virtually a crucial point of argument. It is now widely believed that empowerment of women i.e., providing equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities to women, will go a long way in removing the existing gender discrimination. Women empowerment in contemporary Indian society in forms of their work, education, health and media images in the forms of their work, education, health and media images in the context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their participation in social and political activities, their legal status in terms of marriage, divorce and inheritance of property, seeking wealth care should be taken into consideration. Empowerment in terms of knowledge and awareness of ones own life and society including legal raise their status with regarded to the lives.
Meaning
Before thinking about the empowerment of women, one needs to understand the exact meaning of the word empowerment. According to Cambridge English Dictionary empowerment means “to authorize”. In the context of the people they have to be authorized to have control over their lives. When applied in the context of development the particular segment of population, the poor, the women, the vulnerable, the weak, the oppressed and the discriminated have to be “empowered” to have control over their lives to better their socioeconomic and political conditions,. But the questions raised are, who empowers them and how to empower them? Ideally speaking no one empowers any one, the best way us ‘self empowerment’, by the segments of population mentioned above are handicapped both structurally and culturally to empower themselves without any outside help and affirmative action by the State and others. But still as long as these segments of population does not make any effort at self employment. It would be long and arduous task and process for the outsiders to empower them.
Role of women in development process
The principal of gender equality was recognized in the United Nations Charter in 1945 and the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the majority of development planners did not fully address the role of women in development process. In 1975, the first UN Conference of Women and Development was held
at maxico city under the motto, “Equality, Development and peace”. The need to integrate women into development was internationally proclaimed in the 1995 Bejing Conference. The Economic Survey (1999-2000) used an entire section on
gender inequality. It began with a reminder of the commitment made in the ninth plan document of allocating 30 per cent of resources for women’s development schemes through “Women’s Component Plans”. According to Menon and Probhu (2001), there was a strong plea for investing in women’s equality on the ground that this made economic sense and spoke of “the social rate of return on investment in women” being greater that the corresponding rate for men. According to Paten (2002), women’s development can be attained by improving here status and bargaining power in the economy.
Sushma Sachay (1998) argues that approaches and strategic for women
empowerment could be possible by outlining the mechanisms and tools that till
influence for women empowerment. Decisions making process, multidimensional
process that are enable worn to realize their full identity and powers in all walks
of life.
Concept of Women Empowerment
Empowering may be understood as enabling people, especially women to acquire and possess power resources, in order to make decision on their own or resist decisions that are made by others that affect them. A person may said to be powerful when he/she has control over a large portion of power resources in society. The extent of possession of various resources such as personal wealth, such as land skills, education, information, knowledge, social status, position held, leadership trains, capabilities of mobilization.
The National Policy on Education (1986) suggested certain strategies to empower women. Accordingly, women become empowered through collective reflections and decision making enable them to become agency of social change.
The global conference on Women Empowerment (1988), highlighted empowerment as the best way of making own partners in development the development of women and children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) program was initiated as a sub scheme of the national wide poverty alleviation program i.e., the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP). It aims at imparting self reliance to rural areas through income generating skill s along with group organization skills. Keeping this in view the year 2001 was celebrated as “The Women’s Empowerment Year”. Human resource development and empowerment of women unlock the door for modernization of society,. Instated of remaining as passive beneficiaries, women must become active partner. Participation and control over resources of power are considered as the critical indicators in the process of development discharged women especially in rural areas, possess the least proportion of these resources and as a result they are powerless and dependent on the powerful and wealthy.
Role and Empowerment
We will now realize the vital importance of the terms such as role, empowerment and function for an understanding of society. These terms tell us how individual and groups organize themselves as well as relate to each other. Very simple, role tells us about what is expected from individuals in a particular situation. While empowerment deals with her or his expectation arising out of the situation. Similarly, a role deals with duties and obligations wile empowerment deals with rights. For instance, it is commonly assumed that the most is a women, a wife a cook, a teacher of her children and daughter-in-law and so on. What happens when the mother is also the principal of the local village school? Not only does she have to deal with a range of roles and empowerments, but also with he tensions that may raise out of her ole s mother and her role as an administrator.
“Woman reposes more closely on the central surface of life, while man hunts it in the boundaries of existence, always concerned to overcome, and in the last analysis, to kill. A woman has a secret alliance with eternal life and man with the principle of death. Woman wants to embrace the contradiction of life and to reconcile them in the act of degree so. Man on the other hand release the tension between opposites by annihilating one of the sides, the one he finds unpleasant. He seeks the solution not in love and reconciliation, but in over coming and annihilation. He has a militant and not an erotic manner. The male principle borne of isolation, makes solitude thermal, seeks being in itself and disturbs life as a wholes his being is battle and self service, his willto- life is concerned with ascertaining his own person or overthrowing that of the stranger until the motive of salvation kindles with in him. Woman with her sustaining constitutions is at one and is harmony with the basis of the world. But man wants to change the world to bring it forward to overcome it”.
Women’s Empowerment in Contemporary India
Contemporary Indian society has been exposed to the broad processes of social transformation, agricultural modernization and economic development, urbanization and globalization. However, these processes have generated regional imbalances, sharpened class inequalities and augmented the gender disparities. Hence, women have become critical symbols of these growing imbalances. All these have affected adversely the various aspects of women’s empowerment in the contemporary Indian society. The family and women’s work is not enough to say that any society consists of men and women. It is equally important to look at how the two groups of people interact, as well as at the role and exceptions each group has of the other. Such roles and exceptions are a product of the stereotypes of each gender. By gender stereotype we mean attributes and qualities commonly associated with a gender. Thus, the first idea on gender role differences, which a child acquires, is that of women of one’s family marrying and leaving their homes to leave with different groups of people. Secondly, men appear to exercise far greater influence in decision making and are far more visible and audible than their wives. Third most of the tasks within the home are done by the mother, grandmother, sisters and so on. At meal times they carry food to the fields for the men. All these tasks, which consume time and energy, are not counted as work and there is no payment involved. In western countries, women’s groups, politicians and other concerned individuals have been arguing for payment for house work and childcare. In India, the question of payment for household jobs has not really been an important issue or demand. As we shall see, there are many other issues, which require urgent attention. At the same time, it is important for us to remember that non-payment should not also mean non-recognition. The fact that women are expected to perform all these tasks as a part of their conventional roles and on special merit is awarded to them for these tiring and tiresome jobs.
Women’s work participation
As per to 1981 figures 19.7 per cent Indian women were recorded as paid workers. Of whom over 87 per cent were in the unrecognized or informal sector of the economy. The work participation rate woman in 1991and 2001 was 22.3 and 25.7 per cent respectively. The increase in the work participation of women during the decade 1991-2001 is mainly due to the increase in the proportion of marginal workers (6.3 per cent to 11 per cent) in total female work force. It is held
by many observation of Indian economy that without women’s paid or unpaid labour the Indian agricultural economy would not be able to function. In the informal sector, there is no legal redressal for problems; no maternity or other leave benefits and little security of service. Working long hours as domestic servants, stitching clothes for the garment export industry, working on the assembly line of small electronics manufacturing units or the beedi, tobacco, cashew nut factories. A woman lives in fear of retrenchment, exploitation and low
wages.
Women’s Self-perception
According to Maithreyi Krishna Raj that though women were concerned about continuing their jobs, they were not looking for better prospects nor have they begun with a long-range carrier strategy. Once in a job, women rarely attempted to acquire further qualifications was by no means clear-cut. T.S. Papola’s study of workingwomen, which covered a range from those in supervisory post in industrial establishments to unskilled workers, showed that women were more different than men in respect of their promotion prospects.
Employer’s Attitude
Papol’s study showed that women were discriminated against at the time of promotions tended to be crowded into lower status electrical and primary school jobs. They were rarely promoted to executive and supervisory posts. As regards employment and promotion to supervisory category, male employers defend themselves by pointing out that women did not come forth to be recruited or promoted.
Traditional Positions of Authority in Urban Areas
In the urban areas, the working class, and men in particular have a wide range of job options available to them. The study by Leela Kasturi shows that when unemployed weavers from Tamil Nadu migrant to Delhi, the women folk found jobs only as domestic servants. While men become mechanics, cooks or drivers. The shift in residence meant a severance with an established way of life and the support of the extended family.
Working Conditions
For the majority of working class women, a job is essential. In relation to the limited chances for occupational mobility, when men and women work in the same occupation, female tasks are often the more arduous and time consuming. For instance, in paddy cultivation they spend long hours in sowing, weeding transplanting. In Kerala the extraction of the cashew seed from a corrosive liquid is women’s work. Again when both sexes do identical jobs, women often get paid
less than man. Protests are rare, apart from ignorance of legal and other rights; there is a fear of exploitation and sexual harassment by the landlord or contractor.
Traditional Role Expectations
Irrespective of social class there is at the level of belief, widespread commitment to the nation that a women’s job just not interfere or compete with her primary role of wife and mother. There is also concern with her physical safety and the respectability of the occupation. Clearly, working class familiar are far less able to ensure circumstances. NGO’s SHGs have been working to promote women more viable towards social, political, economic and cultural development micro finance is a significant factor and accessible to small and micro enterprises, socio-economic progress of poor women. Education and training also plays a major role in changing the life of poor women. The several institutions have been extending all types of vocational training, income generating activities and self-employment activities for poor women.
Empowerment of women is mainly related to their participation in decision making with regard to raising and distribution of resources i.e., income, investments and expenditures at all levels. Even though the Government of Karnataka has formulated and implemented various schemes of the social economic and overall development of the rural women, when the present position
of women is taken into account these schemes do not appear effective in enhancing the confidence and capability of the women. Empowering the poor women in rural areas to sustain their surrounding ecology is a necessity not only to stoop the ecological degradation but also for the physical survival of poor people. Almost every village in India has what is called “Common Property Resources (CDPs). Common Property Resources can be defined as “those resources, which are exploited by all people in the village free of cost by expending their labour.
References:
1. Chiranjeevulu, T. (2003). Empowering Women through Self-Help Groups – Experiences in Experiment, Kurukshetra, March.
2. Gopalan, Sarala (2002). Towards Equality – The Unfinished Agenda. Status of Women in India, National Commission for Women, New Delhi.
3. Kapadia, Karin (2002). The Violence of Development: The Politics of Identity, Gender and Social Inequalities in India. Kali for Women, New Delhi.
4. Krishnaraj, Maithreyi (2002). Growth and Rural Poverty. Economic and Political Weekly, September 21.
5. Manohar, Sujatha (2002). Women’s Empowerment – Law and Gender Justice. Paper Presented in the International Women’s Day, 8th March 2001. Department of Women and Child Development, New Delhi.
6. Sarkar, C.R. (2004). Poverty, Education and Economic Development.
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Normal 0 WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
ABSTRACT
Women constitute almost 50% of the world’s population. As per as their social status is concerned, they are not treated as equal to men in all the places. Empowering may be understood as enabling people, especially women to acquire and possess power resources, in order to make decision on their own or resist decisions that are made by others that affect them. A person may said to be powerful when he/she has control over a large portion of power resources in society. The extent of possession of various resources such as personal wealth, such as land skills, education, information, knowledge, social status, position held, leadership trains, capabilities of mobilization.
It is now widely believed that empowerment of women i.e., providing equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities to women, will go a long way in removing the existing gender discrimination. Women empowerment in contemporary Indian society in forms of their work, education, health and media images in the forms of
their work, education, health and media images in the context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their participation in social and political activities, their legal status in terms of marriage, divorce and inheritance of property, seeking wealth care should be taken into consideration. Empowerment in terms of knowledge and awareness of ones own life and society including legal raise their status with regarded to the lives. While empowerment deals with her or his expectation arising out of the situation. Similarly, a role deals with duties and obligations wile empowerment deals with rights. For instance, it is commonly assumed that the most is a woman, a wife a cook, a teacher of her children and daughter-in-law and so on.
Introduction
Women constitute almost 50% of the world’s population. As per as their social status is concerned, they are not treated as equal to men in all the places, through in the western countries women are treated on par with men in most of the fields, their counterpart in the east suffers from many disabilities. The disabilities on the one hand and the inequalities between men and women on the other, have given rise to what is known “Gender problem”. All one the world and particularly in South and East Asia and Africa the gender problem has assumed importance during the recent years the gender issue has become virtually a crucial point of argument. It is now widely believed that empowerment of women i.e., providing equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities to women, will go a long way in removing the existing gender discrimination. Women empowerment in contemporary Indian society in forms of their work, education, health and media images in the forms of their work, education, health and media images in the context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their context of lineage, rule of residence and household chores, their participation in social and political activities, their legal status in terms of marriage, divorce and inheritance of property, seeking wealth care should be taken into consideration. Empowerment in terms of knowledge and awareness of ones own life and society including legal raise their status with regarded to the lives.
Meaning
Before thinking about the empowerment of women, one needs to understand the exact meaning of the word empowerment. According to Cambridge English Dictionary empowerment means “to authorize”. In the context of the people they have to be authorized to have control over their lives. When applied in the context of development the particular segment of population, the poor, the women, the vulnerable, the weak, the oppressed and the discriminated have to be “empowered” to have control over their lives to better their socioeconomic and political conditions,. But the questions raised are, who empowers them and how to empower them? Ideally speaking no one empowers any one, the best way us ‘self empowerment’, by the segments of population mentioned above are handicapped both structurally and culturally to empower themselves without any outside help and affirmative action by the State and others. But still as long as these segments of population does not make any effort at self employment. It would be long and arduous task and process for the outsiders to empower them.
Role of women in development process
The principal of gender equality was recognized in the United Nations Charter in 1945 and the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the majority of development planners did not fully address the role of women in development process. In 1975, the first UN Conference of Women and Development was held
at maxico city under the motto, “Equality, Development and peace”. The need to integrate women into development was internationally proclaimed in the 1995 Bejing Conference. The Economic Survey (1999-2000) used an entire section on
gender inequality. It began with a reminder of the commitment made in the ninth plan document of allocating 30 per cent of resources for women’s development schemes through “Women’s Component Plans”. According to Menon and Probhu (2001), there was a strong plea for investing in women’s equality on the ground that this made economic sense and spoke of “the social rate of return on investment in women” being greater that the corresponding rate for men. According to Paten (2002), women’s development can be attained by improving here status and bargaining power in the economy.
Sushma Sachay (1998) argues that approaches and strategic for women
empowerment could be possible by outlining the mechanisms and tools that till
influence for women empowerment. Decisions making process, multidimensional
process that are enable worn to realize their full identity and powers in all walks
of life.
Concept of Women Empowerment
Empowering may be understood as enabling people, especially women to acquire and possess power resources, in order to make decision on their own or resist decisions that are made by others that affect them. A person may said to be powerful when he/she has control over a large portion of power resources in society. The extent of possession of various resources such as personal wealth, such as land skills, education, information, knowledge, social status, position held, leadership trains, capabilities of mobilization.
The National Policy on Education (1986) suggested certain strategies to empower women. Accordingly, women become empowered through collective reflections and decision making enable them to become agency of social change.
The global conference on Women Empowerment (1988), highlighted empowerment as the best way of making own partners in development the development of women and children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) program was initiated as a sub scheme of the national wide poverty alleviation program i.e., the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP). It aims at imparting self reliance to rural areas through income generating skill s along with group organization skills. Keeping this in view the year 2001 was celebrated as “The Women’s Empowerment Year”. Human resource development and empowerment of women unlock the door for modernization of society,. Instated of remaining as passive beneficiaries, women must become active partner. Participation and control over resources of power are considered as the critical indicators in the process of development discharged women especially in rural areas, possess the least proportion of these resources and as a result they are powerless and dependent on the powerful and wealthy.
Role and Empowerment
We will now realize the vital importance of the terms such as role, empowerment and function for an understanding of society. These terms tell us how individual and groups organize themselves as well as relate to each other. Very simple, role tells us about what is expected from individuals in a particular situation. While empowerment deals with her or his expectation arising out of the situation. Similarly, a role deals with duties and obligations wile empowerment deals with rights. For instance, it is commonly assumed that the most is a women, a wife a cook, a teacher of her children and daughter-in-law and so on. What happens when the mother is also the principal of the local village school? Not only does she have to deal with a range of roles and empowerments, but also with he tensions that may raise out of her ole s mother and her role as an administrator.
“Woman reposes more closely on the central surface of life, while man hunts it in the boundaries of existence, always concerned to overcome, and in the last analysis, to kill. A woman has a secret alliance with eternal life and man with the principle of death. Woman wants to embrace the contradiction of life and to reconcile them in the act of degree so. Man on the other hand release the tension between opposites by annihilating one of the sides, the one he finds unpleasant. He seeks the solution not in love and reconciliation, but in over coming and annihilation. He has a militant and not an erotic manner. The male principle borne of isolation, makes solitude thermal, seeks being in itself and disturbs life as a wholes his being is battle and self service, his willto- life is concerned with ascertaining his own person or overthrowing that of the stranger until the motive of salvation kindles with in him. Woman with her sustaining constitutions is at one and is harmony with the basis of the world. But man wants to change the world to bring it forward to overcome it”.
Women’s Empowerment in Contemporary India
Contemporary Indian society has been exposed to the broad processes of social transformation, agricultural modernization and economic development, urbanization and globalization. However, these processes have generated regional imbalances, sharpened class inequalities and augmented the gender disparities. Hence, women have become critical symbols of these growing imbalances. All these have affected adversely the various aspects of women’s empowerment in the contemporary Indian society. The family and women’s work is not enough to say that any society consists of men and women. It is equally important to look at how the two groups of people interact, as well as at the role and exceptions each group has of the other. Such roles and exceptions are a product of the stereotypes of each gender. By gender stereotype we mean attributes and qualities commonly associated with a gender. Thus, the first idea on gender role differences, which a child acquires, is that of women of one’s family marrying and leaving their homes to leave with different groups of people. Secondly, men appear to exercise far greater influence in decision making and are far more visible and audible than their wives. Third most of the tasks within the home are done by the mother, grandmother, sisters and so on. At meal times they carry food to the fields for the men. All these tasks, which consume time and energy, are not counted as work and there is no payment involved. In western countries, women’s groups, politicians and other concerned individuals have been arguing for payment for house work and childcare. In India, the question of payment for household jobs has not really been an important issue or demand. As we shall see, there are many other issues, which require urgent attention. At the same time, it is important for us to remember that non-payment should not also mean non-recognition. The fact that women are expected to perform all these tasks as a part of their conventional roles and on special merit is awarded to them for these tiring and tiresome jobs.
Women’s work participation
As per to 1981 figures 19.7 per cent Indian women were recorded as paid workers. Of whom over 87 per cent were in the unrecognized or informal sector of the economy. The work participation rate woman in 1991and 2001 was 22.3 and 25.7 per cent respectively. The increase in the work participation of women during the decade 1991-2001 is mainly due to the increase in the proportion of marginal workers (6.3 per cent to 11 per cent) in total female work force. It is held
by many observation of Indian economy that without women’s paid or unpaid labour the Indian agricultural economy would not be able to function. In the informal sector, there is no legal redressal for problems; no maternity or other leave benefits and little security of service. Working long hours as domestic servants, stitching clothes for the garment export industry, working on the assembly line of small electronics manufacturing units or the beedi, tobacco, cashew nut factories. A woman lives in fear of retrenchment, exploitation and low
wages.
Women’s Self-perception
According to Maithreyi Krishna Raj that though women were concerned about continuing their jobs, they were not looking for better prospects nor have they begun with a long-range carrier strategy. Once in a job, women rarely attempted to acquire further qualifications was by no means clear-cut. T.S. Papola’s study of workingwomen, which covered a range from those in supervisory post in industrial establishments to unskilled workers, showed that women were more different than men in respect of their promotion prospects.
Employer’s Attitude
Papol’s study showed that women were discriminated against at the time of promotions tended to be crowded into lower status electrical and primary school jobs. They were rarely promoted to executive and supervisory posts. As regards employment and promotion to supervisory category, male employers defend themselves by pointing out that women did not come forth to be recruited or promoted.
Traditional Positions of Authority in Urban Areas
In the urban areas, the working class, and men in particular have a wide range of job options available to them. The study by Leela Kasturi shows that when unemployed weavers from Tamil Nadu migrant to Delhi, the women folk found jobs only as domestic servants. While men become mechanics, cooks or drivers. The shift in residence meant a severance with an established way of life and the support of the extended family.
Working Conditions
For the majority of working class women, a job is essential. In relation to the limited chances for occupational mobility, when men and women work in the same occupation, female tasks are often the more arduous and time consuming. For instance, in paddy cultivation they spend long hours in sowing, weeding transplanting. In Kerala the extraction of the cashew seed from a corrosive liquid is women’s work. Again when both sexes do identical jobs, women often get paid
less than man. Protests are rare, apart from ignorance of legal and other rights; there is a fear of exploitation and sexual harassment by the landlord or contractor.
Traditional Role Expectations
Irrespective of social class there is at the level of belief, widespread commitment to the nation that a women’s job just not interfere or compete with her primary role of wife and mother. There is also concern with her physical safety and the respectability of the occupation. Clearly, working class familiar are far less able to ensure circumstances. NGO’s SHGs have been working to promote women more viable towards social, political, economic and cultural development micro finance is a significant factor and accessible to small and micro enterprises, socio-economic progress of poor women. Education and training also plays a major role in changing the life of poor women. The several institutions have been extending all types of vocational training, income generating activities and self-employment activities for poor women.
Empowerment of women is mainly related to their participation in decision making with regard to raising and distribution of resources i.e., income, investments and expenditures at all levels. Even though the Government of Karnataka has formulated and implemented various schemes of the social economic and overall development of the rural women, when the present position
of women is taken into account these schemes do not appear effective in enhancing the confidence and capability of the women. Empowering the poor women in rural areas to sustain their surrounding ecology is a necessity not only to stoop the ecological degradation but also for the physical survival of poor people. Almost every village in India has what is called “Common Property Resources (CDPs). Common Property Resources can be defined as “those resources, which are exploited by all people in the village free of cost by expending their labour.
References:
1. Chiranjeevulu, T. (2003). Empowering Women through Self-Help Groups – Experiences in Experiment, Kurukshetra, March.
2. Gopalan, Sarala (2002). Towards Equality – The Unfinished Agenda. Status of Women in India, National Commission for Women, New Delhi.
3. Kapadia, Karin (2002). The Violence of Development: The Politics of Identity, Gender and Social Inequalities in India. Kali for Women, New Delhi.
4. Krishnaraj, Maithreyi (2002). Growth and Rural Poverty. Economic and Political Weekly, September 21.
5. Manohar, Sujatha (2002). Women’s Empowerment – Law and Gender Justice. Paper Presented in the International Women’s Day, 8th March 2001. Department of Women and Child Development, New Delhi.
6. Sarkar, C.R. (2004). Poverty, Education and Economic Development.
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Posted on May 24, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
How to Handle the Coming Power Shift
Alien asked:
You’ve probably wondered how in the world managers like yourself are going to accomplish all these difficult innovations. The ideas may make sense, but how will you restructure today’s bureaucracies into market systems? Unite diverse interest groups into a political coalition? Reorient sales to serving people? Organize work teams that manage themselves? Transform operations so that they are ecologically benign? And keep this entire system constantly adaptive to change?
You are not going to do it using authority, but by drawing out the talents of others. I was privileged to witness a vivid demonstration of this type of leadership when visiting a manufacturing company. In contrast to the antagonism between various groups that was once rife in industry, this organization had learned to work together by confronting its differences in a constructive spirit. Seated at a conference table were managers, labor leaders, suppliers, distributors, and even officials from the local government. Most striking was that the president of the company did not seem a particularly imposing person. He had no commanding presence, was not a genius, and showed little charisma. How, I wondered, did he manage to pull this diverse group of big egos together into a harmonious team?
As the meeting progressed, it became apparent that this was a different type of leader. He saw his role as encouraging the talents of the people in the organization, and so he rarely spoke himself but was more intent on asking others for their views. Remarkably, he really listened. Unlike almost all other leaders one usually meets, this man was genuinely humble in the sense that he focused on understanding the reality of the situation. It was like a breath of fresh air! A leader who cares what people really think? Who wants to hear the messy truth? Who does not impose his solutions? Surely this was either a ruse or it didn’t work, I thought.
But it did work. It energized the meeting. People brought out their problems, their ideas, their doubts, their misunderstandings, and all the other hidden agendas we normally keep contained within us. The president simply asked an occasional question, made a few suggestions for the group to consider, and tried to clarify what they were doing. Otherwise, the group controlled the meeting. Most importantly, the meeting affirmed that this was their organization. They were responsible for its success or failure, so they did whatever was needed to make it work.
OK, this humble approach really works, but what about the leader, I worried? He was obviously not “in charge’ and in fact he seemed a bit awkward and uncomfortable at times. Little wonder when people would say harsh things directly to him, such as complain about some aspect of the company and criticize his behavior occasionally. They even called him by his first name! How could he possibly maintain his dignity and self-respect, much less the power needed to be effective?
Beneath this appearance of casual disregard was a deep sense of respect and affection. Not because this leader held the power of the president, but precisely for the opposite reason. He had voluntarily yielded his authority. The heart of this relationship was that the president was genuinely concerned about the needs of the people in that organization, and he provided a subtle, supportive guidance that helped them find the way ahead. Ironically, by giving up his formal power, he was given far more real power. They would do things for this man that no ordinary boss could even ask for.
He was not simply another member of the team, however. At times he had to bear the responsibility for taking some difficult action on their behalf, such as asking for discipline or bringing up a serious issue. But because he was a true leader rather than a boss, he was able to do this with their willing support, rather like a “servant leader” or a “good father.”
This is only one example, of course, of the many different ways that good leaders work. But I think it highlights a key principle of leadership today: In a world of escalating complexity and empowered people, leaders must cultivate the art of helping others to share the responsibilities of management. And the price of their support is to relinquish that comfortable old sense of control.
Genuine participation is an intense, creative act in which people step out of their comfortable roles to engage their differences. If this painful exploration can be sustained through its twists and turns, a new clarity of awareness, or a “vision,” may be given us to guide the way ahead. Because this process involves nurturing an expanded sense of awareness, it can be said to be “spiritual.” Participative leadership, then, is the fusion of human spirits that releases new energy and vision.
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You’ve probably wondered how in the world managers like yourself are going to accomplish all these difficult innovations. The ideas may make sense, but how will you restructure today’s bureaucracies into market systems? Unite diverse interest groups into a political coalition? Reorient sales to serving people? Organize work teams that manage themselves? Transform operations so that they are ecologically benign? And keep this entire system constantly adaptive to change?
You are not going to do it using authority, but by drawing out the talents of others. I was privileged to witness a vivid demonstration of this type of leadership when visiting a manufacturing company. In contrast to the antagonism between various groups that was once rife in industry, this organization had learned to work together by confronting its differences in a constructive spirit. Seated at a conference table were managers, labor leaders, suppliers, distributors, and even officials from the local government. Most striking was that the president of the company did not seem a particularly imposing person. He had no commanding presence, was not a genius, and showed little charisma. How, I wondered, did he manage to pull this diverse group of big egos together into a harmonious team?
As the meeting progressed, it became apparent that this was a different type of leader. He saw his role as encouraging the talents of the people in the organization, and so he rarely spoke himself but was more intent on asking others for their views. Remarkably, he really listened. Unlike almost all other leaders one usually meets, this man was genuinely humble in the sense that he focused on understanding the reality of the situation. It was like a breath of fresh air! A leader who cares what people really think? Who wants to hear the messy truth? Who does not impose his solutions? Surely this was either a ruse or it didn’t work, I thought.
But it did work. It energized the meeting. People brought out their problems, their ideas, their doubts, their misunderstandings, and all the other hidden agendas we normally keep contained within us. The president simply asked an occasional question, made a few suggestions for the group to consider, and tried to clarify what they were doing. Otherwise, the group controlled the meeting. Most importantly, the meeting affirmed that this was their organization. They were responsible for its success or failure, so they did whatever was needed to make it work.
OK, this humble approach really works, but what about the leader, I worried? He was obviously not “in charge’ and in fact he seemed a bit awkward and uncomfortable at times. Little wonder when people would say harsh things directly to him, such as complain about some aspect of the company and criticize his behavior occasionally. They even called him by his first name! How could he possibly maintain his dignity and self-respect, much less the power needed to be effective?
Beneath this appearance of casual disregard was a deep sense of respect and affection. Not because this leader held the power of the president, but precisely for the opposite reason. He had voluntarily yielded his authority. The heart of this relationship was that the president was genuinely concerned about the needs of the people in that organization, and he provided a subtle, supportive guidance that helped them find the way ahead. Ironically, by giving up his formal power, he was given far more real power. They would do things for this man that no ordinary boss could even ask for.
He was not simply another member of the team, however. At times he had to bear the responsibility for taking some difficult action on their behalf, such as asking for discipline or bringing up a serious issue. But because he was a true leader rather than a boss, he was able to do this with their willing support, rather like a “servant leader” or a “good father.”
This is only one example, of course, of the many different ways that good leaders work. But I think it highlights a key principle of leadership today: In a world of escalating complexity and empowered people, leaders must cultivate the art of helping others to share the responsibilities of management. And the price of their support is to relinquish that comfortable old sense of control.
Genuine participation is an intense, creative act in which people step out of their comfortable roles to engage their differences. If this painful exploration can be sustained through its twists and turns, a new clarity of awareness, or a “vision,” may be given us to guide the way ahead. Because this process involves nurturing an expanded sense of awareness, it can be said to be “spiritual.” Participative leadership, then, is the fusion of human spirits that releases new energy and vision.
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Posted on May 24, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Power and Women
Alejandro Guevara Onofre asked:
POWER AND WOMAN
By Alejandro Guevara Onofre
INTRODUCTION:
From my perspective, I think that democracy is synonymous of equality between women and men in the civil society and government. Ironically, there are more women voters, but fewer women candidates. However, From my point of view I think that “Parity Democracy” is the big difference between democracies and dictatorships. I remembered that the Taliban’s regime –the worst dictatorship in the modern history- prohibited women from participating in Afghanistan’s National Government. In 1990 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy activist, won the elections in Myanmar (ex-Burma), but she was arrested and the results were cancelled abruptly by dictator Saw Maung.
Certainly, international organizations reports that 10 democracies have the highest proportion of women in its governmental structures: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Iceland, Germany, New Zealand, Mozambique, South Africa and Spain. Another example: under the Administration of Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright was the first female Secretary of State.
Sri Lanka, formerly named Ceylon, is the home to Sirimavo Ratwate Dias Bandaranaike. She was often described as one of the most important females in the history: Mrs. Bandaranaike became World’s first female Prime Minister. She influenced Prime Minister from Janet Jagan to Gro Harlem Brundtland with her leadership for women’s rights and democracy.
Inspired by example of the “Women Revolution” in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Bangla Desh, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Bandaraike’s daughter, was elected Head of State in 1994.Her government was very similar that of her mother.
Certainly, there were fewer governments by women’s leaders as Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who has fought for the democracy and women’s rights in Nicaragua, one of the most poorest countries in Latin America.
Finally I would like to finish my article with my favorite personal motto: “The future is for those people who believe in the beauty of their dreams”, by Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt, who was First Lady of the United States between 1933 and 1945.
ARGENTINA: In 1974 Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, best known as “Isabel Peron”, became the first woman President in the modern history. She is the widow of former President Juan Domingo Peron (1946-1955 and 1973-1974). After his death in 1974, Juan Domingo Peron was replaced by Vice President Isabel Peron. On March, 1976, after 2 years in power, she was ousted in a military coup led by Jorge Rafael Videla. She was forced into exile.
BANGLADESH: The country, an ex-British colony, has had two women in the national power. Begum Khaleda Zia was Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996. Khaleda was an advocate for the environment. She escaped assassination in 1995. However, she was reelected without opposition, but Khaleda Zia was succeeded by other woman: Sheik Hassina Wajed, anti-governmental activist. Sheik Hassina Wajed was as unpopularity as her predecessor. Bangladesh was one of the few states in the world whose government has been successively held by women.
BOLIVIA: Lydia Gueiler Tejada, former accountant, served as interim President of Bolivia from 16 November 1979 to 17 July 1980.She was elected President by Parliament. Mrs. Gueiler Tejada was overthrown by General Luis Garcia Meza Tejada, who was one of the worst dictators in the Latin American history.
CANADA: Dame Kimberley Campbell was ephemeral Prime Minister from 25 June 1993 to November 1993. But she was not the only one in power. Jeanne Sauce was Governor General from 1984 to 1989. Furthermore, Adrienne Clarkson was elected also GG in 1999. Currently, Michaelle Jean, was born in Haiti, has been elected GG in 2005.
DOMINICA: Dominica, a small country in the Caribbean, has been an independent State since 1978. Mary Eugenia Charles governed from 1980 to 1995. During her government Dominica had one of the most highest rate of human development in Latin America. In 1983, Mary Eugenia Charles, an admirer of Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, established diplomatic relations with Republic of China (ROC) or Taiwan. She was apparently supported by the United States and Taiwan for its anti-communism.
ICELAND: Vidis Finnbogadottir was Head of State of Iceland from 1980 to 1996.Vigdis was a key interlocutor between the Soviet Bloc and the United States. She was the first woman democratically elected President in the world.
INDIA: Indira Ghandi was one of the greatest politicians of the history. She served as Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984. In the 1970s her government was marked by corruption, human rights abuses and pro-Soviet politics. In 1984, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated by her bodyguards. During her government, she was an anti-Apartheid leader. Many people loved her and others hated her. Currently, she is a symbol of the India.
IRELAND: Mary Robinson was elected Head of State of Ireland from 1990 to 1997. She was a forceful campaigner for women’s rights in the world. The fruits of her efforts continue to flourish: On November 11, 1997, Mary McAleese was elected President. The world recognized Ireland’s Mary Robinson for her fight against abuses of refuges.
ISRAEL: Golda Meir governed as Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974. She is remembered as one of the most important women in the Israeli history. During her government, Israel and Egypt, Syria and Iraq went to war. After her death, Israel is the birthplace of important women as Leah Rabin and Shulamith Katznelson.
NEW ZEALAND: Jenny Shipley had an ephemeral government. She became the NZ’s first female Prime Minister. In 1999 Helen Clark was elected Prime Minister of NZ. Historically, New Zealand is the birthplace of the “Woman Suffrage”. The country´s name in the local dialect means “Land of the Woman Suffrage”.
NORWAY: Gro Harlem Brundtland served as Prime Minister for 11 years. She has been described as a “great Prime Minister”. She is equally admired as an ecologist and diplomatic. Under her leadership, Norway was an example of human development in the world.
PHILIPPINES: Corazon “Cory” Aquino was the fourth women in Asia to assume the position of President. After her victory, Aquino said that among her political projects were the anti-poverty and human rights. She was Benigno Aquino’s wife. She helped win more representation for women in the Parliament. It was under her government that full democratization began.
SRI LANKA: Sririmavo Bandaraike was the first woman who became Prime Minister in the history. Historically, she has been the first woman with real power in the 20th Century. Under her government, the Island, an ex- British colony, became a democratic republic. Mrs. Bandaranaike had taken a prominent role in national affairs during the government of her daughter, President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike (1994-2000).
UNITED KINGDOM: Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, best known worldwide as the “Iron Lady”, was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. She was the most powerful woman in the industrialized world. Mrs. Thatcher does not herself as a feminist. Thatcher was reelected Prime Minister in the 1980s and she was an active anti-communist leader. Her economical philosophy provided a model for many countries as Hungary, Czech Republic, Mauritius, Botswana, El Salvador, Chile and Cyprus. Under her leadership, the UK’s economy witnessed the most rapid growth in the 1980s.Ironically, she has not made campaigns for women’s rights, but she is an advocate for the ecology. Europe has produced many leaders, but none as Margaret Thatcher…
UNITED STATES: In 1996 Maria Jana Korbelova or Marie Hana Korbel, best known as Madeleine Albright, made history when she was elected Secretary of State of the United States. She was born in Czech Republic, former Czechoslovakia, but Madeleine became American citizen in the 1950s.She gained international recognition for her efforts on behalf of human rights and democracy. She was one of the few American leaders to balance good relations with North Korea…
Did you know that an American woman was Head of State?
Janet Jagan became President of Guyana, an ex-British colony and South American country. Mrs. Jagan, a naturalized Guyanan citizen who was born in Chicago, Illinois, came to power from December 1997 to 11 August 1999.
REFERENCES:
-ENCICLOPEDIA UNIVERSAL ILUSTRADA EUROPEO-AMERICANO SUPLEMENTO ANUAL 1934-2006, ESPASA-CALPE, BARCELONA
2-GUEVARA ONOFRE, ALEJANDRO. ENCICLOPEDIA MUNDOTOTAL 1999, SAN MARCOS, LIMA, 1998.
3———————- MUJER Y PODER, CECOSAMI, LIMA, 2001
4———————- NORTEAMERICANAS UNIVERSALES, CECOSAMI, LIMA, 2002
5———————- HISTORIA DE LA MUJER DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, CECOSAMI, LIMA, 2002
6-INFORME SOBRE DESARROLLO HUMANO 1995: GENERO Y DESARROLLO HUMANO, PNUD, NUEVA YORK, 1995
7-NOTES FOR SPEAKERS ONTHE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN, NACIONES UNIDAS, NUEVA YORK, 1995
8-THE WOMEN’S BOOK WORLD RECORDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS, LOUIS DECKER O’NEILL-ANCHOR BOOKS, ANCHOR PRESS, 1979
9-THE WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS 1980-2000, WORLD ALMANAC BOOKS, NEW JERSEY
10-UGLOW, JENNIFER. THE MACMILLAN DICTIONARY OF WOMEN’S BIOGRAPHY, THE MACMILLAN, LONDON, 1982
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POWER AND WOMAN
By Alejandro Guevara Onofre
INTRODUCTION:
From my perspective, I think that democracy is synonymous of equality between women and men in the civil society and government. Ironically, there are more women voters, but fewer women candidates. However, From my point of view I think that “Parity Democracy” is the big difference between democracies and dictatorships. I remembered that the Taliban’s regime –the worst dictatorship in the modern history- prohibited women from participating in Afghanistan’s National Government. In 1990 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy activist, won the elections in Myanmar (ex-Burma), but she was arrested and the results were cancelled abruptly by dictator Saw Maung.
Certainly, international organizations reports that 10 democracies have the highest proportion of women in its governmental structures: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Iceland, Germany, New Zealand, Mozambique, South Africa and Spain. Another example: under the Administration of Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright was the first female Secretary of State.
Sri Lanka, formerly named Ceylon, is the home to Sirimavo Ratwate Dias Bandaranaike. She was often described as one of the most important females in the history: Mrs. Bandaranaike became World’s first female Prime Minister. She influenced Prime Minister from Janet Jagan to Gro Harlem Brundtland with her leadership for women’s rights and democracy.
Inspired by example of the “Women Revolution” in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Bangla Desh, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Bandaraike’s daughter, was elected Head of State in 1994.Her government was very similar that of her mother.
Certainly, there were fewer governments by women’s leaders as Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who has fought for the democracy and women’s rights in Nicaragua, one of the most poorest countries in Latin America.
Finally I would like to finish my article with my favorite personal motto: “The future is for those people who believe in the beauty of their dreams”, by Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt, who was First Lady of the United States between 1933 and 1945.
ARGENTINA: In 1974 Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, best known as “Isabel Peron”, became the first woman President in the modern history. She is the widow of former President Juan Domingo Peron (1946-1955 and 1973-1974). After his death in 1974, Juan Domingo Peron was replaced by Vice President Isabel Peron. On March, 1976, after 2 years in power, she was ousted in a military coup led by Jorge Rafael Videla. She was forced into exile.
BANGLADESH: The country, an ex-British colony, has had two women in the national power. Begum Khaleda Zia was Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996. Khaleda was an advocate for the environment. She escaped assassination in 1995. However, she was reelected without opposition, but Khaleda Zia was succeeded by other woman: Sheik Hassina Wajed, anti-governmental activist. Sheik Hassina Wajed was as unpopularity as her predecessor. Bangladesh was one of the few states in the world whose government has been successively held by women.
BOLIVIA: Lydia Gueiler Tejada, former accountant, served as interim President of Bolivia from 16 November 1979 to 17 July 1980.She was elected President by Parliament. Mrs. Gueiler Tejada was overthrown by General Luis Garcia Meza Tejada, who was one of the worst dictators in the Latin American history.
CANADA: Dame Kimberley Campbell was ephemeral Prime Minister from 25 June 1993 to November 1993. But she was not the only one in power. Jeanne Sauce was Governor General from 1984 to 1989. Furthermore, Adrienne Clarkson was elected also GG in 1999. Currently, Michaelle Jean, was born in Haiti, has been elected GG in 2005.
DOMINICA: Dominica, a small country in the Caribbean, has been an independent State since 1978. Mary Eugenia Charles governed from 1980 to 1995. During her government Dominica had one of the most highest rate of human development in Latin America. In 1983, Mary Eugenia Charles, an admirer of Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, established diplomatic relations with Republic of China (ROC) or Taiwan. She was apparently supported by the United States and Taiwan for its anti-communism.
ICELAND: Vidis Finnbogadottir was Head of State of Iceland from 1980 to 1996.Vigdis was a key interlocutor between the Soviet Bloc and the United States. She was the first woman democratically elected President in the world.
INDIA: Indira Ghandi was one of the greatest politicians of the history. She served as Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984. In the 1970s her government was marked by corruption, human rights abuses and pro-Soviet politics. In 1984, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated by her bodyguards. During her government, she was an anti-Apartheid leader. Many people loved her and others hated her. Currently, she is a symbol of the India.
IRELAND: Mary Robinson was elected Head of State of Ireland from 1990 to 1997. She was a forceful campaigner for women’s rights in the world. The fruits of her efforts continue to flourish: On November 11, 1997, Mary McAleese was elected President. The world recognized Ireland’s Mary Robinson for her fight against abuses of refuges.
ISRAEL: Golda Meir governed as Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974. She is remembered as one of the most important women in the Israeli history. During her government, Israel and Egypt, Syria and Iraq went to war. After her death, Israel is the birthplace of important women as Leah Rabin and Shulamith Katznelson.
NEW ZEALAND: Jenny Shipley had an ephemeral government. She became the NZ’s first female Prime Minister. In 1999 Helen Clark was elected Prime Minister of NZ. Historically, New Zealand is the birthplace of the “Woman Suffrage”. The country´s name in the local dialect means “Land of the Woman Suffrage”.
NORWAY: Gro Harlem Brundtland served as Prime Minister for 11 years. She has been described as a “great Prime Minister”. She is equally admired as an ecologist and diplomatic. Under her leadership, Norway was an example of human development in the world.
PHILIPPINES: Corazon “Cory” Aquino was the fourth women in Asia to assume the position of President. After her victory, Aquino said that among her political projects were the anti-poverty and human rights. She was Benigno Aquino’s wife. She helped win more representation for women in the Parliament. It was under her government that full democratization began.
SRI LANKA: Sririmavo Bandaraike was the first woman who became Prime Minister in the history. Historically, she has been the first woman with real power in the 20th Century. Under her government, the Island, an ex- British colony, became a democratic republic. Mrs. Bandaranaike had taken a prominent role in national affairs during the government of her daughter, President Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike (1994-2000).
UNITED KINGDOM: Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, best known worldwide as the “Iron Lady”, was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. She was the most powerful woman in the industrialized world. Mrs. Thatcher does not herself as a feminist. Thatcher was reelected Prime Minister in the 1980s and she was an active anti-communist leader. Her economical philosophy provided a model for many countries as Hungary, Czech Republic, Mauritius, Botswana, El Salvador, Chile and Cyprus. Under her leadership, the UK’s economy witnessed the most rapid growth in the 1980s.Ironically, she has not made campaigns for women’s rights, but she is an advocate for the ecology. Europe has produced many leaders, but none as Margaret Thatcher…
UNITED STATES: In 1996 Maria Jana Korbelova or Marie Hana Korbel, best known as Madeleine Albright, made history when she was elected Secretary of State of the United States. She was born in Czech Republic, former Czechoslovakia, but Madeleine became American citizen in the 1950s.She gained international recognition for her efforts on behalf of human rights and democracy. She was one of the few American leaders to balance good relations with North Korea…
Did you know that an American woman was Head of State?
Janet Jagan became President of Guyana, an ex-British colony and South American country. Mrs. Jagan, a naturalized Guyanan citizen who was born in Chicago, Illinois, came to power from December 1997 to 11 August 1999.
REFERENCES:
-ENCICLOPEDIA UNIVERSAL ILUSTRADA EUROPEO-AMERICANO SUPLEMENTO ANUAL 1934-2006, ESPASA-CALPE, BARCELONA
2-GUEVARA ONOFRE, ALEJANDRO. ENCICLOPEDIA MUNDOTOTAL 1999, SAN MARCOS, LIMA, 1998.
3———————- MUJER Y PODER, CECOSAMI, LIMA, 2001
4———————- NORTEAMERICANAS UNIVERSALES, CECOSAMI, LIMA, 2002
5———————- HISTORIA DE LA MUJER DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS, CECOSAMI, LIMA, 2002
6-INFORME SOBRE DESARROLLO HUMANO 1995: GENERO Y DESARROLLO HUMANO, PNUD, NUEVA YORK, 1995
7-NOTES FOR SPEAKERS ONTHE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN, NACIONES UNIDAS, NUEVA YORK, 1995
8-THE WOMEN’S BOOK WORLD RECORDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS, LOUIS DECKER O’NEILL-ANCHOR BOOKS, ANCHOR PRESS, 1979
9-THE WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS 1980-2000, WORLD ALMANAC BOOKS, NEW JERSEY
10-UGLOW, JENNIFER. THE MACMILLAN DICTIONARY OF WOMEN’S BIOGRAPHY, THE MACMILLAN, LONDON, 1982
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Posted on May 24, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Sustainable Frome
James Burgess asked:
There’s something rather interesting developing where I live in Somerset – it’s called “Sustainable Frome”. Every month a group is meeting and the numbers are surprisingly fast-growing with about 180 participants after only 4 meetings. It would be neat to be able to say exactly what is its purpose and membership, but its simply too early to define things. In fact right now, the major focus is to define a focus.
Generally, as its working title suggests, the people coming together are concerned about how to work in real tangible ways to bring about changes in how we respond to Climate Change in our own homes and our own town. We are talking seriously about a number of ideas and projects, for example acquiring ‘transitional town’ status, reducing to nil our carbon footprint, recycling,. information exchange, speed restriction in the town, eco-schools, community living, straw-bale houses, efficient light bulbs, being a kick-ass pressure group…and much more. In fact the size of the group makes it rather cumbersome, so there are quite a few special-interest mini-groups working somewhat independently under the Sustainable Frome umbrella (or federation). Peter Mac Fadyen is the natural leader of the whole thing as it came together according to his initiative, and I have to say that he’s done extremely well to get it all up and running.
I do have some concerns about its structure however. I’ve spent too much time over the last 20 years in groups not to have noticed the real difficulties there are when a facilitator tries to pull a disparate bunch of mavericks into a cohesive group that can fulfill a specific intention. A delicate balance has to be found between – on the one hand – openness and inclusivity, so every voice is heard, and – on the other – clear-minded assertive leadership regardless of popularity. Perhaps, for myself I err towards the latter rather too much to expect to be universally popular! My defense is this – if the house is on fire, I will risk offending sensitivities by shouting FIRE! loudly, and dragging sleepy heads to safety. I pray I’m not too alone in noticing that humanity’s house is on fire.
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There’s something rather interesting developing where I live in Somerset – it’s called “Sustainable Frome”. Every month a group is meeting and the numbers are surprisingly fast-growing with about 180 participants after only 4 meetings. It would be neat to be able to say exactly what is its purpose and membership, but its simply too early to define things. In fact right now, the major focus is to define a focus.
Generally, as its working title suggests, the people coming together are concerned about how to work in real tangible ways to bring about changes in how we respond to Climate Change in our own homes and our own town. We are talking seriously about a number of ideas and projects, for example acquiring ‘transitional town’ status, reducing to nil our carbon footprint, recycling,. information exchange, speed restriction in the town, eco-schools, community living, straw-bale houses, efficient light bulbs, being a kick-ass pressure group…and much more. In fact the size of the group makes it rather cumbersome, so there are quite a few special-interest mini-groups working somewhat independently under the Sustainable Frome umbrella (or federation). Peter Mac Fadyen is the natural leader of the whole thing as it came together according to his initiative, and I have to say that he’s done extremely well to get it all up and running.
I do have some concerns about its structure however. I’ve spent too much time over the last 20 years in groups not to have noticed the real difficulties there are when a facilitator tries to pull a disparate bunch of mavericks into a cohesive group that can fulfill a specific intention. A delicate balance has to be found between – on the one hand – openness and inclusivity, so every voice is heard, and – on the other – clear-minded assertive leadership regardless of popularity. Perhaps, for myself I err towards the latter rather too much to expect to be universally popular! My defense is this – if the house is on fire, I will risk offending sensitivities by shouting FIRE! loudly, and dragging sleepy heads to safety. I pray I’m not too alone in noticing that humanity’s house is on fire.
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