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ural women. Apart from determining areas or activities that require
constant attention, the question helped provide a clearer understanding of
the critical success factors necessary for an organisation/s that works with
ICTs and rural women.
The AfriAfya respondent stated that "women should be involved in deciding
which ICTs will have benefits and be of benefit to their lives" and that, "ICTs
must have direct and immediate benefit to the lives of the women". Clearly
therefore, the interviewer deduces that for ICT initiatives to have any
meaningful use amongst rural women, the needs of the women have to be
taken into consideration from the onset of development. In other words, the
target end-user and the ensuing felt needs have to be an important priority
in the ICT project in question.
Lorrespondingly, the AUN-EA respondent observed that there is a need for
sensitization and training in the use of ICTS before project implementation.
For this to be practical, the respondent underscored the need "to develop
more resource centres with capacities to train communities on leTs".
In tackling similar issues related to developing and implementing leTs
amongst rural women, the Women'snet respondent stressed the following
approaches:
• "Projects have to work in collaboration with the rural women by being
flexible in terms of their needs and reqUirements"
• "There is always a need for a feasibility study or needs assessment
survey before project implementation"
• "The type of physical infrastructure has to be taken into consideration
before project implementation"
• "Gender dynamics/demographics of the community must be taken into
account before project implementation, Le., percentage of women, age
groups, occupations"
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