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group of users. At the same time, the culture ofsharing information in Nepali society and organisationsand working collectively on a common issuewas a distant vision.The situation has changed now. More and moreNepali people and organisations have access to ICTsand social media. Though there is no official data,from general observation it can be said that everywoman, whether working outside the home or athome, has access to mobile phones and SMS andis familiar with social media. With growing accessto ICTs Nepali women and men alike are more opento sharing information and their public sphere hasgrown. However, at the same time, the open spaceprovided by advances in ICTs has been turned upsidedown, as women and men alike have becomesubject to online harassment. It is time to reviewICT-related policy and laws in Nepal in the contextof massive growth in access and the advancementof social media and networks like Facebook.The perspectives of Nepali women in ICTs havetheir own share of highs and lows. While projectslike MahilaWeb completed their cycle more than adecade ago, the ultimate outcomes of recent initiativeslike Voice Heard and the VAW Hackathondeserve a grace period before conclusions aredrawn.Action steps• First, the IT Policy and Cyber Law in Nepal needto be revised and amended to make them gender-sensitiveand inclusive.• The IT Policy should also be revised to incorporateclear gender-specific provisions such asscholarships for women to pursue IT education;employable ICT skills development and trainingfor women; and quotas for women in IT sectoremployment.• The Cyber Law in Nepal needs to be developeddifferently in the context of rapidly changinguses and abuses of social media, with specificsafety and security measures provided for womenusers.• Women’s leadership in the ICT sector, their inclusionand their rights need to be developed asin any other developing sector.• Rights for women have been provided for inmost of the laws of Nepal, but there is a need formore concerted efforts for women to be awareof and claim their rights.• Over more than a decade of experience, a majorityof ICT and ICT4D programmes or initiativeshave not been able to sustain their work.Multi-stakeholder partnerships that includethe private sector, especially IT companies, canensure some degree of sustainability of ICT4Dinitiatives. ■174 / Global Information Society Watch