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women's empowerment from a program, rather
than an individual perspective. Also designed for
the organizational and national levels are indica-
tors suggested by the ITU's (2006) for measuring
inputs, outputs and outcomes associated with
achievement of the MDGs. But its indicators for
MDG 3, “promote gender equality and empower
women” do not refer directly to empowerment. The
closest is the outcome at the national level, which
is defined as ”positive changes in women's status
and employment based on ICTs” (p.29). Orbicom,
an international network of UNESCO chairs, has
attempted to measure the impact of ICT on gender
equality from a social development perspective
(Orbicom, 2005). A subsequent Orbicom report
by Huyer & Hafkin (2005) aimed to provide a
framework for data analysis relating to measuring
contributions by women to the knowledge society.
Notwithstanding the importance of the many
initiatives designed to measure the role of women
in ICT and the various indices developed by dif-
ferent agencies to monitor the impact of ICT4D,
we consider anecdotal evidence and profiling
of success stories to be useful complements to
indexing efforts, by giving deeper insights on
issues of importance to women. It is particularly
useful as precursors to developing quantitative
indicators. To illustrate impacts of ICT on gender
empowerment, we now present two ICT projects
in rural Bangladesh that forms the basis of our
empirical study.
its new program, the Grameen Phone Community
Information Centers (GPCIC). The GPCIC are
set up on shared premises in select rural areas
around the country. The centers provide comput-
ers, printers, scanners, and web cams for the rural
population. They are operated independently as
small business by local entrepreneurs. GPCIC
provides mobile Internet connections in every
center for access to the Internet and has enabled
some 20 million people in rural areas to access
the Internet and use e-mail for the first time. Fol-
lowing a successful pilot phase, conducted with
the GSM Association, GPCIC is teaming up with
local entrepreneurs to set up at least one center in
each sub-district throughout the country. At the
GPCIC centers, users can access the government
websites, e.g. to obtain passport forms, birth and
death certificate forms and other related infor-
mation. Market prices of agricultural products
and other agricultural information can easily be
obtained from GPCIC. The GPCIC's are also of
help to students and professionals for gathering
reports and news. Information related to local and
foreign job search sites is available at the centers.
Many services that would otherwise have been
beyond the reach of an individual living in a rural
area are now available at the GPCIC. Health and
medical information will also be made available
through the GPCIC soon.
The GPCIC in this study located in the village
of Jamalpur, 38 km northwest of Dhaka, the capital
city of Bangladesh. The village is in the District
(Administrative Unit) of Manikgonj, which has
a long history as a trading center. The total area
of the Jamalpur village is about 5-6 sq. km. This
village is bounded in the south by a small river
called the Dholeshori and in the west by a high-
way connecting to a main road to Dhaka. There
are approximately 780 households in this village;
with most villagers living in tin-shed houses.
There are only a few brick houses in the village.
In Bangladesh the commercial activities of a
typical village revolve around the “ hat ” (weekly
market) and bazaar (daily market). In Jamalpur
Grameen Phone Community
Information Center (GPCIC)
in Jamalpur Village
Grameen Phone is the leading telecommunica-
tions service provider in Bangladesh with more
than 23.26 million subscribers as of December
2009 (BTRC 2009). Grameen Phone is a joint
venture initiative between Norway's Telenor
ASA (62%) and Bangladesh's Grameen Telecom
(38%). Grameen Phone initiated a new program
to provide a comprehensive ICT solution through
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