scholarly journals Information and communication technologies and gender in climate change and green economy: Situating women’s opportunities and challenges in Zambian policies and strategies

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Justina Namukombo

Zambia’s 2012 report on the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (RIO +20) identifies existing opportunities on the country’s transitioning to green economy. The RIO +20 conference of 2012 has resulted in new momentum in addressing problems of sustainable development. However, this article argues that there are practical challenges that require paying attention to, especially those involving women. The article addressed one key question: To what extent can women participate in the transitioning process to green economy in Zambia and what opportunities and challenges exists? The study used document analysis to answer the above question. National policy documents were reviewed to understand interventions on environmental management. Whilst going through the documents, the study used gender analysis frameworks (education, skills, roles in family and society, access to infrastructure) to bring out qualitative and quantitative information on women. Using suggested green economy interventions in the literature as benchmark, qualitative analysis was used to project possible participation of women in green economy activities and possible challenges to be faced. The study found that participation of women will be limited despite existing opportunities because of challenges of access to information and communication technology infrastructures, low educational levels and skills and financial constraints. As Zambia undergoes a transitioning process, these limitations should be addressed in planned green economy policies and interventions to maximise benefits.Keywords: Green economy; Gender; Policies; Strategies; ICT; Zambia

Author(s):  
Yolanda Rodríguez-Castro ◽  
Rosana Martínez-Román ◽  
Patricia Alonso-Ruido ◽  
Alba Adá-Lameiras ◽  
María Victoria Carrera-Fernández

Background: Within the context of the widespread use of technologies by adolescents, the objectives of this study were to identify the perpetrators of intimate partner cyberstalking (IPCS) in adolescents; to analyze the relationship between IPCS and gender, age, sexting behaviors, pornography consumption, and ambivalent sexism; and to investigate the influence of the study variables as predictors of IPCS and determine their moderating role. Methods: Participants were 993 Spanish students of Secondary Education, 535 girls and 458 boys with mean age 15.75 (SD = 1.47). Of the total sample, 70.3% (n = 696) had or had had a partner. Results: Boys perform more sexting, consume more pornographic content, and have more hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes than girls. However, girls perpetrate more IPCS than boys. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression indicate that hostile sexism is a predictor of IPCS, as well as the combined effect of Gender × Pornography and Benevolent Sexism × Sexting. Conclusions: it is essential to implement sexual affective education programs in schools in which Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are incorporated so that boys and girls can experience their relationships, both offline and online, in an egalitarian and violence-free way.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2307
Author(s):  
Rosa Anaya-Aguilar ◽  
German Gemar ◽  
Carmen Anaya-Aguilar

Health tourism is booming all over the world, and thermal spa tourism in Spain is a type of tourism aimed at integrating with nature, achieving sustainable development. In general, its facilities are located in areas specially protected by environmental legislation. This tourism sector attracts an increasingly wide market segment that has become more demanding and better informed and that more frequently uses the Internet to gather information. Tourists’ shopping and consumption habits are increasingly influenced by new information and communication technologies (ICTs), making these a topic of interest among academics and professionals. Website development has been shown to be an area of innovation for spa facilities, but evidence has also been found that this sector has experienced difficulty in adopting ICTs. This research sought to analyse spa websites’ usability by conducting an exploratory investigation of different websites’ contents. The results reveal that the use of new web technologies by spas is underdeveloped, although these facilities have achieved good positions in Internet search engines due to the synergistic effect of the official tourism websites. That is why most of them tell their story, detail their nature and the protection of their spaces. In this way, spas turn their websites into communication channels that convey to tourists their commitment to the environment and sustainable development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 100-117
Author(s):  
Macire Kante ◽  
Patrick Ndayizigamiye

To harness the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), developing countries need to develop national ICT policies that will serve as a framework for integrating ICTs at all levels of society. In the absence of that, different actors often engage in various actions for the same beneficiaries and in pursuit of the same objectives. That raises the need to define a national framework for the promotion and application of ICTs in the various production areas, particularly agricultural ones. It is for that reason that this study examined through qualitative methods (policy documents and semi-structured interviews) the national policy of Mali on the use of ICTs in agriculture. Data was analysed using the Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) method with the aid of NVIVO 12 software. The results showed that the country has two policy documents that articulate the country’s strategy towards the use of ICTs in the agricultural sector, that is, the Agricultural Orientation Law and the National Strategy for the Development of the Digital Economy. Further examination revealed that that these two policy documents are neither appropriate nor coherent in today's Malian landscape. This has resulted in an underutilisation of digital tools by agricultural extension officers which led to the low agricultural productivity in the country. This study recommended therefore the recasting of both documents to take into account the reported observations


2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 183-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yilmaz Esmer

AbstractIt is frequently asserted that the ongoing process that is commonly referred to as globalization should bring about wide-spread changes in values. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the unparalleled increases in the flow of capital, goods, services and information coupled with the revolutionary developments in information and communication technologies should result in a convergence of values.This paper is attempt to assess the direction and the magnitude of value change between 1981, when the first WVS/EVS surveys were conducted, and 2001, the last year for which data are available. Data from some 20 countries are analyzed to follow possible changes in values. Furthermore, the paper offers a test of the convergence hypothesis by examining the standard deviations and the coefficients of variation of a wide-ranging list of values.The conclusion is that cultural value change has been rather limited during this period at least for this sample of countries. Among the dimensions studied, marriage, family and gender relations seem to be the area of most significant change. On the other hand, we have found almost no evidence for even a slow convergence of values.


Author(s):  
Svetlana L. Lozhkina ◽  
Alexander A. Novikov ◽  
Elena A. Chepkasova ◽  
Elena V. Novikova

The modern stage of civilizational processes puts forward "sustainable development" as the fundamental goal, considering this the most important vector of promising transformations of human society. This stage of globalization development reveals the need to make the above processes not spontaneous, but controlled, which can be implemented, inter alia, through a qualitative transformation of tools and technologies used to monitor and predict the development of individual territories. The article presents a methodology for a comprehensive assessment of the investment attractiveness of a region using methods of integrated statistical assessment, including methods of descriptive analysis, and using the method of factor analysis. This method allows monitoring the level of development of information and communication technologies in the region as a whole, as well as in the context of individual types of economic activity in order to determine the main points of bifurcation for the concentration of financial resources in the development of ICT and increase the investment potential of the region as a whole.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daielly Melina Nassif Mantovani Ribeiro ◽  
Flavio Hourneaux Junior ◽  
Cristiana Lara Lara Cunha ◽  
Patricia Taeko Taeko Kaetsu ◽  
Patricia Fernanda Dionizio-Leite ◽  
...  

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the effective assessment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) related to smart and sustainable city initiatives. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a systematic review of the literature within the Web of Science and Scopus databases, comprising the studies about ICTs related to smart and sustainable city initiatives and sustainable assessment. Findings The main results point out that there are several different ways of assessing SDGs performance related to ICTs use in smart and sustainable city initiatives. However, the effectiveness of these assessments can be questioned. The intensive use of technology understood as the core of smart and sustainable cities does not imply an improvement in sustainability unless these technologies are strategically addressed to underpin those objectives. Moreover, not all SDGs have considered the use of ICTs in their targets. Research limitations/implications The scope of the study is limited to “how” the information is used and managed, rather than analysing the sustainable performance itself. As a limitation, the findings and conclusions do not consider other sources of studies, such as grey literature. Practical implications This study suggests some requirements for providing better and more reliable sustainable assessment, making smart and sustainable city initiatives more correlated with the SDGs. Social implications By acknowledging the difficulties associated with SDGs assessment, concerning the municipal level, the study offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of public policies and public management. Besides, the findings shed some light on if and how the use of ICTs can effectively enhance sustainable development issues. Originality/value This study offers valuable contributions to the literature by providing a collection of insights regarding how the ICTs may genuinely lead to a sound assessment of sustainable development, especially regarding the SDGs.


Author(s):  
Erica Norstedt ◽  
Annika Andersson ◽  
Evylyn Pettersson ◽  
Simon Klintestrand

There is worldwide consensus on how important women are for development where gender equality is seen as a prerequisite for sustainable development. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are seen as one of the most promising tools for the empowerment of women in developing countries. Men and women therefore need to have equal opportunities to access and use ICTs. Here, the authors, however, find a huge gender gap, and the reasons for this gap are still not fully understood or investigated. The purpose of this study is therefore to further investigate the reasons for this gap in ICT use. Based on a review of existing literature, as well as interviews with men and women from developing countries, the main finding is that the impeding factor underlying all barriers described in the literature relates to social norms. Based on this insight, the authors end the paper by discussing implications for research and practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 238
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Kuzior ◽  
Alla Lobanova

This scientific work analyzes the current state and problems of implementing the concept of sustainable development in industrial regions, in particular, in Poland and Ukraine. Emphasis is placed on slowing down the implementation of the main provisions of this doctrine, in particular, the violation of environmental requirements and non-compliance with ecological standards by industrial enterprises. The aim of the article is to find effective innovative tools for intensifying the process of implementing the strategy of sustainable development in industrial regions. The paper uses theoretical methods—analysis and synthesis, formalization, hypothetical-deductive modeling, mental modeling, systematization and generalization—as well as empirical: observation, description and comparison. The main result of the work is the substantiation of the scientific idea that the implementation of a sustainable development strategy in industrial regions is possible by intensifying the process of ecological marketing through the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT) and their innovative tools—methodologies, digital systems, the Internet, cloud technologies, and systems of product design, manufacture and sale—due to accelerated communication links. The authors’ approach to the development of the mechanism of creation and functioning of the single information space (field) of the ecological marketing of the industrial region is offered in this work, and also, the classification of modern ICT and their tools, which it is expedient to use in this mechanism, is carried out. Their purpose and the expected results from the introduction of ecological products for market research, the development of ecological technologies for the life cycles of ecological products and, thus, the impact on the acceleration of sustainable development in industrial regions are determined.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Gomez ◽  
Kemly Camacho

Libraries, telecenters, and cybercafés offer opportunities for wider public access to information and communication technologies (ICT). This paper presents findings of a global exploratory study on the landscape public access venues in 25 countries around the world. The goal of the project was to better understand the users of public access venues and their needs, this being one of several papers that result from the global study. This paper identifies profiles of the users of the different types of venues with respect to age, income, education and gender. While findings are not new, their value lies in the compelling evidence drawn from 25 countries and across different types of public access venues, which has never been done before. Results highlight the importance of strengthening public access venues in non-urban settings and to strengthen programs that reach out to underserved populations. The authors also point to special challenges faced by libraries and telecenters given the immense growth of cybercafés as public access venues in most of the countries studied.


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