2. Gender in e-Government Programme Design

When the eSri Lanka project was being designed, Sri Lanka had committed to women’s empowerment. It had prepared the Women's Charter (1993); put in place an institutional framework for women's advancement comprising a Ministry of Women's Affairs, a National Committee on Women and a Women's Bureau; acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1994; and become a signatory to the final outcome document of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) of the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995). Sri Lanka was also a participant at the World Summit on the Information Society (2003) and subscribed to the WSIS commitments to furthering women's empowerment and participation in the information society.

The eSri Lanka project was designed with the participation of a broad group of stakeholders to ensure ownership, knowledge transfer, capacity building, local innovation, sustainable institutional change and responsiveness to local conditions. However, despite the state’s commitment to women’s empowerment, the national machinery for the advancement of women, or representatives of other agencies such as the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment¹⁸ were not represented in the stakeholder group.¹⁹

The appraisal document for the eSri Lanka project did not take into account gender issues and the disadvantages faced by women, or gender stereotyping and social norms that impede women’s empowerment. The document mentions women as one of the different categories of the population that the project should focus on ((ii) empowerment of the rural poor, disabled, women, and youth… and (v) providing “training opportunities for women and youth”.),²⁰ but they are not a separate category.

The outcome indicators too are gender neutral as the following examples show:

1. “5,000 beneficiaries in each targeted community using telecenters on a regular basis, to improve their communication opportunities and access to services (health, education, employment, and government services)”,
2. “10,000 jobs created in software services and ICT-enabled services industry”,²¹ an indicator that fails to acknowledge that the unemployment rates for women have been double that for men, over the years.

As a result, data collection for monitoring was not sex-disaggregated. This has made it difficult to assess/evaluate the impact of the eSri Lanka project on women.

The absence of gender mainstreaming in the design of the eSri Lanka project reflects the wider marginalization of women in e-government frameworks, despite stated commitments to gender equality. Women tend to be lumped together with other vulnerable groups such as the disabled in the various programme components of the eSriLanka project instead of including gender as a cross-cutting issue. The lack of sex-disaggregated indicators to measure impact on women also exemplifies the lack of recognition of gender specific barriers that women encounter in accessing technology and digitalized governance systems.

Nevertheless, although there was no representation in the project stakeholder group, women and women’s groups were included in the focus group set up by ICTA for the eSociety Fund.²² The Fund included a Community Assistance Programme characterized by a ‘bottom-up’ approach, and a programme for scaling up community projects at the national level.

2.1 Commitment to Computer Literacy

Two streams of ICT skills development have had an impact on women’s digital literacy. First, the incorporation of ICT education in the formal education system at secondary, tertiary and postgraduate levels, and in vocational training; and second, enhancing ICT literacy of the general population especially those in under-served areas. Policy documents such as the 1983 National Computer Policy and the draft policy on the development of the software industry developed for the Cluster initiative of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had identified the need for a qualified pool of human resources to sustain technological and economic development of the country. Nevertheless, the impetus for ‘universal’ computer literacy came from the 2005 eSri Lanka project.

Milestones in computer science education and literacy were: the introduction of computer science in tertiary education in 1967; the introduction of information technology to the school curriculum in 1984; setting up of computer resource centres in 1994 by the National Institute of Education targeting around 700,000 school leavers annually to develop basic IT skills; offering of diploma courses to the non-formal sector in 1984; introduction of the National Certificate in Computer Applications at basic, intermediate and advanced levels by the Department of Examinations in 1995;²³ the launch of the National Policy on Information Technology in School Education in 2002; and the teaching of General Information Technology (GIT) in grades 12 and 13 the same year, and its extension in 2004 as an elective subject in a limited number of schools, and at the G.C.E. Ordinary Level in 2007. More recently, the Asian Development Bank developed a Gender Action Plan under its Education Sector Development Programme (2013-2018), to increase the participation of girls in technology subjects in grades 12 and 13.

Several developments could enhance the access of girls to opportunities to acquire ICT literacy. For example, School Net, an online educational system, connects up to 1500 schools in Sri Lanka,²⁴ eVillage²⁵ schools have also been set up in selected schools. These initiatives can promote girl’s access to ICT due to gender parity in enrollment at primary and secondary levels, and as more girls continue to higher grades than boys.²⁶ In 2005, for example, girls also outperformed boys at public examinations at all levels.²⁷

However, inequalities in the school system affect the learning outcomes of girls (as well as boys). Only about a fifth of the schools have G.C.E. Advanced Level classes (students in the age cohort 17-18 years). Lack of/inadequate budgetary allocations to meet the cost of electricity and maintenance and upgrading of computer facilities is a constraint that leaves out a considerable number of schools especially in remote rural areas. For individuals from low income households, unaffordable electricity and Internet charges deny access to the study of ICTs.

Despite these constraints, the proportion of women undergraduates studying computer sciences in Sri Lanka between 2005 and 2011 was 40 per cent.²⁸ This increase can be attributed to a change in entry requirements for computer science courses which enabled girls who had been disadvantaged due to subject selection at the Advanced Level to gain entry to this course. The introduction of external degrees was another factor. It also resulted in expanding opportunities for girls from non-urban and disadvantaged areas. Another factor that has contributed to more and more females entering this field of study was the change in parental attitudes to girls working in technical fields due to the recognition of the potential of ICT related employment,²⁹ and because IT literacy is required for employment even in rural areas.³⁰ Despite these positive developments, and lack of entry restrictions for women enrolling in these programmes, practical constraints such as evening classes, mobility restrictions, and transport problems resulted in high dropout rates, especially in the external degree programme.

The 2005 eSri Lanka project articulated a national strategy for ICT literacy, training and education. The specific objectives of this strategy were: ensuring that Sri Lanka acquired the necessary human resources to achieve the eSri Lanka vision; building an IT-competent population; and making Sri Lanka a global leader in ICT learning. The eSri Lanka project was also expected to have a catalyst effect on the ICT training sector by increasing citizen demand for high quality ICT education.

Human resource development was undertaken at various levels: through mainstreaming ICT education; increasing the intake of undergraduates into ICT programs; teacher training; equipping schools with ICT facilities; using ICT as an enabler for broad-based multi-layered education and tertiary education; introducing ICT for corporate learning; focusing on training for ICT-enabled services in sectors that employ a large number of women; and increasing tax and fiscal incentives for conducting ICT literacy programmes.

In addition to utilizing the network of existing training institutions, ICTA (the agency steering these efforts) drew on the Nena Sala network³¹ that promoted and offered ICT courses to rural communities. ICTA's e-Learning Network was also engaged in the effort through this separate but related project. E-learning was initially launched at five distance learning centres, with plans to extend them to the entire country. Specialised knowledge centres that were set up (the Vidartha (Technology) Resources Centres and Vishva Gnana Kendra (Knowledge Centres)³² forerunner to Nena Sala,³³ eLibrary Nena Sala,³⁴ and Easy Seva),³⁵ were also engaged in providing basic ICT skills.

In 2006, ICTA launched the 'e-Citizen' learning programme, designed to provide a qualification in basic ICT skills consisting of two recognized ICT qualifications, the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL)³⁶ and e-Citizen.³⁷ Both courses were provided at subsidized rates and there were other incentives as well for participants. In the preliminary phase, the 'e-Citizen' project sought to engage 100,000 citizens; and estimated that an additional 400,000 would master basic ICT skills by 2009. These estimates were projected with a view to achieving the target of an ICT literacy rate of 60 percent among rural communities. In 2015, a further step was taken to upgrade Nena Sala IT education and training by linking up with the Vocational Training Authority of Sri Lanka that could provide students a nationally recognised certification.

None of these training programmes targeted women or provided for women's quotas. However, under a programme conducted under ‘e-Diriya’, the national ICT literacy initiative of Sri Lanka launched in 2011, ICTA with support from the Sri Lanka Samurdhi Authority³⁸ and the Ministry of Education reached out to 23,000 women Samurdhi welfare beneficiaries. This was a one-time training programme conducted as part of Telecentre.org Foundation's global campaign of empowering rural women with ICT, the Women’s Digital Literacy Campaign.

ICTA also has been conducting 'training of trainers' programmes for Nena Sala operators. An example of such a programme is Intel Easy Steps, which enables participants to acquire certification as 'Senior Trainers'.³⁹ The Nena Sala training has been considered useful, though women operators are a minority, accounting for only 28 percent of telecentre operators in 2013.⁴⁰

According to the World Bank (2014),⁴¹ the Nena Sala programme contributed ‘significantly to mass literacy’ with a monthly usage exceeding 700,000.⁴² A final evaluation of the Nena Sala programme conducted in 2013, that surveyed 210 out of the 700 centres, found that women constituted 38 percent of users.⁴³

While the World Bank study did not include sex-disaggregated data and the subsequent evaluation did not attribute any reasons for the lower usage of Nena Sala centres by women, micro-studies have found that significant barriers⁴⁴ hamper women's access to the Nena Sala services.⁴⁵ For example, Kottegoda⁴⁶ has recorded the request for women-only centres from the predominantly Muslim eastern province, emphasizing that regional differences in gender relations and norms need to be considered when introducing technology and conducting training programmes.

An initiative that contributed to the improvement of computer literacy was the introduction of local language computing through the development of Unicode Sinhala and Tamil fonts. It is now estimated that there are more than 400 Unicode compliant tri-lingual government websites. e-Service websites and many other independent sites have also become more widely accessible to the public, because of their Unicode compliance.

These multi-pronged efforts at imparting ICT knowledge resulted in an exponential rise in the computer literacy rate, from four percent in 2004 to 24.9 percent in 2015.⁴⁷ The Department of Census and Statistics defines a computer literate person (aged 5-69) as one who can use a computer on her/his own. However, Samarajiva⁴⁸ contends that the literacy rate is likely to be higher, as the current definition does not include those who access the Internet through tablets and smart phones. Also, ICT penetration among individuals will be a multiple of household penetration. Consequently, computer literacy can be expected to be higher than what has been reported. Further, it is important to measure digital and information literacy, in addition to computer literacy.⁴⁹

Computer education that commenced in the late 1960s in the universities, a policy focus on training and skill development that started with the establishment of CINTEC, and the implementation of the eSri Lanka project resulted in more than a doubling of the computer literacy rate in a decade and a half. Official statistics indicate a narrow gap between male and female computer literacy rates at the national level. However, there are pockets of disadvantage and significant barriers to women’s access to training and skill development. Women continue to be a minority of users at the public access points that provide training.

2.2 Connectivity Architecture

Digital rights for women can be ensured only if there is connectivity. The population of Sri Lanka remains a highly rural population. According to the Sri Lankan 2012 Census of Population and Housing, 77.4 per cent of women lived in rural areas and an additional 4.5 per cent in the Estate areas.⁵⁰ However, connectivity has had an urban bias. Nevertheless, since the reforms of the 1990s, the urban-rural divide has been closing. Increasing household incomes, with GDP per capita reaching an all-time high in 2014.⁵¹ Expanded mobile network coverage, with as much as 90 percent of the population now covered by 2G networks and 70 percent by 3G and a limited number with 4G, and increasing competition between the mobile operators resulting in a lowering of prices for consumers (Sri Lanka has the lowest monthly price in the world for mobile telephone services)⁵² have all had a positive impact in increasing connectivity of the population. In 2015 the government launched the Google Loon project to provide high speed, affordable Internet access to all citizens in the country.⁵³ ICTA has plans to set up 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country “so that every Sri Lankan will be able to get online irrespective of their physical location”.⁵⁴ The government is to link 3,500 government buildings in 25 districts via the Lanka Government Network 2.0 facilitating document sharing within government and with citizens. Storage will be on the cloud. Privacy concerns are to be addressed by the setting up of a security operation centre for cyber-crime.⁵⁵

Mobile phone coverage has out-paced the growth and use of fixed-line connections. In 2015, there were 27.4 million mobile connections in the country, a sum exceeding the total population.⁵⁶ However, the number of unique mobile subscribers is estimated at 60-80 per cent of the population.⁵⁷ Though country-wide sex-disaggregated data on mobile phone access is not available, small-scale research studies suggest that women’s access to mobile technology is also significant⁵⁸ and comfort levels in using a mobile phone is high.⁵⁹

In 2016, there were 118.5 mobile subscribers per 100 inhabitants and 32.5% of the population was using the Internet. Broadband internet subscription rates were, however, only 4.1 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.⁶⁰ Given the low usage of fixed broadband, mobile operators are increasingly attempting to bridge asymmetries by providing value added services especially in health and learning, agriculture, and GovSMS,⁶¹ which are services that will benefit women. However, significant barriers to expansion of mobile connectivity exist. They include, in addition to coverage not-spots, lower e-readiness, fewer income earners, and lower household incomes in rural areas.⁶² Similarly, low household income as well as limited competition and high price are also reasons for the slow expansion of fixed line connectivity.

Currently, the Internet is mostly being accessed via feature phones. Increasing IT literacy, the availability of short term/flexi options that cater to lower income customers who are unable to commit to long term contracts, as well as marketing by telecom operators to develop profitable sources of revenue are expected to further increase the use of mobile phones. However, smart phones account for just ten percent of total mobile use. In this scenario, rural users, especially women whose incomes are even lower than that of men, may not be able to own a smart phone.⁶³

Connectivity to the majority in rural areas therefore will have to be through public access venues that will take into account the barriers that women face in accessing these public spaces. Currently, such connectivity to these areas is provided by the 720 Nena Sala centres, nearly 300 eLibraries, specialised centres and a few public libraries. With expansion of e-government services, more venues will be required for easier citizen access. An institution that could be considered is the extensive public library network, which a 2008 study found was the most popular information venue “as compared with technology equipped venues that had been established” and that women had trust and confidence in them. These could be leveraged to service rural areas by upgrading and converting them into spaces with connectivity.⁶⁴