Unit 5.3. Outcome evaluation of e-government interventions for women’s empowerment: Introducing a capabilities-based approach

In addition to assessing the extent to which gender perspectives have been integrated in the design and implementation of e-government, assessments for gender-responsiveness should also focus on evaluating outcomes of specific e-government interventions, from a gender standpoint.

Outcome evaluation is a complex exercise, which goes beyond determining whether ICT-enabled restructuring of governance systems is producing the intended outcomes on women’s lives stated in e-government strategy documents and master plans. As multipurpose technologies, ICTs can potentially empower individuals and communities to attain development outcomes of their own “choosing” (Sen, cited in Kleine 2009)3. Hence, in addition to the intended outcomes, interventions may also result in unanticipated, positive spin-offs. It would therefore be useful to examine how the very ‘capability of choosing’ is expanded as the primary outcome, leading to others that effectively contribute to women’s empowerment.

The capability of choosing depends upon the following, as described by (Kleine 2009)4:

  1. Expansion of Choice: Is there an actual expansion of strategic life choices for women in social, economic and/or political dimensions of life?
  2. Sense of Choice: Have women acquired a ‘sense of choice’, that is, are they becoming aware of the new choices that have been opened up by e-government interventions?
  3. Use of Choice: Are women able to exercise these choices without punishingly high costs?
  4. Attainment of Choice: And most importantly, upon exercising their choice, are women able to attain the desired outcomes?

For example, take the case of a one-stop-shop kiosk programme initiated by a ministry of women, in order to expand marginalised women’s access to public information and services. If the outcomes of this programme are to be mapped using the choice framework outlined by (Kleine 2009)5, it would mean asking the following questions:

  1. Expansion of Choice: Has the one-stop-shop kiosk programme expanded knowledge about entitlements and welfare benefits for the target group of women?
  2. Sense of Choice: Are women in the communities where the one-stop-shop kiosks are situated aware of how these kiosks can contribute to supporting their entitlement claims?
  3. Use of Choice: Are women able to process entitlements at these one-stop-shop kiosks without socio-cultural or economic barriers?
  4. Attainment of Choice: Is greater access to public information and entitlements through these one-stop-shop kiosks leading to increased access to, for example, material resources, information and knowledge resources, support networks, or status gains in the household and community?

Of these dimensions, it is the attainment of choice/ the achievement of desired outcomes that lends itself best to concrete measurement. In her Choice Framework that is being adapted here, Kleine (2009) recommends that evaluations of ICT-enabled interventions for development and social transformation first map the achievement of desired outcomes being reported by participants, and then “work backwards, from the outcomes, into the systemic relationships between agency, structure and choice, thus analysing how the outcomes were arrived at.”

Figure 1 demonstrates how to deploy this framework to outcome evaluations of e-government interventions. Women’s empowerment outcomes are traced to the expansion in informational, associational and communicative capabilities enabled by the e-government intervention under study. Further, the specific interplay of e-government institutional structures and women’s agency that catalysed this expansion of capabilities is unpacked.

Additionally, such a mapping of the systemic relationships can also reveal if and how the attainment of choice (outcomes) actually contributed to expanded agency (or in some cases to changes in the very structures of e-government). Similarly, concrete outcomes may also in turn deepen the capabilities to choose.

Reflecting on these forward and backward connections between structure, agency, capabilities and outcomes can be instructive to understand the specific pathways that enhance women’s capabilities to choose. It can support exploration of not just positive consequences, but also negative outcomes aspects such as: what are the capabilities that did not expand? What structural or agency-end resources would be needed to address the non-achievement of intended outcomes? Thus, it helps in assessing the changes to governance structures that are required to promote changes in social structures, enhance women’s agency, and deepen their capabilities, as well as contain and potential backlash.

Institutional structure of e-government Agency of women citizens Expansion of capabilities through e-government Achievement of empowerment outcomes

Institutional structure of e-government

This refers to aspects such as:

  • Gender perspectives in e-government master plan/ national digital agenda
  • Accountability safeguards in public private partnerships in e-service delivery
  • Data protection law and robust data governance frameworks
  • Gender-sensitive intermediation of e-services through one-stop-shop kiosks
  • Effective legal-institutional guarantees for women’s digitally-mediated participation (rights to free expression, privacy, association, service delivery, be heard, grievance redress, freedom from violence etc.)
  • Open standards and accessible design of government web portals
  • Digital literacy programmes directed at women and girls
  • Policy frameworks to promote universal access for women
  • Gender-inclusive and safe public access points

Agency of women citizens

  • Based on resources – material, financial, informational, educational, cultural, psychological etc. – that a woman is able to mobilize

Expansion of capabilities through e-government (Existence, Sense and Use)

Informational Choice:

  • Availability of information on public services and entitlements
  • Awareness about relevance of available information
  • Unfettered and meaningful access to such information

Communicative Choice:

  • Availability of forums for citizen-government interface, grievance redress, consultation
  • Know-how to participate in available forums
  • Unfettered and meaningful access to such forums

Associational Choice:

  • Availability of platforms for citizen-to-citizen deliberation, peer-based platforms for participatory governance, collective grievances on e-services etc.
  • Know-how to participate in available platforms
  • Unfettered and meaningful access to such platforms

Achievement of empowerment outcomes

  • Greater self worth
  • Digital enskillment
  • Access to employment
  • Access to information, knowledge resources and education
  • Access to social welfare benefits
  • Access to networks of support, peer learning, knowledge
  • Status gains for women in the household and community
  • Women’s leadership in public-political processes

Figure 1. Capabilities-based approach to outcome evaluation of e-government interventions for women’s empowerment6

The following case study of the Blended Learning Programme of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in the Philippines demonstrates how a capabilities approach can be deployed in practice, in the outcome evaluation of e-government interventions for women’s empowerment. Please note that the capabilities approach is an interpretive tool, and not a methodological tool for primary data collection.

It is possible to use quantitative, qualitative or mixed methodology evaluation research design in conjunction with this framework.

Box 1. Deploying a capabilities approach to outcome evaluation of e-government interventions for women’s empowerment: The case of the Blended Learning Programme of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Philippines

Source: UNESCAP 2016

1. A brief overview of the Blended Learning Programme:

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority in the Philippines (TESDA) was set up in the 1990s to “provide direction (and shape) policies, programmes and standards towards quality technical education and skills development”. It provides technical vocational education and training across the country, and also collaborates with schools and institutions for accreditation, coordination and monitoring of TVET programmes. TESDA has set up 15 Regional Centres and 45 Provincial Training Centres in the country, one among which is the TESDA Women’s Centre.

In 2013, TESDA Women’s Centre piloted a blended learning programme combining traditional face-to-face classroom training, with online training, in two of its courses — Food and Beverage Services, and Housekeeping. For the online training, the free online learning portal developed by TESDA in 2012, e-TESDA, has been utilised. The e-TESDA online learning portal is an interactive menu with video demonstrations of embedded skills, developed to facilitate self-directed learning. The portal aims at making technical and vocational education more accessible, increasing quality and improving the teaching and learning process through the use of ICTs.

The idea underpinning this initiative was that blended learning that combined self-directed learning through the free online portal, with face-to-face sessions, would result in more effective learning outcomes for marginalized women, who constitute the majority of trainees in the Women’s Centre’s programmes. It was felt that in addition to online exchanges, classroom interactions would help in enhancing peer support networks, and guidance and mentorship from trainers.

2. Applying a capabilities approach to outcome evaluation of the Blended Learning Programme

First, the key outcomes for women’s empowerment and gender equality were mapped through 13 in-depth key informant interviews with officials of the Women’s Centre, trainers and students of the Blended Learning Programme; and a review of programme documents. In brief, the key outcomes observed from the programme were:

  • Better preparedness for employment and boost in confidence to compete in the job market
  • Access to e-government services.

Next, the Choice Framework depicted in Figure 1 above was used to trace back the expansion of choices that led to these outcomes. This mapping revealed the following insights:

  • Informational choices: TESDA’s network in the country as well as the Women’ Centre’s reputation as a flexible learning space contributed to a wide uptake of the courses. The courses were made available on a learning platform that did not require connectivity at all times, allowing women with poor connectivity to benefit. The availability of information on government services, alongside the skill-based courses in Food and Beverage Services and Housekeeping, enabled course participants to transact online with government.
  • Communicative choices: e-TESDA’s trainers are available for dialogue during class hours and they also provide additional lessons to those who find the online training inadequate. Trainers can track the frequency of log-ins, monitor their trainees and check on the completion of their online training. These measures make for greater effectiveness of learning outcomes.
  • Associational choices: The Blended Learning Programme was deliberately designed to help women expand their networks of peer support. Additionally, a group of female students put together a social media group to support each other in their training, and keep one another motivated, a step that expanded their collective capabilities. Students reported that participation in the course enhanced their scope for “personal guidance” and also “to interact with other people --  their classmates and the public”.

Finally, the interplay of structural and agency-end factors that led to this expansion of Choice was unpacked through a careful examination of the programme design and experiences of the different actors involved:

a. Structural/ Institutional-end factors:

Institutional commitment to gender mainstreaming: The Women’s Centre is TESDA’s lead training institution for mainstreaming gender and development in technical and vocational education. It brings in the gender component promulgated by the Magna Carta of Women into technology-based training programmes.

Connectivity backbone: TESDA Women’s Centre recognises the affordability of Internet connectivity as a key concern for marginalised women. Therefore, the Blended Learning Programme offers spaces at the TESDA Women’s Centre where women learners can access the Internet for free, and also provides offline versions of the courses — so that even without continuous Internet connectivity, learners can still use downloaded content. The TESDA Women’s Centre has also entered into partnerships with Community eCentres and public libraries of the government, to expand the choice of venues for participants to access the Internet.

Fully subsidised, accessible and secure online learning platform: e-TESDA provides a free web-based learning programme, based on a no-cost policy that encourages participation of citizens. The design of the e-TESDA portal makes use of open source platforms like Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment), bringing down design costs in e-service delivery. To protect learners’ personal information, the e-TESDA platform has a robust data protection policy in place.

Gender-responsive programme design: The learning platform addresses women learners’ need for flexible spacing of learning time, peer networking and support, and access to safe spaces for learning.

b. Agency-end factors:

Geographic proximity to location of class room sessions, ability to negotiate participation in the programme with household members, basic digital fluency, social network membership for access to information about technical and vocational programmes, all these factors were vital to participants’ agency in the programme.

Unit Summary

Assessing e-government ecosystems for their gender-responsiveness is about:

  1. tracking the extent to which the design and roll-out of e-service delivery, e-participation, and connectivity architectures, is gender-inclusive.
  2. evaluating the outcomes of e-government interventions, from a gender equality standpoint.

Such assessments are integral for timely and appropriate review and course corrections in e-government systems, towards the effective realisation of the women’s empowerment and gender equality agenda.

A whole-of-e-government assessment on gender-inclusion must begin by analysing the following dimensions of e-government design:

  • Dimension 1. Institutionalised commitment to gender equality,
  • Dimension 2. Integration of gender perspectives in e-service delivery,
  • Dimension 3. Integration of gender perspectives in digitally-mediated citizen participation,
  • Dimension 4. Integration of gender perspectives in connectivity architectures.

In addition to assessing the extent to which gender perspectives have been integrated in the design and implementation of e-government, assessments for gender-responsiveness should also focus on evaluating outcomes of specific e-government interventions, from a gender standpoint.

Outcome evaluation is a complex exercise, which goes beyond determining whether ICT-enabled restructuring of governance systems is producing the intended outcomes on women’s lives stated in e-government strategy documents and master plans. As multipurpose technologies, ICTs can potentially empower individuals and communities to attain development outcomes of their own “choosing”. Hence, in addition to the intended outcomes, interventions may also result in unanticipated, positive spin-offs. It would therefore be useful to examine how the very ‘capability of choosing’ is expanded as the primary outcome, leading to others that effectively contribute to women’s empowerment. This requires addressing the following questions:

  1. Expansion of Choice: Is there an actual expansion of strategic life choices for women in social, economic and/or political dimensions of life?
  2. Sense of Choice: Have women acquired a ‘sense of choice’, that is, are they becoming aware of the new choices that have been opened up by e-government interventions?
  3. Use of Choice: Are women able to exercise these choice without punishingly high costs?
  4. Attainment of Choice: And most importantly, upon exercising their choice, are women able to attain the desired outcomes?

 

 

  1. 3 Kleine, D. (2009). ICT4What? – using the choice framework to operationalise the capability approach to development. Retrieved from https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse590f/09sp/ictd09/Kleine.pdf, 2009
  2. 4 ibid.
  3. 5 ibid.
  4. 6 Framework adapted from Kleine, D. 2009. ICT4What? Using the Choice Framework to Operationalise the Capability Approach to Development. https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse590f/09sp/ictd09/Kleine.pdf