28/02/13

Focus on Gender: Small-scale tech can transform women’s lives

CassavaGrinder_Africa_Flickr_GatesFoundation_3413x5120

Agencies should back small-scale technologies that can benefit women Copyright: Flickr/Gates Foundation

By: Henrietta Miers

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Focus on Gender: Small-scale tech can transform women’s lives</h1>
<h4>By: Henrietta Miers</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p></p>
<p>
	<strong><span>Small-scale technology can help women to raise their status and increase their income and education, says <em>Henrietta Miers.</em></span></strong></p>
<p>	Western development agencies' <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/new-technologies/news/charity-s-hiring-woe-highlights-lack-of-tech-know-how-in-ngo-community.html"><span>lukewarm attitude to the role technology</span></a> can play in poverty reduction does not serve <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/gender/">women</a> well. NGOs like Practical Action specialise in community-owned <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/new-technologies/">technology</a> that is small-scale, labour-saving and cost-effective and often most benefits poor women. More support for such technology projects could transform women's lives.</p>
<p>	Practical Action is not alone. The electrification of remote villages in the north of <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/south-asia/">Pakistan</a>, introduced by another NGO, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), shows how three simple ingredients — running <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/water/">water</a>, community organisation and some technical know-how — can help women.</p>
<div class="box" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; background: #ededed; width: 50%; float: left;">
<div class="inherit_box box">
<h3 style="color: #ffffff; margin: 0px;">
			SPEED READ</h3>
</p></div>
<div>
<ul style="list-style: disc outside; margin: 10px 5px 10px 20px;">
<li style="padding: 0 0 5px;">
				A Pakistani power project has reduced time-consuming household chores for many women</li>
<li style="padding: 0 0 5px;">
				Electricity allows women to earn more from woollen products and has cut indoor pollution</li>
<li style="padding: 0 0 5px;">
				But many NGOs are ambivalent about technology's benefits</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<p>
	The district of Chitral and the Northern Areas of Pakistan lie where the Karakoram, the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush mountain ranges meet. When AKRSP first arrived in this isolated area in the 1980s, it found villages scattered up mountainsides with erratic or no connection to the national grid, and local people demanding electricity. Until then, light came from pinewood torches and expensive kerosene lights.</p>
<p>	AKRSP introduced micro-hydroelectric technology using water from the region's fast-flowing rivers to generate energy. In Chitral alone, 209 <a href="http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/renewable-energy/">'micro-hydel' systems</a> had been established by 2012, bringing electricity to more than half of the population. Villagers themselves build and maintain the systems.</p>
<p>	Community ownership is central to making this technology work. Village organisations, in which women are active, contribute towards installation costs and decide on connection fees, energy charges and subsidies for the poorest households. Some committees charge more for electricity-hungry appliances such as washing machines, and restrict their use in the evenings when lights and televisions are on to prevent system overload.</p>
<p>	For women, gone is the drudgery of time-consuming household chores such as washing clothes and churning butter by hand. Eye and respiratory diseases from kerosene and pinewood torches have declined, especially among women who spend much of their time at home. Electric light enables women to spend more time turning the local wool, <em>shu</em>, into products that form their largest source of income. Television — for example through the Allam Iqbal Open University, in Pakistan — has opened up education for women where a strict culture of purdah (the practice of concealing women from men) confines them to their village boundary. [1]</p>
<p>	<span>NGOs such as Practical Action and AKRSP show that small-scale technology can benefit women in a number of ways.</span></p>
<p><!--[if gte mso 10]>

<![endif]--></p>
<div class="article_image article_image_left" style="width:60px;">
	<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="Henrietta Miers " height="60" data-src="http://c96267.r67.cf3.rackcdn.com/miersauthorimage_130130160139034.jpg" title="Henrietta Miers " width="60" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" class="lazyload" style="--smush-placeholder-width: 60px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 60/60;" /><noscript><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="Henrietta Miers " height="60" data-src="http://c96267.r67.cf3.rackcdn.com/miersauthorimage_130130160139034.jpg" title="Henrietta Miers " width="60" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" class="lazyload" style="--smush-placeholder-width: 60px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 60/60;" /><noscript><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="Henrietta Miers " height="60" src="http://c96267.r67.cf3.rackcdn.com/miersauthorimage_130130160139034.jpg" title="Henrietta Miers " width="60" /></noscript></noscript></div>
<p>
	<em><span><em><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;color:black;
background:white;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:
AR-SA">Henrietta Miers has worked across Africa and Asia as a gender and social development consultant for 15 years, specialising in gender policy. She is senior associate of WISE Development, a consulting company that focuses on boosting the economic opportunities for poor women</span></em>.</span></em></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/column/focus-on-gender-small-scale-tech-can-transform-women-s-lives/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/column/focus-on-gender-small-scale-tech-can-transform-women-s-lives/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Small-scale technology can help women to raise their status and increase their income and education, says Henrietta Miers.

Western development agencies' lukewarm attitude to the role technology can play in poverty reduction does not serve women well. NGOs like Practical Action specialise in community-owned technology that is small-scale, labour-saving and cost-effective and often most benefits poor women. More support for such technology projects could transform women's lives.

Practical Action is not alone. The electrification of remote villages in the north of Pakistan, introduced by another NGO, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), shows how three simple ingredients — running water, community organisation and some technical know-how — can help women.

SPEED READ

A Pakistani power project has reduced time-consuming household chores for many women
Electricity allows women to earn more from woollen products and has cut indoor pollution
But many NGOs are ambivalent about technology's benefits

The district of Chitral and the Northern Areas of Pakistan lie where the Karakoram, the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush mountain ranges meet. When AKRSP first arrived in this isolated area in the 1980s, it found villages scattered up mountainsides with erratic or no connection to the national grid, and local people demanding electricity. Until then, light came from pinewood torches and expensive kerosene lights.

AKRSP introduced micro-hydroelectric technology using water from the region's fast-flowing rivers to generate energy. In Chitral alone, 209 'micro-hydel' systems had been established by 2012, bringing electricity to more than half of the population. Villagers themselves build and maintain the systems.

Community ownership is central to making this technology work. Village organisations, in which women are active, contribute towards installation costs and decide on connection fees, energy charges and subsidies for the poorest households. Some committees charge more for electricity-hungry appliances such as washing machines, and restrict their use in the evenings when lights and televisions are on to prevent system overload.

For women, gone is the drudgery of time-consuming household chores such as washing clothes and churning butter by hand. Eye and respiratory diseases from kerosene and pinewood torches have declined, especially among women who spend much of their time at home. Electric light enables women to spend more time turning the local wool, shu, into products that form their largest source of income. Television — for example through the Allam Iqbal Open University, in Pakistan — has opened up education for women where a strict culture of purdah (the practice of concealing women from men) confines them to their village boundary. [1]

NGOs such as Practical Action and AKRSP show that small-scale technology can benefit women in a number of ways.

Henrietta Miers has worked across Africa and Asia as a gender and social development consultant for 15 years, specialising in gender policy. She is senior associate of WISE Development, a consulting company that focuses on boosting the economic opportunities for poor women.