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ENERGIA News Issue 3, July 1997

Networking Around the World

Amsterdam: Meetings on Gender & Technology

On June 6, the TOOL/ TOOLConsult Conference on Technology and Development: Strategies for the Integration of Gender took place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The conference closed off a two year project on Gender & Technology, financed by the Dutch Ministry for International Co-operation and implemented by TOOLConsult.

The conference attracted 125 participants, demonstrating that there is considerable interest for gender and technology. Marilyn Carr, Govind Kelkar and Saskia Everts gave key-note presentations that stressed the need for more gender awareness in technology-related development initiatives. Afterwards, instruments and approaches for integrating gender in technology were demonstrated and discussed in eight working groups.

On the previous day, there had been an Expert Workshop with 30 participants from all continents. They shared cases studies, experiences and lessons learnt in interventions regarding gender and technology.

One important theme that resounded throughout the Conference and the Expert Workshop was the need to interest and involve men in gender and technology issues. In order to achieve this, one sometimes has to be willing to take a pragmatic approach. Many useful gender approaches and instruments do exist that can be helpful in this process.

A Conference Reader and a Conference Report ƒ20 and ƒ10 respectively, excl. postage) can be ordered by from:
TOOLConsult, Sarphatistraat 650, 1018 AV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Tel. +31.20.6264409; Fax +31.20.4211202, Email saskia.everts@tool.nl