Saturday, November 07, 2009

Women, Africa and Business

"The glass ceiling will go away when women help other women break through that ceiling." – PepsiCo. CEO Indra Nooyi

Going through my usual business of emails, tweets and news browsing, I noticed several leads on African Women and Business:

- Wharton Africa Business Forum hosts a panel on Women in Business

- Munyua writes a chapter in Book, African Women and ICTs, titled, "Women entrepreneurs in Nairobi: examining and contextualizing women’s choices"

Just a quick weekend note. I am always looking for more great stories and examples of women and business particularly in social entrepreneurship initiatives.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Re-cap: IDIA 2009 conference

Purpose:




I think conferences are in much need for visual stimulation like the beautiful animals (hyena above) of Kruger in order to develop creative and innovative ideas of research. This was the setting of the International Development informatics Association 3rd conference in South Africa.

The purpose of participating in this conference was to present my conference paper based on the research that I had conducted under my 2008/09 IDRC Professional Development Award to an international academic audience. My paper is co-authored with Kenyan, Jason Musyoka, and titled, “Re-thinking Acute Emergencies Response through Communication Technology in African Rural Communities.” The paper can be found here.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Conference Paper: Mobiles and Perceptions of Mobile / Emergency Response in Peri-rural Ghana

This presentation was prepared for the 3rd International Development Informatics Association (IDIA) Conference. 28-30th October 2009 Johannesburg; South Africa. The draft paper and report on the conference will be posted on this space very soon.

Special thanks to Wireless Africa research partner, One Village Foundation, and Mr. Kafui Prebble, for the organization's logistical support back in November 2008 for this field research.

Conference Paper Abstract:

Local rural communities frequently receive little assistance in resolving acute emergencies. In rural areas, emergencies are thus resolved using alternative local mechanisms and adapted practices mediated through available technologies. However, local mechanisms may lead to various barriers such as potentially asymmetrical emergency information to a certain population and can remain on a “who-you-know” basis. Individuals who are new to an area or those disadvantaged with poor social networks are limited to time-consuming and costly options for assistance during emergencies.