Can E-Commerce &use of ICT’s help Rural Women of Balochistan to fight Poverty? Jan Muhammad Balochistan University of Information Technology and Management Sciences Quetta, Pakistan Sadique Ahmed Bugti Balochistan University of Information Technology and Management Sciences Quetta, Pakistan Khalid Qazi Mengal Department of Communication and Information Technology University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany The 4th International Workshop on Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT 2006) 20 th –21 st December, 2006, Islamabad, Pakistan

Problem Statement Introduction of Web Smart Spaces Related Work Proposed Solution Used Methodology Conclusion Future Directions Presentation Outline

The rural women of Balochistan facing perpetual cycle of poverty, social exclusion and low bargaining power to sell their handmade items The handmade goods (handicrafts) taken by middlemen on very cheep rates Lack of skills, no awareness about use ICT’s to help them in finding international markets. Problem Statement

What is Solution Use of ICT’s, E-commerce and Web portal ?

What is Web Portal? A platform with numerous elements that: help and enable these rural women to present their products and services with photos and descriptions on the internet. information and guidance to start small business and contains useful links for rural women.

Related Work International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD)-supported programme The rural women in Latin America and the Caribbean are selling shampoo, textiles, leather goods and other handmade products over the internet, through anThe rural women in Latin America and the Caribbean are selling shampoo, textiles, leather goods and other handmade products over the internet, through an The Seelampur Community ICT Centre An ICT learning centre for girls and women located in a high-density, low-income area in India's capital New Delhi.An ICT learning centre for girls and women located in a high-density, low-income area in India's capital New Delhi.

Related Work (Contt) The First Mile Project The majority of poor people in Tanzania live in rural areas, and most are small farmers for whom agriculture is the only way out of poverty The majority of poor people in Tanzania live in rural areas, and most are small farmers for whom agriculture is the only way out of poverty

Proposed Solution  The use of ICTs to help rural women of Balochistan in overcoming perpetual cycle of poverty,  Building their capabilities and vocational skills.  A web portal is proposed which will help and enable these rural women to present their products and services with photos and descriptions on the internet.  Through online chat rooms and forums, rural women can have their questions answered about market access

Used Methodology   The proposed web portal can be developed with the help of provincial IT/Social Welfare Department and maintained centrally by any of social welfare organization working for human resource development in the province Development & Launching of web portal Training of youngsters for use of ICTs 3. Online chat-rooms and discussions

Phase-I  Development & Launching of web portal  The proposed web portal initially launched and owned by any of the above mentioned NGO’s and then linked to provincial/country web portals.  The social workers from these organizations will help the rural women to submit Digital photos and description of their products  The potential customers for these handicrafts can contact the administrator and then to the relevant rural women for purchase of items.

Phase-II  Training of youngsters for use of ICTs  Large number of youth both male and female remain jobless and become burden over their families.  This addresses two issues at a time:  one the capacity building and job opportunities for young men & women  the access of rural women to use ICTs for the showcasing their products.

Phase-III  Online chat-rooms and discussions  In this phase women can trained and directly involved in the use of ICT.  A web portal will enable rural women to make direct contacts with the potential national and international customers through , chat rooms and forums.

Conclusion  We proposed a web portal as a test bed for use of e- commerce and ICT’s to help rural women to fight poverty.  Social welfare organizations e.g. NGOs can help these rural women to access this web portal.

Future Work  Youngsters of these areas can be given basic training of ICT to help these women in marketing their products  Provision to poor rural women the facility of mobile van service.

References 1.Government of Balochistan, 2. Abdul Wadood, Journey Towards Emancipation, SEHER Publication, Ali A. Naqvi, Demystifying, Learning, Struggling, Overpowering the Myths of Information Technology through Human Resource Development, CIRN Jo Rhodes, Can E- Commerce Enable Marketing in an African Rural Women's Community Based Development Organization?, Informing Science Journal, Special Series on Community Informatics, Vol. 6, Women entrepreneurs go global with e-commerce, Fighting Rural poverty, the role of ICT, Key Facts by IFAD 6.Putting ICTs in the hands of the women, Stockholm Challenge Award Yousaf Haroon Mujahid, “Digital Opportunity Initiative for Pakistan”, The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, EJISDC (2002) 8, 6, The First Mile Project First Mile Project ‘Communication and learning for better market linkages’

Thanks…….