Global Summit of Women 2002
 Barcelona, Spain

July 13, 2002 (Saturday)  

Bess Stephens
Global Director, Hewlett Packard Philanthropy and Education/U.S.A.

 HP Digital Village Program:

United States: three diverse, underserved communities

·        East Palo Alto, CA

·        East Baltimore, MD

·        Southern California Tribal Community

Europe and Africa: cities/townships plagued with high unemployment and extreme social conditions

·        Kumasi, Ghana

·        Dikhatole, South Africa

·        Villetaneuse, France

Good citizenship is good business:

·        It’s our responsibility to society to be an economic, intellectual and social asset to each country and community in which we do business.

·        Highest standards of honesty and integrity are critical to developing customer and stakeholder loyalty.

·        Betterment of our society is not a job to be left to a few – it is the responsibility to be shared by all.

Bridging the global divide:

·        The information revolution has brought new prosperity to our world, which presents a unique opportunity for developing countries to leapfrog decades of development.

·        Today, net technology touches only 5% of the world’s population.

·        Individuals in Europe with higher incomes are 3 times as likely to be online as low-income households.

·        Middle-income households in the U.S. are 3 times as likely to have Internet access at home.

HP’s E-inclusion vision:

All people should have access to the social and economic opportunities of the digital age.

Digital villages will provide valuable lessons for other HP e-inclusion initiatives and for HP businesses.

Digital Village Vision:

Underserved communities can, through the integration of technology, build on existing community assets and improve opportunities for residents to:

·        Participate in today’s digital society.

·        Use technology to enhance people’s lives.

·        Demonstrate market-value of underserved communities for technology-based businesses.

·        Help develop products and programs to engage residents.

What sets HP’s digital village program apart from other digital divide efforts?

·        A new model of corporate-community collaboration

--   Holistic, sustainable approach

--   HP and community co-develop a cohesive technology partnership plan with distinct milestones and tangible activities/programs/ results

·        A new way for HP to partner and use our core strengths in contributing to global communities.

·        Portfolio of programs focusing on education, economic development and access.

Primary community needs 

Access & Infrastructure:

·        Providing basic public and private facilities where individuals can sign onto the Internet.

·        Offering basic skill training to enable use.

·        Educating participants on the potential benefits of technology in their lives.

·        Assisting individuals in finding information about job opportunities.

Teaching & Learning:

·        Preparing young people for adulthood through programs within and out of schools, colleges and universities.

·        Providing learning opportunities for adults that enhance their personal and economic self-sufficiency.

·        Developing skills that prepare individuals for jobs and careers.

Community Development:

·        Promoting and strengthening the existing assets in the community.

·        Building connections and promoting interaction between residents, organizations and civic institutions.

·        Increasing citizen involvement in civic activities and community events

Economic Development:

·        Building long-term productive capacity in the community.

·        Supporting the retention and expansion of the local community’s employment base.

·        Supporting local business and entrepreneurs.

Nina Noeva
President, IAPBWB/Bulgaria 

“E-Powerment of women in Bulgaria” is an open-ended IAPBWB program for bridging the gender digital divide initially with 2 projects:

·        The project “Gender@network resources” is designed to include a greater number of women in the ICT sector through specialized e-education in Cisco Gender Academies.  Its main idea is to organize Cisco Gender Academics with new management, wider target groups and better marketing.

·        The second project called “E-business tools for women entrepreneurs” is intended to support women entrepreneurs running SMEs through development and implementation of tailor-made cost-effective Internet solutions.

The open-ended program provides for inclusion of additional projects, which may be designed in the future to bridge the digital divide and help Bulgarian women integrate more comprehensively into the emerging e-world.

The available data on women in the ICT sector in Bulgaria shows that there is a gender gap of representation in this industry sector, and explains one of the reasons why the IAPBWB got involved.

The general goals of the IAPBWB Program are:

·        To help include greater numbers of women in the ICT sector.

·        To provide new opportunities for women entrepreneurs in using e-business solutions for their SMEs.

The Project “Gender@network resources” is based on the following findings:

·        There is a shortage of ICT experts and, more specifically, networking professionals at the global, regional and national levels.

·        No date for Bulgaria is available for this national deficit, but leading HR companies declare growing demand for certified networking IT professionals.

·        There is a need to utilize the workforce, which will experience layoffs during the restructuring of the educational system – it is expected that approximately 4,000 will be laid off, 60% of whom are women.

·        Another large group of women who are going to look for new jobs are the spouses of military personnel, 20,000 of whom will be laid off by 2004 in the process of military reform.

·        There is underdeveloped potential for attracting young women – graduates from higher schools to integrate into the e-world.  Women represent only 50% of the graduates and many of them are willing to acquire additional professional education in ICT.

Target groups of the Project:

·        Wives of military personnel, subject to reform;

·        Teachers, who will be laid off;

·        Students – young women from higher schools;

·        Women representatives of other social groups.

Means for reaching the objectives:

·        Development and application of management scheme for running effectively a Cisco academy with gender orientation.

·        Development and implementation of targeted marketing strategy, designed to make modern ICT jobs more attractive and non-threatening for women.

·        Implementation of a set of incentives, mostly in price reduction of the educational fees.

·        Linking of educational process with subsequent job placement in labor market.

Main principles of the project:

·        Inclusive approach for initially 3-4 target groups.

·        Integration of knowledge and resources from NGOs, government, higher education schools, private sector, business associations and donors.

·        Application of corporate management tools.

·        Social component.

·        E-education as source of new high quality human resource.

The second project called “E-business tools for women entrepreneurs” is designed to build and implement a cost-effective Internet solution for enhancing women entrepreneurs’ capacity to integrate into the national and global e-economy and make their products and services more “visible” and better marketed.

Basic facts:

·        Only 17% of Bulgarian companies have built and maintain Internet web sites.

·        The portion of Bulgarian SMEs present on the Internet is even smaller.

·        38% of women in business consider access to markets as a major obstacle (second to access to capital) for the development of their businesses.

·        Existent websites of SMEs are poorly or not at all optimized and very often “hidden,” hosted on servers with questionable quality.

Factors impeding SMEs’ Internet presence:

·        Building and maintaining a high quality website is still a relatively costly marketing investment for the vast majority of the SMEs in Bulgaria.

·        Regardless of the increasing level of Internet use in the country many women entrepreneurs still do not adequately access the business opportunities even simple e-business tools can provide.

Target group: Women entrepreneurs with SMEs.

Means for reaching the objectives:

·        Targeted marketing campaign aimed at convincing women entrepreneurs of the benefits they gain by presenting their business on the Internet.

·        Building of cost effective edit-flexible Internet version of a presentational website for SME with options for integration of links to e-banking applications.

·        Creating cost effective Internet management system for individualization.

Principles:

·        Integration of knowledge and resources from NGO, private sector and potential donors.

·        Implementation of corporate management tools for securing success of the project.

Conclusion:

Define the problem – measure its scope – find a solution – combine your resources with those of other interested parties and patiently try to solve it!  These are the elements, which bound together through our motto, NETWORKING FOR SUCCESS, may help us narrow the gap in the gender digital divide in Bulgaria.