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Objective: The paper assessed the usage pattern of telecenters, how rural women frame telecenters, and barriers that limit use of telecenters. Further, the study examined the effects of demographic characteristics and location on telecenter usage.
Methods: The study used a sequential mixed research design in three rural districts surrounding telecenters: Kongwa, Sengerema, and Kilosa districts. The study population comprised of rural women who were users and non-users of telecenters. The study conducted six focus group discussions (FGDs) with 37 users, and six FGDs with 36 non-users
in the first phase of the study in 2014; questionnaires were administered to 90 users and 90 non-users in the second
phase of the study in 2015.
Findings: The primary use of telecenters among users was to access internet (71.4%, n=60), followed by ICT training
courses (63.1%, n=53) and secretarial purposes (63.1%, n=53). Rural women used internet for educational purposes, followed by news, information on health issues, job opportunities, social and entertainment issues. Rural women currently using internet were more likely to be better educated (β = 1.926, p=0.001), and have higher incomes (β = 5.318, p=0.021) at both bivariate and multivariate analysis. Users indicated that they faced the following barriers
towards using telecenter: short duration of ICT training, frequent power outages, low speed of internet, and few computers at the telecenters. Non-users were not using telecenters due to lack of ICT skills and language barriers.
Originality: This study provides empirical evidence to telecenters, libraries and other rural ICT initiatives to design rural ICT services that are gender-sensitive and demand-driven. |
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