Stakeholder Workshop
On the 4th of April 2019, a stakeholder workshop was conducted at Babale Suites in Kano. There were a total number of 21 out of 26 invited participants in attendance; 20 from Kano state and 1 from Plateau state. There were 10 female participants and 11 males.
Some of the key stakeholders who participated include: A representative from a telecommunications company, A woman activist, A traditional leader, A liberal Islamic scholar, The deputy director of CITAD, The director of Women, Ministry of Women Affairs , A sociologist and gender specialist, FGD facilitators, A former commissioner from the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The main objective of the workshop was to share knowledge and ideas with participants about the Tech4Families project goal and objectives, present initial findings from the focus group discussions, get additional feedback on the issues surrounding women’s access to technology in Kano and its environs; solicit support and community buy-in for the project’s goals and approaches – including finding allies for the project and understanding the wider landscape of who is working on this issue; ground truth our current insights into the gender digital divide in northern Nigeria, and receive additional suggestions for the project and radio programming design. The format of the SHW was focused on being as participatory and engaging as possible. As such the day included a lively panel discussion with Q&As and break out groups. This approach ensured high levels of interaction and good outputs from the participants.
The workshop enabled the team to validate findings and insights from the formative research with another audience. All participants agreed with the preliminary findings of the FGDs and felt EAI did a good job with the research. Almost all the participants also noted that the family unit was a major inhibiting factor to women’s use of technology and the internet and that further research into this was essential. One of the limitations they highlighted was the scope of the study, noting that 8 FGDs of only 80 people and 20 IDIs were too small to reflect the true views and perceptions of over 11 million+ people in Kano state.
