Background

KNOW HOW CONFERENCE ON THE WORLD OF WOMEN'S INFORMATION

The first Know How Conference (Amsterdam 1998) created a worldwide community of women's information and media organizations. A concrete and measurable product of which was the creation of the International Cooperation Department at the International Information Center and Archives of the Women's Movement (IIAV), at the request of the participants in the Know How Conference. Another product was the commitment of the organizations to continue working together, to develop their expertise in a spirit of sharing thereby creating a Permanent Committee responsible for developing future Know How Conferences.

Projects and partnerships resulting from the 1998 Know How Conference include the global Women Action 2000 network, the Mapping the World of Women's Information Services and Centers database and book, the Global Gender and Water Alliance- an Indian regional Know How Conference, and an initiative to build a virtual library in Eastern and Central Europe and the Newly Independent Nations. Japanese partners are using the European Women's Thesaurus, presented at the Know How Conference, as the basis for their indexing systems. Plans are underway for a global URL database, an initiative of our Korean partners. In Bolivia, indigenous women leaders are developing programs to use ICTs to increase the access of their communities to information, and as a way of bringing information on their communities to the world.

Background

In July 2002 two important conferences took place in Uganda, for the first time on the African continent. The 5th conference of specialists in the collection and dissemination of information relevant to women took place at the same time with the 8th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, entitled Women's Worlds 2002 Congress. Entitled the Kampala Know How Conference 2002, it was organized by Isis-WICCE (Women's International Cross-Cultural Exchange) which is based in Kampala, assisted by the International Information Center and Archives for the Women's Movement (IIAV) in Amsterdam and Isis International-Manila. The Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University in Kampala organized the Women's Worlds 2002 Congress in collaboration with NGOs and Civil Society active in gender-focused research.

The two events had much to contribute to each other. Women's Worlds 2002 brought together the creators of knowledge: researchers. Kampala Know How Conference 2002 brought together specialists in getting information to where it is needed, whether to the grass roots, researchers, policy makers or the media. By bringing the information specialists to the Women's Worlds conference and the researchers to the Know How workshops we tried to radically affect the relationships between research, activism and information flows.

A one-day conference for information specialists to plan their work for the coming 4 years was held the day after the Women's World's Congress is completed, on July 27th.

Description of the Conference

The Kampala Know How Conference is a professional, global conference of women's information and media specialists, linking information specialists and those who need information.

Hundreds of women's information centers, our activities as diverse as our geographies, work to strengthen the position of women. Our accessibility, and the availability of our information, is essential to our work and a prerequisite to proper policy making at international, national and local government levels. One way of mainstreaming gender concerns is by investing our energies in channelling information to the "right people and institutions". Another way is by investing time in creating the opportunities for information specialists and those who need information to produce information together, that is to say, to invest in the process of making information, and partnerships). The Kampala Know How Conference is committed to creating a forum where ideas and experiences from the South, North, West and East are equally represented. Special emphasis was placed on the information concerns of rural women and poverty alleviation.

The Kampala Know How Conference 2002 Makes a Difference!

It is a meeting place for women and men who are information brokers who are dedicated to women's human rights. They are information go-betweens. They generate, package and disseminate information. For example, at the African village level they are the people who bring information and training to women to empower them as decision makers. They work with the women to determine why girl children do not want to go to school and bring that information to law makers at the district or national level. At the African regional level they are the people who are involved in international partnerships to ensure that the information from the African village level reaches the international decision-making arenas. They are the people that make sure that the negotiators at the discussion table know what they are talking about. What is the effect of war on communities? Ask the women's information center. How can women contribute to a dialogue for peace and reconciliation/ ask the women's information center.

The possibility of the Kampala Know How Conference 2002 is for women's media and information services and their users throughout the world and in Africa in particular to share current work and commit to co-operative projects that will be a powerful contribution to the possibility of women to live full lives, without violence and poverty and with full access to their human rights.