GEM is an evaluation methodology that helps you integrate a gender analysis into the planning and/or evaluations of any social change initiative.
GEM will help you determine whether your development project or programme is really improving the lives of the women involved, as well as promoting positive change at individual, institutional, community and broader social levels.
GEM has been used by hundreds of development initiatives around the world since 2002.
Although the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to promote positive social change is increasingly recognised all over the world including in countries where infrastructure is still very poor, the understanding of gender equality concerns in ICT for development (ICTD) needs strengthening. While many ICTD practitioners and policy makers are committed to addressing gender issues and concerns which manifest within their projects and programmes, most do not know how to do so. Meanwhile, some ICTD practitioners and policy makers need to be convinced of the need to address gender and ICT issues, and others still believe that ICTs are gender neutral. It was within this context that the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) developed the Gender Evaluation Methodology for Internet and ICTs (GEM).
GEM was developed by APC within the Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) after APC WNSP itself began investigating the impact of its work in 2000. At that time, there was a strong and mutual need among members to build a collective understanding of the real impact of almost ten years of women’s networking and advocacy on gender and ICT issues, and APC WNSP and its members had the following questions:
- What changes are empowering women?
- How are these changes being measured?
- What role do ICTs play in these changes?
- How do these changes shift gender relations between women and men?
Explore the methodology. Find the manuals, handbooks and tools you need to implement GEM.