With a new State Department-funded initiative, Michigan State University (MSU) is "Promoting Women's Political Leadership in West Africa: The Internet and Skills for Democracy." This two-year project reflects MSU's conviction that the Internet has a unique ability to make information available quickly, easily, and on an interactive basis that can enhance civic participation, and political and governance skills in new and exciting ways. The Internet can be key to building and strengthening sustainable democracies worldwide and especially in Africa. The project also reflects MSU's commitment to increasing equity for women in the economy and society. With a grant from the U.S. State Department's Office of Citizen's Exchange in the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, MSU will extend its African Internet Connectivity initiative through a joint project of the Matrix: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online and the African Studies Center. The project will focus on training for women in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Mali, capacitating elected officials, candidates, and leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in using and developing Internet tools to meet some of the most pressing needs facing their countries and communities.

"By providing access to online technologies, this program will enhance West African women's rights and opportunities to limit both the digital divide between men and women, as well as the persistent inequalities between first world and developing nations," said Professor Mark Kornbluh, Director of MATRIX, "We know from experience that electronic networks can be a critical means of facilitating exchange between individuals with like interests who are separated by distance and national divides. If we can empower these women leaders to use the Internet to build ties with their constituents and colleagues, both in their own communities and abroad, we can contribute significantly to strengthening democracy in each of these African countries as well as our own." According to Stella D'Orgu, previous program participant and Head of the Commission on Integrated Gender Empowerment, Nigeria, "...the benefit of establishing contacts with other women in so many other countries is invaluable. The interactions with others also reinforces one's own work, and one picks up new tips to improve results. The Internet serves as a means for reaching out to potential volunteers, and also for contacting other women working in similar fields, and thereby motivating each other."

In May 2002, a group of politically-active women from each of the four West African countries will attend a three-week training workshop at MSU and Washington, D.C. "In addition to intensive Internet training, the group will participate in a range of seminars on women's political participation and leadership skills and will meet with political leaders from across Michigan and Washington, D.C.," noted Professor David Wiley, Director of the MSU African Studies Center. "Fostering partnerships and exchange among an international community of women leaders both in the U.S. and among the participating countries is a central goal of this initiative." Lisa Fine, Professor of Women's Political History at MSU added, "the project not only brings West African women activists, politicians, academics, journalists and intellectuals to learn how to use the internet for their own work, but also to share, instruct and learn with like-minded women in the United States."

After the May workshop, MSU teams will travel to Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Mali to work with the trainees to conduct follow-up training sessions and build further networks among women in the four countries. These in-country workshops will include practical skills for meeting the responsibilities and expectations of accountability of elective office, campaign management, polling, voter outreach, and message development for political candidates, and activities to enhance the participation of women in the electoral process and civic involvement, both locally and nationally.

Promoting Women's Political Leadership in West Africa is the second phase of a continuing family of projects at MSU to build capacity, human, research and educational resources in African institutions and communities. Since 1996, MSU has hosted delegations of academics, archivists and librarians, teachers, journalists, human rights activists, political leaders, and cultural heritage workers from across across West and Southern Africa with support from the State Department's Office of Citizen Exchange. This initiative also will build on an earlier two-year initiative to strengthen women's democratic organizing in West Africa that concluded in May 2001.

Partners in this initiative include: MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online, the MSU African Studies Center, Women and International Development, and the MSU College of Arts and Letters.

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