The North West Women in ICT Indaba, a provincial government forum to improve women’s skills in information and communications technologies, took place at the Mmabatho Convention Centre yesterday. Delegates took part in training sessions, demonstrations and discussions on a range of issues with sector stakeholders.

North West premier Edna Molewa commented that technologies needed to be more available, more affordable and more accessible for large numbers of women to be able to use them more effectively, and that getting informed of and involved in ICT policy issues was critical to the empowerment of women.

The government of the province believes that especially rural women should be shown how ICT is relevant to their lives and how it can help increase their livelihood options; it wants communities to adopt and adapt to ICT in order to overcome challenges and obstacles to development.