Women and ICT in Africa and the Middle East: Changing Selves, Changing Societies

Ineke Buskens is a cultural anthropologist working internationally as research methodologist and gender consultant, currently residing in South Africa. Aligning herself with a sustainable, just and loving world, Ineke designs and facilitates research, capacity building and gender awareness processes that foreground self-awareness, intentionality and dialogue. Born in the Netherlands, her degrees are from Leiden University, where she co-designed and co-facilitated the first Women's Studies majors in the country. After having been Head of the Centre for Research Methodology of the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa for five years, Ineke established her consultancy Research for the Future in 1996. Ineke has led several transnational, interdisciplinary and multi-method research projects, of which the GRACE Research Network, involving 28 teams in 18 countries in Africa and the Middle East, has been the latest. She has published on qualitative and emancipatory research methodology, women's health, Gender and ICT4D and Open Development.

Anne Webb focuses on the design and coordination of qualitative research and learning processes to address and reduce gender inequality in Canada and internationally. To this end she has been working with communities and research teams for over twenty years, involving people from many walks of life and locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Anne's approach to feminist qualitative research brings together elements of participatory action research, socio-economic analysis and critical self-awareness. She is currently designing and coordinating a two-year multi-country research and learning process. From 2005 to 2013 she was the research coordinator of GRACE.