The Task Force on Gender and ICTs consists of representatives from UNIFEM, UNDP, World Bank, UNESCO, INSTRAW, FAO and UNV with ITU as Task Manager. The mandate of the Task Force is three-fold and consists of

1. establishing an inventory of activities of all UN organizations in the area of Gender and ICTs,
2. establishing and monitoring a system-wide strategy for ensuring that a gender perspective is included in the preparations for and outcome of the World Summit on the Information Society, and
3. work on guidelines to assist/advise members of IANWGE on making their programmes and projects on ICTs gender sensitive.

In view of the proximity of the World Summit on the Information Society for which the first phase will take place in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003, the work of the Task Force has concentrated during the last year on point 2 of the mandate, that is to ensure that a gender perspective is included in the preparations for and outcome of the WSIS. It is expected that this work will continue and be strengthened until the second phase of the World Summit which take place in Tunis in 2005. It will be kicked off with inputs from the Network and the Task Force to the First Preparatory Committee for the Summit which is scheduled to take place in Geneva from 1 to 5 July 2002. Interested persons may wish to consult the Website for the WSIS (http://www.itu.int/wsis/) on activities in this respect.

At its second annual meeting in February 2003, the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) agreed that INSTRAW would prepare and host at its website a special database with a set of past, current and planned projects on gender and ICTs within the United Nations system. The Task Force on Gender and ICTs sent a questionnaire to all agencies and prepared a compendium. The information contained in the compendium was used to prepare the database, which is now available in the INSTRAW Online Library.