The Facilitators Guide for GEM Workshops contains a collection of examples taken from the experiences and learning insights of GEM facilitators who have led workshops across different regions and various contexts. It was written on the premise of “facilitator as learner” and mirrors the principles of learning that you are encouraged to use in your work.
Learning is a continuous process and the assumption is that you will take away with you whatever you need from the guide – whether it is a just-in-time idea when preparing for a specific workshop or an in-depth study of facilitation techniques and learning principles. The guide is designed in such a way that allows you to flip through to a section or jump to specific examples that will address your particular query with ease. The content is designed to suit new and experienced GEM facilitators alike.
This facilitators guide is a complementary guide to the manual Gender Evaluation Methodology for Internet and ICTs (GEM) which was developed in APC within the APC’s women’s programme after we began investigating the impact of our work in 2000. We asked: What changes are empowering women? How are these changes being measured? What role do information and communications technologies (ICTs) play in these changes? How do these changes shift gender relations between women and men?
At that time, there were no gender evaluation models or tools that looked specifically at the use of technology. In 2001, we began developing GEM with ICT for development practitioners in 25 countries from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. The GEM manual was published in 2005. This new suite of publications to accompany the manual has been written on the basis of our years facilitating GEM workshops in tens of countries. Though GEM was initially developed for evaluating and planning projects using ICTs, experience demonstrates that GEM can also be used to improve gender relations by the development sector in general.