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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is more and more promoted as a driver and facilitator of economic growth and development in low and middle income countries. ICT for Development (ICT4D) though has mixed successes. Sustainability of solutions and usability respectively usefulness for the intended beneficiaries have been reported as causes. Participatory approaches to development have been proposed to address these causes. Participatory Design (PD) seems like a perfect fit. However, at the Participatory Design Conferences, research that addresses PD in low and middle income countries is rare. The workshop aims at bringing together the PD researchers working with under-privileged communities and attracting researchers from the ICT4D communities to the PD conference. The goal is to share experiences and start a discussion on how participation, ICT and development might relate.

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Although the implementation of computerized information systems in developing countries has been ongoing for decades, the diffusion process has been slow to achieve a state of active use in organizational settings, and examples of cross-sector sharing and learning remain very limited. This paper aims at demonstrating aspects that can be shared across sectors within the same socio-economic and political implementation context, and the potential benefits that can be achieved. Empirically, the paper draws upon experiences from the study of information systems implementation within the health and land management sectors respectively in Mozambique. The concept of “translation” drawn from Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) is used as a lens to analyse both experiences, and the similarities and differences are analyzed to draw specific inferences on potential domains of crosslearning. Specific learning concerns the issues around managing the scalability and sustainability of the implementation of egovernment initiatives. Four key areas of learning identified through this analysis are: use of participatory and action research development; enrolment of the government; enrolment of local universities; and use of joined top-down and bottom-up implementation approach.

This panel arises from a three-year research project (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) entitled Gender Research in Africa into ICTs for Empowerment 71 . The project, which is ongoing into a second phase, was undertaken to find out how and why women use ICTs and how the use (or non-use) affects their lives. This study engages with issues sometimes referred to as the gendered digital divide [6,7,5], the recognition that men are participating and benefiting to a greater degree than women in the Information Society [9]. It is recognized that the gender divide is more than a matter of access and use of tools, or designing content. While there is "global agreement that gender equality is essential for building a 'sustainable, just and developed society' [WSIS Declaration of Principles 2003]" [9, p. 135], there seems to be a gap in terms of understanding the implications of gender discrimination in relation to the potential benefits to society of the new technologies. This is a problem if societies as a whole are to benefit from ICTs and use them to further their development, if the vision of development pursued is to equitably reflect and fulfill the interests and needs of the population, not only those in positions of power.The use of ICTs has the potential to enhance our lives and contribute to our wellbeing, effective use of time, economic development and so forth. Because they are merely tools whose meaning is defined by the use and the users, they can