The paper examines factors which make it difficult for women from a low socio-economic background to access and use easily information for development purposes. The harsh economic environment, cultural barriers, social dis-empowerment, low levels of information literacy, are among the constraining factors analysed. The paper also argues that in designing information centres which target women, one must consider the information needs and seeking behaviour of this group. The last part of the paper comes up with suggestions on how to design information centres which women will find easy to use.
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