according to the plan all public programmes for information society development include the effective consideration of the principle of equal opportunities between women and men in their design and implementation the government promotes the full incorporation of women in the information society through the development of specific programmes especially in terms of access and training taking into account initiatives from groups w ith a high risk of exclusion and from rural areas promoting knowledge about gender equality in the information society the programme for gender equality in the information society is a plan avanza initiative which provides ngos with funding to carry out projects aimed at teaching women ict skills and increasing their employment opportunities the assessment interviews revealed that among those four targeted areas closing the gender divide has been the least successful although more that of the interviewees consider that plan avanza had positive impact on the gender divide among them nearly define the impact as considerable and nearly as limited