ITU, UN Women recognize outstanding contributions to
women’s empowerment through technology
Geneva, 1 December 2015 – ITU and UN Women have announced
the twelve finalists for the second annual GEM-TECH Awards, which recognize
outstanding work to leverage the potential of information and communication
technology (ICT) to promote the empowerment of women and girls.
This year’s awards attracted close to 150 nominations from government, the
private sector, academia and civil society from 55 countries. Online nominations
were open from 28 May to 31 July, and attracted a wide range of projects and
advocacy work linked to harnessing ICTs for women’s empowerment.
The winners will be selected by a committee of experts from ITU and UN Women
with input from last year’s winners. They will be announced at a special awards
ceremony on 14 December 2015 held at Civic Hall in New York, co-hosted by the
New York Mayor’s Office.
Jointly organized by ITU and UN Women, the awards were launched in 2014 in
recognition of the tremendous power of ICTs to transform women’s lives by
providing them with better access to education, information, support networks,
employment opportunities, avenues for political participation, and devices and
apps that can improve personal safety. The awards aim to recognize the diversity
and scope of work being done around the world.
This year’s awards focus on three categories:
Promoting women in the technology sector
Finalists: Cisco Networking Academy, USA; Technovation Challenge,
USA; Roxana Rugina, CEO and Founder of Simplon Romania, Romania; Women in
Technology Uganda, Uganda.
Applying technology for women’s empowerment
Finalists: the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, UK; Community
Development Association (CDA), Georgia; the Research Center of Communication and
Development Knowledge Management (CCDKM), Thailand; and Ooredoo, Qatar.
Developing gender responsive ICT governance, policy and access
Finalists: Hanane Boujemi, Senior Manager of Internet Governance
Programme, MENA Region, the Netherlands; the Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications, Senegal; Mujeres Digitales, Colombia; the National Network
to End Domestic Violence’s (NNEDV) Safety Net Project, USA.
ITU and UN Women have recognized the work of three GEM-TECH Global Achievers,
who are this year H.E. Anusha Rehman Khan, Minister of State for IT and
Telecommunications, Pakistan; H.E. Pamela Hamamoto, Ambassador, US Mission in
Geneva; and Dr Nancy Hafkin, Senior Associate, Women in Global Science and
Technology, USA.
“ICTs are a powerful tool for development, but women and girls do not have
equitable access to this transformative technology,” said ITU Secretary-General
Houlin Zhao. “ITU estimates that there are some 200 million fewer women online
than men, and that women are coming online later and more slowly. The projects
and individuals announced as finalists today demonstrate the positive impact
that ICTs have on women’s empowerment.”
The 2015 GEM-TECH Awards are being celebrated as part of the 20 year
commemoration of the Beijing Platform for Action. “This has been a signal year
for women’s empowerment,” said UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women
Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “We have decisive commitments from
Heads of State and Government to prioritize gender equality, and evidence of
where this must make most impact. Through the new Agenda 2030 for Sustainable
Development, we have explicit targets for increased engagement in enabling
technologies for women and girls and commitment to closing the gender gap in
technology by 2030. The GEM-TECH projects allow us to see what that looks like
in practice and show what we can achieve through digital inclusion.”
The
inaugural GEM-TECH Awards were presented at ITU’s 2014 Plenipotentiary
Conference held in Busan, Republic of Korea. There, seven
individuals and organizations from around the world won awards for promoting
gender equality and mainstreaming through ICTs.
ITU is already engaged in promoting women’s empowerment through ICTs. ITU’s
Girls in ICT Day, which takes place annually on the fourth Thursday in April,
encourages young women and girls to pursue a career in ICT, and has to date
reached over 177,000 girls through more than 5,300 events in over 150 countries.
ITU’s Special Envoy on Women and Girls in ICT is award winning actor and
advocate, Geena Davis.
View the video profiling this year’s finalists
here.
See last year’s winners
here.
For more information contact: