This session will be dedicated to measuring the progress made in the WSIS implementation on gender equality issues since 2005 in some of the following areas:

• “ensure inclusiveness and respect for human right through increased participation of women in the knowledge societies”

• “women’s participation in decision-making processes and in contributing to shaping all spheres of the knowledge society at international, regional and national levels”

• “overcome the gender divide”

• “opportunities for women in the knowledge societies through the development of ICTs”

• “access of women from developing countries to ICTs”

• and others.

The discussants will also consider strategies for the upcoming five years to be able to reach the WSIS goals by 2015.

The session is organized within the framework of UNESCO’s commitment to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality globally and in its Secretariat, and goes in line with the Director-General’s decision to make gender equality one of the principal priorities of her mandate, which also reflects the Organization’s own designation of gender equality as one of its two global priorities – the other one being Africa - in its Medium-Term Strategy for 2008-2013. UNESCO is strongly engaged in pursuing this commitment through substantive programmes and concrete action in all its fields of competence.

The debate will be chaired and moderated by Mr. Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO.

Panellists:

• Ms. Eva Fabry, Director of the European Centre for Women and Technology, Chair of the Global Women and Technology Network, Drammen, Norway

• Ms. Christine Verschuur, Officer-in-Charge of the Gender and Development Program, Senior Lecturer, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

• Ms Doris Olaya, Statistician, Market Information and Statistics Division, International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland

• Ms Jelena Godjevac, President and CEO of the Micro-Enterprise Acceleration Institute (MEAI), Meyrin, Switzerland

Documents

• Communiqué

For more information, please contact:

• Anna Maria Majlöf (am.majlof@unesco.org)

• Dominique LaRochelle (d.larochelle@unesco.org)

• Mika Yamanaka (m.yamanaka@unesco.org)