BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin delivered remarks at the opening of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) ICTs and Gender Mainstreaming special track, on International Women's Day, 8 March 2021.
Distinguished speakers included H.E. Ms Pamela Gidi, Deputy Minister, Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Undersecretariat of Telecommunications, Chile; Dr Mercedes Aramendia, President of the Board, Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Comunicaciones - URSEC, Uruguay; Mr Mario Alberto Fócil Ortega, Operative Secretary of Administration, Federal Court for Administrative Justice, Mexico; Mr Loïc Hervé, Secretary of the Senate, Senate, France; Mr Andrew W. Wyckoff, Director, OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation; Ms Kirthi Jayakumar, Founder, The Gender Security Project, India; and the event was moderated by Mr Stephen Bereaux, Deputy Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU.
Commenting on the theme of this year's International Women's Day, on women's leadership, Ms Bogdan-Martin stated, ''The new leadership models emerging in our increasingly digital age favour transparency, inclusiveness, dialogue and consensus building – qualities that many women naturally demonstrate, but which were once considered obstacles to their leadership success.''
The number of women heading up ICT regulatory bodies has increased from 11 to 22 in the past five years; however, this still constitutes only 13% of the top regulatory jobs. Women ICT Ministers also constitute about 13%, as only 24 of 193 ITU Member States have appointed a woman to this post.
Ms Bogdan-Martin recognized that the goal to have 50:50 gender participation was achieved at the stakeholder-level last year. However, it was not achieved at the leadership level, which makes the need to gather momentum around this year's International Women's Day focus on women in leadership ever more necessary.
In addition to ITU's core gender programmes— such as the EQUALS Global Partnership, Girls Can Code camps, and Girls in ICTs— efforts have been ramped up with new initiatives, including the Women in Technology Innovation Challenge; ITU's co-leadership of the UN Women Generation Equality Technology and Innovation Action Coalition; a Women in Cyber Mentorship programme; and a new Network of Women (NoW) programme for the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2021.
Emphasizing the power of partnership, Ms Bogdan-Martin noted that this very element is what makes the WSIS process so powerful. ''Collaboration is, as always, the key, and I know that so many of you joining this session today are formidable leaders in your own right in striving to break down barriers and create new opportunities for women and girls in your own organizations, and countries,'' she said.
In conclusion, Ms Bogdan-Martin reaffirmed her eagerness to continue working with all participants to promote and achieve SDG5 and the goal of digital equality for all.
