The Director of TSB is committed to advance gender equality in TSB and ITU-T, ensuring that a gender perspective is considered within standard making processes.
International Women's Day
2021
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Choose to Challenge”.
In celebration of this day, I choose to continue challenging the barriers and bias preventing equal participation of women and men in ICT standards development processes and reiterate my commitment to innovating with all, for all.
Indeed, from challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge.
Happy International Women’s Day 2021.
2020
As we celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, we are reminded of our unique position in the standardization ecosystem as the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICT).
Inclusivity is central to ITU’s mission. We strive to be the world’s most inclusive standardization platform, bridging development divides as well as gender divides.
Today we reiterate our commitment to improving gender balance in our standards development process and encouraging our stakeholders to innovate together, with all and for all.
# We Are Generation Equality.
Happy International Women’s Day.
2019
This year's theme for International Women’s Day is “think equal, build smart and innovate for change”.
For ITU-T and TSB, ‘thinking equal, building smart, and innovating for change’ means continuously improving gender balance in standards development and ensuring that the content and impact of implemented standards are gender responsive. Today, I reiterate this commitment.
Today, I also recognize and celebrate once again the important contribution of women in TSB, ITU-T, and the ICT sector.
Happy International Women’s Day!
2018
Today we celebrate the milestones on the journey towards gender equality and the empowerment of women in our lives and around the world.
I would like to echo the message of the Secretary-General in celebration of this day with the theme “The Time is Now”, reiterating TSB’s commitment to providing equal
access and opportunities to women and men of all regions of its membership.
Happy International Women’s Day!
2017
At the TSAG conference in February 2016, we launched the Women in Standardization Expert Group (WISE) as part of our commitment to promoting gender equality in ITU-T and the ICT sector. WTSA-16 also reaffirmed ITU-T Resolution 55 on promoting a gender equality in Telecommunication Standardization Sector activities.
Today we celebrate the progress made in TSB and recommit ourselves to providing equal access and opportunities to men and women of all regions of our membership
Happy International Women’s Day!
2016
Today we recognize and celebrate the important contribution of women to TSB, ITU-T and the ICT sector. We recognize women’s contribution to the well-being of our families and, more importantly, in sustaining the world’s economy.
Today we celebrate the progress already made and we are reminded of the work that lies ahead towards achieving equality for women and men.
As we celebrate Women’s Day this year, the TSB management team reaffirms its commitment to promoting gender equality and the advancement of women and men in TSB and ITU-T.
Happy International Women’s Day!
WISE Chair
Dr. Rim Belhassine-Cherif
Chairman of WISE
Dr. Rim Belhassine-Cherif is a general engineer. She has worked for the incumbent telecom operator in Tunisia “Tunisie Télécom” since 1994 and she is currently the Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer and the responsible of digital transformation at Tunisie Télécom. Dr. Belhassine-Cherif has participated to several ITU conferences, seminars and workshops and she is a vice-chair of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) and Co-Rapporteur on Standardization Strategy. She is also vice-chair of ITU-T Study Group 13, Vice-chair of WP3/13 and Vocabulary Rapporteur for the ITU Standardization Committee for Vocabulary (SCV). She has served as the vice-chair of SG13 Regional Group for Africa (SG13RG-AFR) since 2014 then she was appointed as the chair of this regional group in December 2021. Moreover, she was a vice-chair of the ITU-T Focus Group on Bridging the Gap: from Innovation to Standards between 2013 and 2015. Besides, Dr. Belhassine-Cherif has several contributions as Tunisie Télécom’s delegate in national and international events, related to both professional and academic fields, in which she participated as a speaker, panelist and moderator. Dr. Belhassine-Cherif graduated from the Higher School of Posts and Telecommunications of Tunis in 1994. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from the National Engineering School of Tunis in 2002 and obtained in 2010 an Executive MBA from Paris-Dauphine University and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. In the academic field, she performed several research activities in the domain of telecommunications and electrical engineering, and she is the author of many papers published in international and national conferences and scientific journals.
WISE Vice-Chair
Dr. Hyoung Jun Kim
Vice Chairman
WP1/20 Co-chairman, ITU-T Study Group 20, ITU | Senior Vice-President, Intelligent Convergence Research Lab, ETRI
Dr. Hyoung Jun Kim joined ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) in 1988, and he is currently in charge of the Intelligent Convergence Research Lab in ETRI as Senior Vice-President. He has had about 33 years research experiences in various divisions of ETRI including Info-Communications Technology Division, IT Strategy Research Division, Information & Telecommunications Technology Division, and Protocol Engineering Centre. He has been currently serving as Vice-chair of ITU-T SG20 and its co-Chair of WP1/20 and the co-Convenor of JCA-IoT/SC&C under SG20. Also he served as Vice-chair of SG13 and its Chair of WP3/13. In addition, he also had been served as Rapporteur of Q25/16 since 2004 as well as served as Vice-Chairman of FG on M2M Service Layers and Chairman of WP2 of the FG in ITU-T SG11 and Vice-Chairman of FG on Future Networks in ITU-T SG13. In addition to this, he is also now cserving as Chair of ASTAP(Apt STAndardization Program) in APT. Regarding his research and academic achievements, he has contributed more than 450 proposals for standards and published more than 150 papers in academic journals and conference as well as more than 100 patents and 20 official technologies transfers to the domestic companies. He was awarded the National President’s citation in 2003 and 2009 respectively as well as many Certificates of Appreciation from int’l standard-related organizations including ITU-T. In particular, he got his second National President’s Award at the “World Standards Day 2009 in Korea” for honoring his efforts on international standardization.
WTSA-16
ITU organized its first Women in Standardization Expert Group (WISE) event at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, on 30 October 2016 in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia.
The event consisted of a workshop on practical skills for successful negotiations, as part of ITU-T's commitment to promoting
equality for men and women delegates attending its meetings and conferences,
followed by a panel discussion highlighting the experiences of leading women from the ICT and standardization fields.
WTSA-16 brought forth delegates and ITU staff, with a focus on heads of delegations and leaders of national standards organizations, to learn, connect and celebrate the continued efforts towards gender equality in leadership positions.
WTSA-20
The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly is held every four years and defines the next period of study for ITU-T. WTSA-20 is planned to take place in Geneva, Switzerland,
1 to 9 March 2022 preceded by the Global Standards Symposium on 28 February 2022. Read more.
ITU WISE – Why Gender Matters in Setting Standards
A women in standardization expert group event
08 March 2022