Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

UNGA WSIS+10 Side Event : Gem-Tech Awards : Opening Remarks

15 December 2015, New York, United States

Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to this side event which has been organized by the Governments of Costa Rica, Tunisia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States of America, in collaboration with ITU, UN Women, Microsoft, Mozilla and the Association for Progressive Communication.

I am delighted to see the commitment of so many partners to the theme of women's empowerment through ICTs.

This side event is an opportunity to discuss challenges and possible solutions to address women's empowerment in the digital age – anpd it also gives us a welcome chance to congratulate and meet the GEM-TECH 2015 winners that were awarded at our very enjoyable event at the Civic Hall yesterday evening.

This year's GEM-TECH Award winners and GEM-TECH Global Achievers have done something really special: not just within their own communities and networks, but for all of us – not just as inspirational role models, but also as great examples of the kind of innovative work that is going on around the world.

For those who were not able to be with us yesterday let me announce again this year's winners:

• In the category of 'Promoting women in the technology sector', the winner is Technovation Challenge, USA.
• In the category of 'Applying technology for women's empowerment', the winner is The Research Center of Communication and Development Knowledge Management (CCDKM), Thailand.
• And in the category of 'Developing gender responsive ICT governance, policy and access', the winner is The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Senegal.

The three GEM-TECH Global Achievers, recognized and honoured for their exceptional efforts to boost women's empowerment through ICTs, are:

• Her Excellency Anusha Rehman Khan, Minister of State for IT and Telecommunications, Pakistan. And thank you Minister for being one of our distinguished panelists today.
• Her Excellency Pamela Hamamoto, Ambassador, US Mission to the United Nations, Geneva.
• And Dr Nancy Hafkin, Senior Associate, Women in Global Science and Technology, USA.

Women's digital empowerment and full participation in the information society is one of ITU's key objectives, and we look forward to hearing during this session how we might do more.

Let me close by once again thanking the GEM-TECH Awards 2015 partners for their commitment and generosity: Mozilla, Microsoft, the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM), Verizon, and Facebook and encourage other sponsors to take up the baton for next year.

Thank you for being here and I wish you a very enjoyable and productive side event.