Page 137 - FerMUN 2020 - Futurecasters Global Young Visionaries Summit, 8th-10th January 2020

COMMITTEE: Youth Assembly ITU
ISSUE: The gender digital divide
CONTRIBUTORS: Australia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy,
Kenya, Kuwait, Monaco, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain,
Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA

The ITU Youth Assembly,

Aware that the gender gap in internet use worldwide was 12% in 2016 (with 23% in Africa, for

example),

Noting that this gap is a major issue of growth in today's digital world, and that the need to
bridge this digital divide is present in the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations;
it will be a matter of putting women on an equal footing with men,

Fully aware that the number of women with access to the Internet is 200 million fewer than the
number of men connected, noting that the digital divide between men and women is due to
problems with:

1. Literacy,
2. Education,
3. Employment,
4. The level of income,

Aware that women represent only 25% of the STEM sector,

Noting that only 21 of the Fortune 500 companies in the United States were headed by women
in 2016, according to Fortune magazine's rankings; and furthermore, that the gap between the
number of men and women with Internet access is widening from 11 per cent at the end of
2013 to 12 per cent at the end of 2016, according to ITU worldwide;

Commending the progress that has been made at corporate, governmental and international
levels to help women thrive in the technology sector, such as ITU's International Girls in ICTs Day

on the 25th of April;

Concerned deeply by the alarming number of women lacking access to ICTs all over the world,

Aware that the digital divide inhibits development, growth and productivity on a large scale,

Recalling that more than 50% of the world's population is under the age of 30,

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