Network of Women for WTDC
Side event at 2021 Telecommunication Development Advisory Group meeting (TDAG-21)
Welcome Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director
ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
28 May 2021
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening everyone, and thank you for being here today.
I am excited to see you all here after having launched the Network of Women in all regions.
Even though we did it virtually, I could feel the positive energy and the enthusiasm that you all brought to these events.
And I know that that's the driving force that's going to make this Network a success.
We know that women have disproportionately been affected by the digital divide.
We know that there is a digital opportunities gap in women's ability to access the technologies that could change their lives.
And that there is a gap between the number of young men and young women studying STEM and entering the tech sector as engineers and developers.
And of course, this then has an impact on the evident gender leadership gap in the tech sector.
That is where the NoW comes in.
Today we will be sharing experiences, so that we can design the future of this Network together.
We are looking for, and I welcome your views, to appoint a Chair and 6 co-chairs from each region of the global network.
These roles will help ensure that we are inclusive of all regions and capture important regional nuances.
As you know this year marks the 10th anniversary of International Girls in ICT Day celebrations, that we are celebrating with a series of 10 moments throughout the year.
Today marks Moment #6, on Inspiration.
And in line with this moment, I am honored to officially launch the call for nominations for the EQUALS in Tech Awards 2021.
The Awards are organized and presented by the EQUALS Global Partnership - a network of 100+ organizations, companies, countries, UN agencies and research institutions.
The awards will recognize outstanding initiatives advancing gender equality in the digital world.
Please join us by promoting nominations, and also by volunteering to be judges and helping us select impactful projects and activities, to make the Awards a great tool for our stakeholders and partners to recognize promising projects.
As Silvina Mochini (founder and CEO of SheWorks) our winner in 2019 puts it, “Our ability to have global impact and change the world starts with believing we can do it."
And it's going to take all of us working together, to do it.
Today, we are launching the Call for Mentors in the mentorship programme that will be an integral part of the Network of Women for WTDC.
This programme will focus on two main calls for you to get involved: the call for mentors, that we are launching today, and the call for mentees, to be launched at the Global Symposium for Regulators in June 2021.
The programme will cover the preparation for WTDC and continue through WTDC.
Please visit the NoW for WTDC website to register and learn more. As you will see, we are putting together an exciting programme, in which we plan to involve you, ITU staff, external experts, but also in a way that you as a delegate can benefit from other mentorship programmes organized together with our partners.
For example, the Global Mentorship programme on Cybersecurity organized with FIRST, and the ''Technologies, Strategies and Policies to Connect the Unconnected: Empowering Women Leaders to Bridge Digital Divides and Promote Inclusive Connectivity'' programme organized with USTTI.
And now, I would like to give the floor back to the representative of our EQUALS in Tech Awards winner in the Leadership Category for 2020, Ms. Wadha Bin Zarah.
I hope you all have a fantastic event.
Now let me hand the floor back to the moderator.
