Developing women’s leadership skills at WRC-15
ITU and UNITAR pioneer all-day workshop for female delegates
Geneva, 4 November 2015 – ITU is proud to be among the first
UN agencies in Geneva to offer comprehensive professional training in leadership
and negotiation skills to Member State and Sector Member women as part of its
commitment to promoting equality of opportunity for all delegates attending
major ITU meetings and conferences.
The Women’s Leadership Workshop: Empowering Women in Radiocommunications
Negotiations took place at ITU headquarters on Sunday, 1 November, just
ahead of the opening of ITU’s World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15, 2-27
November). Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau, François Rancy, and UNITAR
Executive Director and UN Assistant Secretary-General, Nikhil Seth, welcomed
nearly 30 women from across ITU regions, who spent the day with expert trainers
and women staff from ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau to tailor their leadership
skills, exchange knowledge and interact with role models attending the WRC-15
conference. The workshop gave all participants a unique opportunity to share
their ideas and tips on how to overcome career challenges, develop their own
leadership style, and build on their personal strengths.
The day’s activities also included a lively interactive panel session
moderated by Doreen Bogdan, ITU’s most senior female staff member, and featuring
five inspiring female role models: Dr Whitney Lohmeyer, Communications Systems &
Regulatory Engineer, OneWeb; Dr Elena Manaenkova, Assistant Secretary-General of
the World Meteorological Organization; Dr Veena Rawat, Senior Spectrum Advisor
with the GSMA; H.E. Yvette Stevens, Ambassador to the United Nations of the
Republic of Sierra Leone; and Julie Zoller, Senior Deputy Coordinator & Director
of Multilateral Affairs, US State Department and former member of the Radio
Regulations Board. These highly successful women shared their personal
experiences, offered career development advice, and encouraged participants to
be confident and assertive in exercising their professional skills and
expertise.
ITU partnered with UNITAR to offer the training – a first at a major ITU
treaty-making conference. The popularity and success of the event could see
women’s leadership skills sessions become a regular fixture at other important
ITU meetings, including ITU Council 2016.
In his opening remarks to participants, ITU’s Rancy noted that while the
number of female delegates participating in the WRC has improved slightly over
the past 10 years, not enough emphasis was being put on empowering women to gain
the international experience they need to serve on – and even lead – national
delegations.
“Over the years, we have seen steady and positive progress in the number of
women delegates attending our conferences, assemblies and meetings, and this
year is no exception – but we are still a long way from achieving gender parity.
At WRC-12 only 15.9% of delegates were women, a slight increase compared to the
14.7% at WRC-07. While this is a worthy increase, if progress continues at this
rate, it will be WRC-2112 before we have equal numbers of male and female
delegates,” he said.
UNITAR Executive Director Nikhil Seth said: “UNITAR’s new Women’s Leadership
Programme is working hand-in-hand with UN Women and across the UN System to
deliver on the challenging goals of achieving gender parity and promoting
gender-equal leadership opportunities within governments and in multilateral
decision-making fora. UNITAR is proud to partner with the ITU in delivering this
Women’s Leadership Programme workshop for the delegates to the WRC-15
conference. UNITAR is driven by the fact that women’s equality and empowerment
is good politics, good economics, good for social inclusion and an important way
of insuring peaceful and just societies.”
ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao joined the group at end of the day for the
presentation of certificates and group photo. “Helping women realize their
professional goals and become more effective members of their delegations will
benefit the work of ITU as a whole by bringing new voices and perspectives to
our debates. More diversity means a richer, more rounded discussion, and better
outcomes for all,” said Mr Zhao, who recently signed on as a Geneva Gender
Champion, alongside other heads of Geneva-based UN agencies, including Michael
Möller, Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva.
Participants encouraged ITU to organize future women’s leadership training
workshops, in the hope that even more delegations will be able to take advantage
of this opportunity to help their female delegates develop the skills, expertise
and confidence that will make them even more valuable members of their national
teams.
View photos of the event:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/albums/72157660615083802
Video highlights:
https://youtu.be/FD3Q8ukYo-s
For more information, please contact: