Generation Equality Action Coalitions Townhall Meeting
11 june 2020
Opening Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau
International Telecommunication Union
(by remote participation)
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, everyone, I am very pleased indeed to be able to participate in this first townhall meeting on Generation Equality.
My name is Doreen Bogdan-Martin, and I am the Director of Telecommunication Development at ITU.
ITU is the UN agency for digital technologies - we create the international standards that make sure networks and equipment work anywhere in the world, and we collaborate with governments, private sector and civil society stakeholders on projects and initiatives to bring services like mobile and internet to unconnected people.
One good example of this multi-stakeholder collaboration is the ITU-UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, which I helped set up in 2010, and on which I serve as Executive Director, supporting our two co-Chairs, Carlos Slim of Mexico and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.
The COVID crisis still ravaging countries around the world has underscored, as nothing else could have, the vital and transformation power of digital.
The events of the past few months have left the global community in no doubt whatsoever that digital will play an absolutely crucial role in enabling each of the 17 SDGs, in areas like healthcare, education and smart, sustainable cities. The global health emergency has dramatically underscored just how much we now rely on networks to keep us working, keep us studying, and keep us connected to friends and family.
But right now, we know that women and girls don't get the same access to digital services, and aren't choosing careers in the digital sector.
ITU statistics reveal that women are lagging behind men in the use of digital technologies in almost two thirds of countries worldwide.
Globally, 48% of women are using the Internet, compared with 58% of men. In fact, more men than women use the Internet in every single region in the world, except the Americas.
But perhaps of even greater concern is evidence that the gender gap has actually been getting wider in the world's major developing regions - Africa, the Arab States, and Asia-Pacific.
Our latest stats also indicate that a substantially higher proportion of men have access to mobile phones than women.
And in all cases, it is women in the world's poorest countries who are most disadvantaged, and most cut off from the potential of digital technologies to change their lives.
ITU has been working to bridge the gender digital divide for over 10 years, through a wide range of initiatives. Our annual Girls in ICT Day is all about encouraging girls and young women to consider studies and careers in the digital sector, and drawing attention to the critical need for more girls and women to play a key role in shaping the technologies that are, in turn, shaping our lives, and our futures.
International Girls in ICT Day has grown into a global movement that has reached hundreds of thousands of girls through more than 11,000 events in over 170 countries. And our 'Girls Can Code' events, already rolled out in Africa and the Americas and expanding to other regions in the coming months, are providing hands-on learning to girls, helping give them the digital skills that will help them on their way to a career in this fast-growing sector.
These and other activities are an important part of the EQUALS Global Partnership to bridge the digital gender divide, founded by ITU, UN Women, the International Trade Centre, mobile industry body the GSMA, and the UN University. Since we launched the partnership in 2015, it's grown to over 100 members worldwide.
Ladies and gentlemen,
To help ensure girls benefit from the same educational opportunities as boys, ITU last year teamed up with UNICEF and others to launch the GIGA joint initiative to connect every school to the internet, and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice. Let us remember that, right now, 3.6 billion people in the world do not have access to the Internet. In developing countries, with their large and growing youth demographic, a huge number of this unconnected population is youth under 25. And a disproportionate percentage comprises women and girls.
In today's connected world, lack of access to the Internet increasingly means social and economic exclusion, fewer resources to learn and to grow, and limited opportunities for the world's most vulnerable people to fulfill their potential. Closing the digital divide requires global cooperation, leadership, and innovation. That's what Generation Equality is all about, and that's why ITU is proud to be a part of this global movement.
I am happy to bring our efforts around the EQUALS and GIGA initiatives, along with wider ITU efforts to bridge the gender digital divide, into the Generation Equality movement, and I am committed to work as hard as I can to leverage our partnerships and the power and breadth of our membership to make Generation Equality concrete, focused, and above all, impactful.
Thank you.
