BDT Director's Speeches

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Colleagues and Friends 

• Good afternoon. I am very pleased to be welcoming everyone both online and in person for today's Annual Partners Meeting.  
• This is my first EQUALS Annual Meeting as Director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau and I am very excited for our renewed engagement as an original co-founder of the initiative. 
  
  Congratulations 

• First of all, let me congratulate James Howe for his leadership and chairmanship of the EQUALS Steering committee. James, you have been instrumental for leading the overall direction of the partnership in the last 2 years and I really want to commend your commitment and passion.  
• I also want to thank my colleagues from UNWOMEN, GSMA, UNU and ITC for their role as co-founders. We cannot achieve our goals without you. Thank you also for the trust you are giving on us and for being part of this journey.  
  
  10 year EQUALS Awards Milestone 

• This year the EQUALS Awards see their magnificent 10 year anniversary! For us in ITU, this is a very important milestone and a very important showcase for inclusivity in digital development. 
• I am very pleased to have the winners with us today. The ceremony yesterday showed us that incredible organizations are making serious investment in closing the gender digital divide.  
  
  The divide persists 

• However, in order to achieve SDG5—Achieving Gender Equality—by 2030, we still have a long way to go. According to the ITU latest figures, women still account for a disproportionate share of the global offline population, outnumbering male non-users by 17 per cent. 
  
   

• The global tech sector is plagued by low numbers of women at all levels — women who contend with a 21 per cent gender pay gap.  
• In STEM fields, women make up under a third of the workforce … and in a world increasingly shaped by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, just 22 per cent of AI workers globally are women. AI highlights that we need to rapidly consider new technologies in our scenarios. 
  
  Achievements through partnership 

• Against all of this, I have one word: Partnership. 
• Partnerships define us and what we do. To reverse adverse trends, we need partnerships in addition to investment. Partnerships such as EQUALS have grown fast. We can now count on more than 100 partners, and on a vibrant community of committed organizations and stakeholders. 
• This is now a major international development partnership vehicle focussed on the potential of women in ICT. Our Access, Skills, Leadership and Research coalitions are finding innovative ways to deliver solutions to these digital gender gaps. 
  
  Change, growth and projects 

• We have changed and we have grown. Thanks to the EQUALS partnership we have now moved from an advocacy role to implementation role. 
• Let's look at some recent and ongoing examples involving ITU and partners: 
• Tech as a Driver for Women's Economic Opportunity with EIF in Burundi, Ethiopia and Haiti providing digital skills to women. 
• Her Digital Skills powered by EQUALS with EY, GSMA, W4 targeting one million women and girls by 2026. 
• EQUALS Commitments to Generation Equality with UNWomen, ITC, GSMA looking to provide free digital skills training to 1 million women and girls by 2026, and business skills training to 10000 women and girls by 2026. EQUALS has also contributed to the Generation Equality global movement and we co-lead the Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition on tech and innovation. 
• All this means impact. On the ground results matter. I myself have seen excellent outcomes in digital skilling of girls and women in Burundi and Ethiopia this year in our collaboration under the EIF. 
• In addition, ITU continues to provide toolkits and advisory publications.  
• With the support of the partnership and our colleagues from the EIF, I launched the Handbook on Mainstreaming Gender in Digital Policies in March this year. 
  
  The future 

• Turning to the present, we have a great programme today. We have a Generation Equality special session on partnership as well as a very interesting speed mentoring session discussing a wide range of topics. 
• We have a lot to discuss, and I think at this ITU milestone, we can usefully take stock. I see many strengths in the EQUALS arena. This has become a successful, consistent, partnership-based, mature initiative with a significant community now building. It has profile.  
• It is now clearly a strong 'brand' in its own right. It bridges inclusion, capacity-building and digital development in a very concrete  and compelling way. 
• We will always need your response and engagement, now and in the future. The input of everyone is valued. 
• Please keep partnering—and please keep engaging.  

Thank you! ​

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