Press release: UN Commission on the Status of Women reaffirms the role of technology and innovation, and education in the digital age in accelerating gender equality

At the summary of the negotiations, UN Gals Government Director, Sima Bahous, mentioned: “This year’s Agreed Conclusions are activity-altering and deliver forward our vision of a a lot more equal and related planet for women of all ages and ladies in all their range. It is our job, as we go away here these days, to translate them into truth. The top achievements of these Agreed Conclusions lies past their finalization nowadays, in how we will collectively acquire them forward. They provide us a eyesight of a much more equal world. Let us translate them into reality for all females and women.”

CSW67 reaffirmed the great importance of ladies and girls’ complete, equivalent and meaningful participation and leadership in science, technologies and innovation, and expressed problem on the minimal progress in closing the gender hole in access to and use of technologies, connectivity, digital literacy and instruction. It also expressed grave issue about the continuity and interrelation between offline and on line violence, harassment and discrimination against females and girls and condemned the raise of these kinds of functions.   

The Fee termed for noticeably increased public and personal sector investments to bridge the gender digital divide, additional inclusive innovation eco-units, and the advertising of harmless and gender-responsive technological know-how and innovation. It also termed for inclusive and equitable quality instruction in science, know-how, engineering, and mathematics, facts and communications technological know-how and digital literacy to ensure that all women and ladies can thrive in a quickly changing earth. 

Initiatives to encourage innovation and technological alter, and schooling in the electronic age for accomplishing gender equality ought to take into account the following:  

• Acquire digital equipment and expert services to address the requirements of all girls and girls, across sectors and geographies, specifically for their education and learning, well being, financial empowerment and engagement in community existence, and make certain women of all ages and ladies have entry to electronic literacy and competencies all through their daily life training course. 
• Mainstream gender in digital insurance policies to remove barriers to equal access for all girls and girls, together with individuals dwelling in poverty, in rural, maritime or remote parts, with disabilities, Indigenous females and ladies, migrant females and girls, and more mature girls.  
• Foster a policy of zero tolerance for gender-dependent violence that takes place by means of or is amplified by the use of know-how and ensure that general public and private sector entities prioritize its avoidance and elimination. 
• Mainstream a gender point of view in the structure of rising technologies and adopt laws to be certain they are issue to ample safeguards to beat new dangers, gender stereotypes and detrimental social norms, information privateness breaches and boost transparency and accountability.  
• Market insurance policies and programmes to realize gender parity in rising scientific and technological fields and make supportive workplaces and training settings, which includes by gender-responsive schooling, distance finding out methods and interdisciplinary ways combining the instructing of social sciences and scientific fields.  
• Produce gender-responsive innovation that worries gender stereotypes and detrimental social norms, including by way of the enhancement of digital content material, recognition campaigns and teaching competencies for constructive engagement on electronic systems that engage, educate, persuade and empowers youth, together with young adult men and boys, to grow to be brokers of alter for gender equality. 

The 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Females took put from the backdrop of continued backlash towards women’s legal rights globally, from greater violence towards females in the community place, to the gender impacts of the earthquakes in Syria and Turkiye, to the every day horror that girls and women deal with in unexpected emergency and disaster options including in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iran.  

In the initial totally in-person session adhering to a few many years of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSW67 registered quite substantial numbers with far more than 7,000 contributors, which include 4 heads of point out and governing administration and 116 ministers, 205 aspect occasions on UN premises, and about 700 NGO parallel events.  

For the 1st time, the session provided an interactive youth session with youthful individuals, youth associates of delegations, civil culture and United Nations companies , partaking in dialogue and furnishing suggestions on how to make certain youthful girls and women are section of the digital transformation. The Fee also benefited from critical contributions from a vast variety of civil society companies which includes the leaders and dedication makers of the Motion Coalition on Technological innovation and Innovation for Gender Equality, introduced as aspect of the Technology Equality Forum. The Action Coalition on Engineering and Innovation for Gender Equality has made a important contribution in cementing alliances involving Governments, private sector, civil society and the UN process and in driving momentum and commitments to progress gender equality as a result of know-how and innovation.