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ITU, UN Women celebrate the power of technology
to transform women’s lives everywhere
Inaugural GEM-TECH Awards bring winners from around the world to
Busan, Korea to highlight the transformative power of ICTs
Busan, 28 October, 2014 – Seven outstanding individuals and
organizations leading pioneering projects and advocacy linked to harnessing the
power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to boost gender
empowerment were honoured this morning as recipients of the first-ever GEM-TECH
Awards.
The awards were conferred by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré
before some 2,500 delegates at a special ceremony in the morning Plenary session
of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference currently taking place in Busan, Republic
of Korea. The event was introduced by leading Korean TV personality Jie-ae Sohn,
a journalist with 25 years’ experience as a correspondent for some of the
world’s leading media channels. .
Co-organized with UN Women,
the GEM-TECH Awards recognize the outstanding achievements of organizations and
individuals in the area of gender equality and mainstreaming through information
and communication technology (ICT). The launch of the awards in June of this
year prompted over 360 nominations from over 70 countries around the world. The
awards were open to leading women and men, as well as organizations working in
the field of ICT and gender.
The seven GEM-TECH winners are:
Category 1: applications, content, production capacities and
skills for women’s social and political empowerment and links with sustainable
development
Winner: UNESCO’s Women in Africa’s History e-Learning
project Africa
Category 2: ICT applications, content, production capacities
and skills for women’s economic empowerment and poverty reduction
Winner: iMerit Technology,
India
Category 3: Promoting Women in the ICT sector – initiatives
to attract, retain and promote women in the ICT sector and into decision-making
roles (public/private sector)
Winner: BCS Chartered Institute for IT
United Kingdom
Category 4: Enabling girls to become ICT creators –
initiatives aimed at providing girls with the opportunity to become not just
active users, but creators of ICTs and content
Winner: Research Center for Feminist Action (CIPAF)
Dominican Republic
Category 5: Closing the ICT gender gap, ensuring ICT
accessibility for women, such as digital literacy training and ensuring
affordable and meaningful access to ICTs by women.
Winner: Telecentre.org Foundation
Philippines
Category 6: Efforts to reduce online threats and to build
women’s confidence and security in the use of ICTs
Winner: Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
South Africa
Category 7: ICT and broadband strategies, policies and
frameworks that promote women’s digital empowerment
Winner: Federal Ministry of Communication Technology
Nigeria
The awards were sponsored by Gold Partners the Sultanate of Oman, the
Republic of Rwanda, the Swiss Confederation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, and Silver Partners Cisco Systems and Facebook.
Congratulating the seven winners out of a field of 37 finalists, ITU’s Dr
Touré praised the exceptionally high quality of nominations, and stressed that
much still needs to be done to leverage the full power of ICTs to improve the
lives of women and men.
“It is almost 20 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
– so where do we stand today with reference to Gender Equality and
Mainstreaming?” asked Dr Touré, who pointed to a ‘gender digital divide’ that is
particularly worrying in the developing world. “ITU estimates that some 200
million fewer women are online compared to men. Women are coming online later,
and more slowly. Without remedial action, it is estimated that the internet
gender gap could grow to 350 million within three or four years. Equality in
access to broadband is not only an issue of right and wrong; it also makes
commercial and economic sense,” he said.
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said “We need all of you
to join our efforts, so that these inspiring GEM-TECH winners and others working
at the forefront of digital inclusion are leading a turning point for women’s
digital empowerment through technology.”
This morning’s ceremony also recognized six GEM-TECH ‘Global Achievers’ –
organizations and individuals recognized for exceptional long-term commitment to
furthering the issue of ICT and gender. They are: Alcatel-Lucent’s StrongHer
initiative; Cisco Systems’ Distinguished Consulting Engineer, Monique Morrow;
Academy Award winning actor and advocate Geena Davis; GSMA’s Connected Women
programme; Intel Corporation’s Director of Social Impact, Renee Wittemyer, and
former Serbian Minister of Communications and State Secretary for Digital
Agenda, Jasna Matić.
The award ceremony was followed later in the day by a lunchtime GEM-TECH High
Level Dialogue, where winners and partners had the opportunity to showcase their
projects and initiatives, and where other experts from industry, civil society
and government joined a stimulating debate on the topic of ‘Gender and ICTs: why
gender equality matters and where do we stand today?’, moderated by Korea’s
Jie-ae Sohn. The GEM-TECH HLD can be viewed on archived webcast in seven
languages at: www.itu.int/pp14/webcast.
The day’s ICT and gender-related activities will wrap up this evening with an
exclusive gala dinner event held at Nurimaru APEC House on Busan’s Dongbaekseon
Island.
Follow the GEM-TECH news on Twitter #GEMtechAwards
For more information, please visit the
awards
website or contact:
Download GEM-TECH 2014 photos
here.
Watch the video
showcasing the seven GEM-TECH winners here.
Watch a movie showcase
of the
37 shortlisted nominees here.
Follow @ITU and the hashtags #GEMtechAwards and #Plenipot14 for the
latest updates. Go to
www.itu.int/pp14/social to access all PP-14 social media
channels.
Download conference photos:
www.itu.int/pp14/photos
Get social:
www.itu.int/pp14/social
Watch the webcast:
www.itu.int/pp14/webcast
Read backgrounders on conference topics:
http://www.itu.int/en/plenipotentiary/2014/newsroom/Pages/backgrounders.aspx
Get the PP-14 app:
http://newslog.itu.int/archives/652
Sarah PARKES
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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For Korean-speaking journalists:
Hayoung KIM
Korean Media Liaison, MSIP
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