The Secretary-General of the United Nations said that half of the world is still not connected to the Internet – and most of them are women and girls in developing countries – noting that information and communication technology plays a major role during the “Covid-19” pandemic.
This came in his message that he presented on the occasion of the International Day of Girls in Information and Communication Technology recently. Read also Buthaina Al-Ansari to Al-Jazeera Net: We want women in leadership positions … and the economically active are numbered The World Bank: Women must be fully included in the economy to achieve better development results Making them more vulnerable to domestic violence … Corona may set women back an entire generation The world is on the cusp of knowing the answer … What will happen if women run the economy?
According to data from the International Telecommunication Union, there is a gender gap of 17% in global Internet use, and it is widening even more in developing countries.
In some regions, this gap is widening, exacerbating gender inequality by denying women and girls access to education, finding better-paying jobs, and creating new businesses.
The US website Modern Diplomacy quoted Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his statement on this day: “Making these technologies available to all is an essential part of rebuilding stronger societies and economies, and addressing many of the most pressing challenges around the world.”
Noting that International Girls in ICT Day aims to inspire a global movement to increase the representation of girls and women in technology, Guterres urged everyone to “recommit to the goal of achieving equal opportunities for young women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
Girls are good at reading and writing
And while females around the world tend to outperform males in literacy skills, they are still underrepresented among those who excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
On the occasion of the celebration of the tenth anniversary of this World Day, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Houlin Zhao, expressed his support for the initiative entitled “10 Moments for Girls in Information and Communication Technology”, which is a one-year commitment to the next generation of young women in technology.
As an international advocate for women’s issues, Gao pledged to help countries raise awareness and promote the active participation of girls and young women in ICT careers, stating that this “will be key to meeting future job demand on an equal footing”.
The President of the International Telecommunication Union committed itself to strengthening countries’ capacities to collect and publish data dis aggregated by sex and age on ICT access and data skills and use, describing it as “an important step towards informing, monitoring and tracking our global progress towards gender equality.”
By supporting girls’ education and training in this field, the federation hopes to encourage more girls and young women to actively participate in STEM careers to bridge the digital gender gap.
Shaping the future
UN Women Executive Director Femzile Mlambo Ngoka said that every girl has the right to be in touch with the rest and to play her role in “shaping a more equal, environmentally friendly and technology-based future.”
“This is the world that we are building together by achieving equality for this generation, and specifically, through our collective work on the Technology and Innovation Scheme, which proposes goals to achieve a more equal and diversified digital transformation,” Nguka added in a statement.
Mlambo Ngoka believes that every girl’s goal should be constructive communication, including reliable, fast and regularly available broadband technology, as well as access to digital technologies and global digital literacy.
“We know, today and every day, that digital power should be in girls’ hands. We have a unique opportunity and unique momentum today to make bold commitments that ensure girls communicate and enable them to build the brighter future the world needs, ”Mlambo Ngoka said.
Jobs have no gender
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) affirmed that girls ’education is” one of the strongest investments we can make to improve our collective future. “
UNESCO stressed the importance of mobile apps, women’s leadership and women’s entrepreneurship for sustainable development, and tweeted that “Jobs Have No Gender”.