International decision-making in ICT. Where are the Women?

Women participating in international processes and taking on leadership roles in ICT decision-making are still underrepresented. This workshop will explore the reasons behind this inequality, discuss the current situation, debate the role of women in international decision-making processes, rethink how to shape the ICT world towards more inclusion, and hopefully develop innovative solutions and approaches that are necessary to bring more women to the decision-making table in technology.

In this workshop, the high-level panelists and the participants will discuss some provocative and controversial statements and address the following issues: Why does this inequality in participation of women at international levels remain? Why do we have few women representing their countries at significant ITU events ? Is the ICT international work environment unfavourable to women? Why should we bring more women to the table? What are their added value? Can we do any better?  Are we ready for this change? What should we do about it?

The session will also cover as a case in point women participation in the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) and preparatory processes and how women in the radiocommunication sector have taken ownership of their community, foster teamwork and built capacity in the Network of Women (NOW) for WRC-19 community.

Following three short presentations by high-level speakers, the main part of the workshop will consist of open discussion round the workshop themes, and these will be used to co-create a map of the critical issues that can subsequently be used in planning future ITU policy making events to ensure that more women participate at all levels.

Location 

Room K1, ITU Montbrillant Building

Moderator

Prof. Tim Unwin, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, Royal Holloway University of London

Speakers/Panellists

Ms Sahiba Hasanova, Vice-Chairman, ITU-R SG 4 / Leading Adviser, Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Ms Caitlin Kraft-Buchman, CEO/Founder Women@theTable and co-founder of the International Gender Champions initiative

Ms Brigitte Mantilleri , Director of the Equal opportunities office of the University of Geneva

Dr. Hanane Naciri, Radiocommunication and Software Engineer, Radiocommunication Bureau, ITU

> More information and registration: https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2018/Pages/Agenda/Session/113#intro