ITU works for a world in which everyone benefits from digital society
We believe ICTs should be accessible to all, regardless of gender, age, ability and location – they improve our lives, facilitate access to information, simplify service delivery and enable social and economic participation. Digital inclusion then is one of ITU’s strategic goals – and we work to ensure all people have opportunity to be part of digital society.
ITU is working to close the digital gender gap and the gender gap in ICT professions. ITU is encouraging girls and young women to take up ICT careers and studies, as well as providing digital technology training and mentoring through initiatives such as International Girls in ICT Day, African and Americas Girls Can Code Initiatives, EQUALS, Women in Cyber and Talking Tech.
As of 2022, 94 countries had adopted national digital agendas. However only 21 of them have a specific focus on women and girls. ITU’s Handbook on mainstreaming gender in digital policies is designed to support the inclusion of gender equality in policy-making.
ITU’s “Network of Women” (NOW) communities increase visibility and representation of women in ITU’s work and decision-making by providing a supportive environment for women delegates. There are networks for each sector: ITU-R, ITU-T (formally WISE), and ITU-D. A targeted gender-responsive PP-22 campaign to increase the participation of women saw 33 per cent women compared to 29 per cent as of PP-18. ITU-T is seeking input on ways to accelerate gender balance in all ITU-T’s work – and are encouraging and tracking participation in an online training to better incorporate gender in standards development.
ITU reports annually to the UN system-wide action plan for gender equality and mainstreaming (UN-SWAP) based on 17 performance indicators. ITU’s 2021 Report Card notes that ITU met or exceeded requirements for only 11 out of the 17 indicators. Data for 2022 was submitted in February, meeting only 7 of the indicators. The 2022 report card is expected later this year.ITU’s first woman Secretary-General was elected at PP-22 and took office in January 2023. As of the end of 2022, women occupy only 31 per cent of senior leadership posts (P5-D1-D2), representing only a nominal improvement over recent years. More effort is needed to close the gender gap. Such efforts include a new Parental Leave policy, introduced to help attract and retain top talent, extends 16 weeks leave to parents regardless of gender plus an additional 10 weeks for birthing mothers.
