 2021 UN Regional Forum for Sustainable Development and for the UN ECE region and the ITU Regional Forum for Europe on Meaningful Connectivity, which started yesterday. My name is Rosa Ponder and as a head of the ITU Office for Europe, it's my great pleasure to be a moderator of these special events today. Before we are starting our session, I give the floor to our technical moderator who will share with us some housekeeping information. So dear participants, thank you for joining. My name is Luisa and I will be the remote participation moderator for the event. Before starting the meeting, I would like to give you some instructions on the Zoom platform and the meeting. The meeting is entirely remote. The audience is kindly asked to switch off their microphone. Also, the moderator of the session will address the speakers and will give you the floor when your turn comes. You may use the chat for any questions or comments. 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I would like to now welcome Her Excellency Aida Kuderman, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Slovenia, also the host of the Meaningful Connectivity Forum, as well as Ms. Alia El Yasir, the UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, and all our speakers and moderators for this special session today, which will have the pleasure to hear from Shorty. I'd like to inform you that the meeting is live streamed and this special is available also for all audience through the YouTube channel, as well as on the Twitter account at ITU Europe. We'd like to start the event by welcoming a special video message from the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, who was not able to join us live today. If the technical moderator could kindly play the video, I'd be grateful. They are more likely to have yesterday's International Women's Day celebrations reminded us yet again that women need to be full and equal partners in our global digital transformation. Yet, right now, we still face a significant digital gender divide with an average of 52% of women offline compared to 45% of men. COVID-19 did not cause gender inequality, but it has certainly served to exacerbate it. Women are being impacted disproportionately. They are more likely to have lost their jobs, more likely to have lost opportunities for learning, and more likely to lack access to the connectivity and digital skills that could help them better weather the storm. At ITU, we've been working to turn our commitment to digital gender equality into action for more than 10 years now. Our annual Girls and ICT Day, which inspires girls and young women to embrace a digital career, is now celebrated in over 170 countries. The Equals Global Partnership has grown into a network of over 100 organizations worldwide. Our Equals EU Group is working hard to promote gender equity in social innovation, drawing on the energy, expertise, and enthusiasm of the 19 organizations from 15 EU member states and associated countries. Our new Network of Women program will promote more gender balanced participation in our upcoming World Telecommunications Development Conference that will take place in November, later this year in Addis Ababa. And as knowledge is power, we have joined forces with UN Women to look at women, girls, and ICT in the context of COVID-19. This new study identifies key factors and trends in the participation of women in the digital sector at a national level, and it also includes a number of clear and implementable recommendations. Encouragingly, it indicates that our message around digital skills has been getting through in the European region with young women now comprising over 40% of university graduates in STEM-related fields in the countries that we profiled. It also points to a worrying bottleneck with women's participation in the technology sector still remarkably low. I believe we will pay a high price if we do not take urgent action to redress our chronic failure to attract young women into the world's fastest growing sector. I urge all stakeholders to step up collective efforts to ensure that women get their chance to play an equal role in developing the technologies that are increasingly shaping our lives and our societies. I warmly thank the UN Women team for their invaluable collaboration, and I look forward to working with the ITU's member states, private sector members, and partner organizations to implement these recommendations. As we move forward towards the World Telecommunications Development Conference 2021, now is the time to take bold steps, bold steps to ensure that girls and women everywhere enjoy the fruits of the digital revolution. Only by working together will we reach our goal of true digital gender equality. Thank you. Following this special message that reminds us of the importance of access to ICTs for women and girls worldwide, it's my great pleasure to welcome Ms. Alia Alhiasir and UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia to deliver opening remarks. Excellent to see State Secretary Koderman, dear Jaroslav ITU colleagues, partners, colleagues, and participants. It's a pleasure to come in after such an inspiring welcoming remarks and also join in and welcome you all to today's event, to the Regional Forum for Sustainable Development. We really feel this is an important conversation and we thank you for being part of it. As was already mentioned, yesterday was International Women's Day, so using this opportunity to wish us all a happy International Women's Day. And remember that across the world, the events celebrating this day were pushing for increasing women's leadership and representation in public life. And this is maybe especially relevant in the context of COVID-19 as the growing body of evidence is showing us that the pandemic and its projected repercussions are expected to have a disproportionate impact on women and girls. For us to figure out the solutions to the problems, we need to make sure that women and girls and more diverse groups of women and girls are leading and engaging in decision-making and in public life. Now, more than ever, if we hope to have a more equal, a more just, a more secure future for all, we need accelerated action to achieve gender equality by 2030. We all know that the cutoff date for the achievement of the SDGs is only nine years away. And now more than ever, we are facing challenges to achieve gender equality, even more challenges than those that we highlighted a little over a year ago during the Beijing plus 25 regional review that was held in Geneva in 2019. We need collective efforts more than ever. This is why the regional forum for sustainable development is so important and why these kinds of discussions like the one we're having today are needed to really pinpoint what those accelerated actions that are needed are and how we're going to make them happen. Technology, I think we all can agree, has great potential for ensuring faster and fuller promotion and enjoyment of all human rights, including women's rights. It really can be that game changer for women and girls. It can make this century, this century not only for the fourth industrial revolution but also the revolution for women and girls' rights. If women and girls everywhere, especially those who are minoritized or underrepresented, do not have access and control and full use of technology, they will simply be left behind and we will have failed in our ambitions for sustainable development. It is an urgent agenda now more than ever as COVID-19 has led to significantly increased dependence on the use of information and communications technology for work, for school, for social activities as well as political engagement. I think this is something we all can relate to. If pre-COVID we had a gender digital divide, now we must recognize that this divide is likely to grow. This is what we've heard from our partners across the region when we spoke to them in the aftermath of the COVID-19 becoming a pandemic to understand the gendered impact. We're hearing this loud and clear, especially where women and girls don't have access to mobile phones, computers, internet, or even the skills needed to use them effectively. It has life-saving implications. We can wonder how many deaths could have been avoided if there was better access? How many more survivors of domestic violence could have been supported? And how much faster can recovery from the fallout of the pandemic be if we close the digital gender divide effectively? Front of mind as we move into greater digitalization and as we were reminded in the Beijing Plus 25 regional review, technological change is not gender neutral. And we must remember that women and girls are facing heightened exposure to violence and abuse in technology-enabled spaces. This is something that we have to take very seriously and we need to take it to heart as we discuss how we move forward responsibly. We know it's a serious deterrent to many women and girls, including taking on leadership roles and engaging in public sphere. This is one of the issues that is being highlighted during the commission on the status of women that is taking place very soon, actually concurrently with the regional forum. And we hope that the discussions today can feed into that global discussion and go beyond just the regional discussion we're having here. We really need to work collectively, collaboratively and responsibly to make sure that we understand all aspects of the issues when it comes to addressing the digital divide. As we're doing this, and again, to link with these global initiatives that are happening, we have a wonderful opportunity to link with the Generation Equality Initiative and the action coalitions that have been put together to bring about the desired change. The first part will be kicked off in a forum that's happening in about 20 days in Mexico City at the end of the month. And then there will be the second part that will be taking place between the 30th of June and the second of July, kindly hosted by an ECE member state, France. And it was supposed to be held in person, but will likely have to leverage information communication technologies, but there is a great opportunity for engaging. We really believe that through co-creation and including diverse groups, making sure that we're really inclusive in the consultations in this forum and all other forums, when we bring together the advocates and the activists from across the globe and those decision makers from the public and the private sectors, having multi-stakeholder discussions that we can make the aspirations of Generation Equality a reality. It's a global movement that is calling for this urgent action, calling for greater accountability on gender equality. And we're really happy to partner with ITU in this initiative, in this conversation today, but also as part of this global initiative. They are one of the leaders of the Action Coalition on Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality. We're also really encouraged to have ECE member states Armenia and Finland collectively working. We are now looking to increase the membership. We want more of you to come on board as commitment makers. It can be as civil society activists, as youth-led organizations, as private sector entities, as governments to make game-changing commitments. We have to close the digital divide. We have to make sure that women and girls from all groups are represented. We have to make sure innovations that are gender responsive are supported and very importantly funded when we have to make the digital space safe for all, not least for women and girls. We're launching findings of our joint study with ITU today and we're very happy with this partnership. And we really want to hear your views, how to fast-track progress to overcome the structural obstacles, the discriminatory norms that are holding us back. What do we expect to communicate into the regional forum, into the global discussions on the CSW and the Generation Equality Initiative? I want to reiterate that every country, every civil society organization, every private sector company, every single one of us as an individual can lead change, can help in closing the digital gender divide. And as we make sure that innovation and technology are catalyzing the achievement of all sustainable development goals. Within our solutions, women and girls must be equal partners in the digital sector as innovators, developers and users, decision makers, during and after the COVID-19 era. Let's build a more equal future together. Thank you very much. Over to you. Thank you very much, Ms. Aliasir for this opening remarks. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's my great pleasure as an IT representative to launch together with the UN Women and Equals just one day after celebrating the International Women's Day, the study on the digitally empowered Generation Equality Women, Girls and ICT in the context of the COVID-19 in selected Western Balkan and Eastern partnership countries. When we first started discussions with our colleagues from the UN Women and Equals, we knew that COVID-19 widened the digital divide even further when it comes to women and girls. And that's why the study focuses on precisely the digital divide occurring in five Western Balkan states, namely Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia and three Eastern partnership countries, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. This study aims at identifying key factors and trends in the participation of women in the digital sector in education, career and entrepreneurship at the national level. It concludes into specific country specific recommendations to develop a set of national initiatives fostering participation of women and girls in the ICT sector. This study was developed under the umbrella of the Regional Initiative for Europe within the framework of accessibility for the ability and skills development for all to ensure digital inclusion and sustainable development. We at ITU are deeply committed to implementing these objectives as a means of paving the way to sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs, in particular SDG-5 on gender equality and SDG-10 on reduced inequalities. I would like to thank again UN Women and Equals for their excellent cooperation in bringing this study to life today. I would now like to introduce Ms. Aida Kuderman, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Slovenia to give her opening keynote. Her Excellency, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I am proud that Slovenia co-hosts this important today regional forum for Europe on meaningful connectivity. But I was even more delighted when I got a chance to address you today for this very special event on digitally empowered generation equality. I had a chance to read the ITU and UN Women digitally empowered generation equality report that identifies key factors and trends in the participation of women in the digital sector, as I read in education, career and entrepreneurship at a national level. I am convinced that the country-specific recommendations for the countries of the Western Balkans and Eastern partnership countries will importantly contribute to fostering participation of women and girls in the high city sector. Now, a little bit about Agenda 2030 and Slovenia. We are in Slovenia fully committed to all 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda, which is considered to be the most comprehensive development action plan thus far. Slovenia has engaged with the opportunity to prepare its own national review and participate at the high-level political forum with great determination, twice so far, in 2017, I think, and 2020. 2030 Agenda and the voluntary national review process call upon us to see where we stand, what has been done in the last years and which challenges we have to tackle to move forward to prosperity and well-being for everybody. For Slovenia, the preparation of the first national review had another significant reason. On the basis of this review, Slovenia prepared a new national development strategy and aligned all the 17 sustainable goals of the 2030 Agenda with our national priorities and our national targets. Now, you asked quite specific questions and we and myself looked into it to be able to give you more exact answers on how or what concretely are we doing and share some success stories for everybody. Now, sustainable development goal number five, this is gender equality, if is at utmost importance in my opinion. My country, I am very proud of it because we record one of the lowest average gender-based gaps in the EU 27, but good statistics are far from indication that we can raise the employment situation and gender equality in general depends on a continuous whole government approach with a number of legislative instruments that keep the discrimination based on gender. In public sector, let's say, we are seeing a lot of equal opportunities and really, really small gaps because we can influence with the laws and regulations very good how these gaps between women and men are, let's say, seen and carried out. Slovenia started the activities of gender mainstreaming at the government level in 1997 with the pilot project and committed to implementation of gender mainstreaming in 2002 with adoption of the EC on equal opportunities for women and men. The gender equality policy of Slovenia carries out concrete measures and activities to improve the position of women and men in those areas where they are discriminated in comparison with the other gender on the other. This policy area has been managed through national program for equal opportunities for women and men between 2015 and 2020. In 2020, Slovenia started drafting a new national program that will identify our key goals and measures for ensuring gender equality for the period for the next 10 years from 2020 to 2030. Like the previous program, the new program will introduce measures for ensuring economic independence, eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls, promoting and ensuring gender balance, eliminating gender stereotypes and combatic sexism, eliminating inequalities in the health of women and men and measures for integrating gender equality and strengthening the role of women in foreign policy and international development cooperation. In private sector, still, and I come from the private sector where I have worked for over 20 years, women still remain in the minority in the leadership positions in the private sector, but their percentage is slowly increased. The share of women in leadership positions has been gradually increasing since 2012. Today, women take up 26% of leadership positions in Slovenia, which is considerably more than the EU average, which is only 18%, so that's 10% more or almost 70% more than the EU average. However, it's still not 50-50, what we hoped for when we thought about this program in 2016. In 2019, the manager's association of Slovenia, it is the largest association of all managers in Slovenia, started a campaign to make the gender quota in management and supervisory boards of Slovenian companies mandatory. Still, it is mandatory, but not a lot of women choose to be there. Guidelines for employers were prepared and several workshops were organized in order to address this problem in practice and to eliminate the obstacles identified in several studies. Now, if we look at some of the challenges that governments face when implementing STEM programs for girls, despite the efforts, today, women's and girls continue to face gender-based barriers that prevent them from accessing and utilizing technology and digital tools. Girls are five times less likely to consider a career in technology than boys. However, when they are there, they are highly valued and highly successful and we have proven that in Slovenia, in engineering profession. At the same time, 90% of jobs worldwide already have a digital component and digital literacy has become almost as important as traditional literacy. We the governments must therefore equip the girls and young women with digital skills through prioritizing education in ICT subject. Only this way, the girls will thrive in economies where routine work has been automated and digital skills are priced. The number of women in Slovenia pursuing so-called STEM science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers is considerably low. It's still not there where we would want it to be. However, 20% or more of women which start this also become a PhD and highly valued internationally or globally. For example, also going on with a little bit of data, female students in healthcare and social care studies account for as many as 76% of all students and represent 66% of all students in social sciences. By contrast, only 50% of students in ICT studies were women in the last 10 years. The reason for this can be found in gender stereotypes but also in lack of promotion, lack of support. I believe showcasing and celebrating role models, especially women in this field are an important way to change this. So that also proves that marketing today is at most important when we talk about how to raise awareness in girls and women. And I have two daughters myself to be able to do anything they want. Every year, Slovenia celebrates the role models from STEM through two significant events. They for girls and engineer of the year and we especially praise the women engineer with the awards and write success stories for them. And that has proved significantly to raise enrollment in the university from young girls in the last two or three years since that program was going on. Last but not least, I would like to also address the importance of creating a safe digital environment for women and girls. Technology, digitalization, internet, this can be great enablers for girls. At the same time, we must be well aware of the threats as well. First lack of skills, second lack of opportunities discrimination and digital violence can have also a long lasting negative effect on girls bullying on social channels and through LinkedIn is still something that is very present and we should have zero tolerance on that one. Finally, okay, I know I have been long so really excuse me but I'm really enthusiastic about this topic. I would like to share a personal story with you. I too am a woman that started her career in sales and management consulting. Then I went on in ICT sector, went in engineering business let's say and indeed I know the challenges and the struggles. I always said, guys do I have to do another university to prove that I understand engineering. So it was my common phrase. So I understand all the efforts we have to do to become successful at our jobs. But I also think that women have a lot of opportunities that modern let's say awareness brings us. My personal experience, however, is that I am lucky to live in Slovenia because this country really, really put lots of efforts to give women lots of opportunities, excitement to be an engineer, manager, mechanic, et cetera. However, for girls is a matter of upbringing. So I mentioned I have two daughters myself and one son. So I see more and more parents saying, girl, you can do anything you want. And the social promotion is also already there. The dimension gap of everybody that was speaking before me in some job positions is a matter of a transition period which is taking really longer than we all hoped for, obviously. The biggest threat in reducing the gaps you have talked about is not in my personal opinion, awareness, lack of loss, lack of opportunities. Only seeing COVID-19 situation proved to me personally that it almost drove me nuts because I was working from home, helping my three kids with school, taking care of home ITC, doing breakfast, lunch, dinner, cleaning everything, taking care of the dog, my parents. So that means that the biggest threat for success of women in managerial positions or anywhere are ourselves because we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We are daughters, we are sisters, we are mothers, we are wives, we are grandmothers, we are having full-time jobs and we still have to prove ourselves heavily to be respected and that is wrong, or we are coming home to have everything under control and that is our next job. Taking care of everybody and the neighbors and mothers and fathers and grandmas is the next job. We are always under pressure by ourselves, tired, exhausted, but fulfilled, burned out a lot of times. So I personally believe women have to become easy on ourselves. We still have to remember that we are equally capable as men, not all jobs, no, it's heavy too, I don't know, move things for us, but we have to have the confidence to say it loud and not prove it all the time because this is costing us our energy and our abilities. So respect for ourselves and the confidence to say I am worth the same money as men, I am as capable as men and I don't have to prove it, you have to find out. So to prevent our burnouts, which also I believe is arising in the last 10 years, especially for women. So devoting special attention to this field is what my team and I strive to design economic and the renewal public policies that include instead of exclude programs that protect, not threaten and initiatives that empower instead of live behind. We women have to have a huge and extensive respect for ourselves as mentioned and the respect for others, also for our next generation men who can fully support us and become an equal burden partners. So thank you for your attention and I wish everybody a very fruitful event ongoing. Thank you very much, Excellency for this inspiring keynote. We, you touched a lot of items and you provided definitely the example of the role model which we need in our environment, in the environment of the digital space where a lot is to be done in order to ensure the gender equality. So we are counting on your constant support also during the times of the presidency of Slovenia, presidency of the EU council in the next coming months. Ladies and gentlemen, as we are all governs here today to launch the study, it is now time to hear from the women and girls themselves on the findings of this report and their stories in the next session moderated by Ms. Belma and Kucukali. Don't even try, it's Alex Belma. Okay, so, Madam Belma. Women's rights advocates with experience in the NGO, business and private sector with currently the community manager in Mistral, one of the most prominent IT companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Belma, the floor is yours. Handing over to you. And thanks to all the speakers who were giving their speeches before me. Aida, I love you so much. I love Slovenia. I'm so excited about your passionate speech and I agree and I need to meet you one day, hopefully. Hello everybody, as Mr. Ponder already said, good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are in this world right now. I will also use this opportunity regardless of the fact that it is 9th of March to say happy International Women's Day, happy, healthy and strong International Women's Day to all of you girls and women out there. In the next 25 minutes, our agenda is a bit late already but I don't mind because some very valuable and interesting points are set today. I have an immense pleasure to speak with three fantastic young women that will give you their perspective from their own viewpoints and their own daily work from field on this report. So welcome to the part setting the context digitally empowered generation on equality report launch. It is important to say that this report is a result of joint efforts of ITU, UN Women and Equals Global Partnership. It focuses on women, girls and ICT in five Balkans countries. As Mr. Ponder already said, Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Eastern Partnership countries, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. As we have very little time, I would like to give space immediately to, as I already said, three fantastic women today with me. Andrea Barbu from Romania, Ilona Abdo from Albania and Zarina Mandra from Bosnia, Herzegovina. Hello and welcome. We will talk about a report and best practices and recommendations that can be used stemming from your own viewpoints. Starting with Andrea Barbu from Romania. Hello and welcome. Andrea works as a journalist for several media outlets and she's also a technical writer for the startup Fintech OS. She's also the creator of website Armenian Tales. Now, Andrea, I'd like to hear from you two things. One is in our preparatory meeting to this event, you said that the report is very thoroughly and well written and that some of the recommendations from the report are already being successfully applied in Romania and that it can make sense for other countries in the report and also if you can reflect a bit on statistics in digital workspaces. I will start with semi-sad fact from Bosnia Herzegovina as I learned yesterday out of more than 700 IT companies in Bosnia Herzegovina. We only have three CEOs. What are the numbers in Romania, Andrea? In Romania, the numbers are not very clear regarding the leaders that are women currently working right now. We do know that one out of four employees is a woman and while reading this report and the statistics, the data from these eight countries selected for the report does mirror the situation in Romania. We have about 30% of women working in ICT sector and what I like to draw upon your attention today is particularly the third chapter of this report which talks about gender equality at the workspace and it identifies the challenges that women are facing and particularly for all of these eight countries, they suffer from brain drain, gender gaps within the industry, a shortage of qualified workers, a lack of maturity of ecosystems, meaning that companies have not yet a culture that supports the acquisition of women employees and moving down further to the percentage of women actually working in STEM environments are very, very low for this region. In particularly, we see from the report Bosnia Herzegovina with 29%, we see North Macedonia with 27%, we see Serbia with 14%, we see Ukraine 24 out of which half are QA engineers and we see Georgia which sadly has the lowest percentage, 12% of women working in this sector and Moldova is actually the country that is looking very well on this chart with 31%. So this situation is similar for Romania with around 20% employees being women and it is also valid for the company I work for. Moving on further to the topic of women leaders, the statistics are even more alarming because the numbers diminish with women being founders or leaders. For example, we have 19% of women managers in Montenegro and in Moldova we have 16% of women founders. So we don't see women being encouraged to found companies to take on loans. It's very, very hard for women actually to provide the money to start a company to be a founder. They may have the brilliant idea, they may have the connections to do it, they may have a solid business plan but for these women it is very hard to gather funding because first off they are not allowed to take mortgage loans, so secured loans in order to found their ideas because they lack property and particularly the report mentioned Georgia where women do not have a lot of property so they cannot take a secure loan to found their ideas and what I absolutely adore about this report is that they also talk about angel investors. So women investing in other women and sadly there is very little data concerning how many women are actually investors and investing in a company owned women. Moving on further, we were talking about the situation with COVID-19 so the report says that about 15% of women have lost their jobs during COVID-19 and 41% could not pay their monthly expenses and coming back to probably the most important part as you were saying are the recommendations and yes it is true, some of them are actually already implemented in Romania and particularly concerning women that is the work life balance. The report says that nowadays the benefits that are given by companies should be also targeted towards women and that is very true. For example in-house and at-home childcare and a generous parental leave and Ukraine is actually a very happy country because it has a company called Intelus as the report mentions that has implemented this kind of benefits. In Romania right now we do not have such benefits quietly implemented as well as in Ukraine we do offer as of this month the state offers funding for children to go to kindergarten so it's an immense help for parents but coming back to the parental leave it's not very generous in Romania. Moving on further to another recommendation the report says that there is no exact data for the gender situation meaning that within the percentage you will see in the report it also includes jobs from communications from call sensors which are not technically an IT job because you're not producing software so actually these numbers from the report are even smaller for the actual women who are creating software and who are testing software and producing them. And lastly another recommendation I would like to mention is offering women the upscale and programs to evolve so obviously some of them may have graduated from an IT university but because technology is constantly changing and there are new softwares coming out every day women still need to upscale and to improve their knowledge. In Romania this has been implemented very well companies offer in-house trainings for their particular software and they also offer as a benefit another online platform that the employees be it women or men can use to evolve further on. Thank you so much Andra and I would like to see you go from technical writer from a startup to actually owner of startup in a few years in our next conversation. There's a question in the audience can you find this interesting report you can find it on the IT Web and I kindly ask the moderators or technical support to there you go. Thank you Anna Maria so much. From Romania going to Albania she's European youth envoy for generation connect at ITU same as Andrea her name is Ilona Avdo and she's a business intelligence specialist at ALB telecom in Albania also as of this year this is one of the companies that has a female CEO which makes me very happy and goes in line with everything we're saying today. Ilona which recommendations from the report might work in Albania and why and before you link recommendations from reports with statistics in Albania I'd like to tell for you to tell us your personal story the importance what does it have to do with this report? Hi Belma, hi everyone during COVID-19 I think everyone started to rethink their life while I was reading the report I thought I was reading out loud what I had been thinking this month and what I have been through all my life. This report has information about girls since they are very young while they are in school and then in the work life sharing everything with my life I decided to tell my story when I applied for university ICT wasn't my first choice as I read in the report people put some barriers around us and we have to fight to get out of those borders a girl could be an economist or a doctor or maybe a pharmacist but no one mentioned nothing about technology IT was for boys that was all I knew but I decided to learn more about it on my own I wanted a chance to start ICT school and you may think it was a beautiful moment but not exactly my confidence wasn't very high because I didn't know anything about programming and then my family was afraid I would be the only girl in my class even worse friends and other people who kept saying that even if you start there there are boys that will be better than you and you won't finish school or even if you do no one will hire you and yes they scared me but I'm so happy it didn't stop me keeping this short yes there were a lot of boys in my class and some were better than me in some subjects but in the end I finished the school I wanted a chance to start the master of science degree and start a good job while the boys haven't still finished the school the end of my story was said just to point out there are no division in boys and girls anyone can become what they want and can get the best of this life just keep going I shared my story because as in the report it all starts when subjects are divided in girls and boys there's a lot more what I see every day in Albania during the COVID-19 girls had difficulties to learn because many of them didn't have a phone or even if they do it has to be in someone's supervision except this even though women and men got locked down and were working from home women were those who had to share their devices with their children and had to take more greater domestic or caregiving responsibilities it made me very sad that we were in the same conditions but with more responsibilities talking about my recommendations first I would like to say that I'm very happy that over the years girls in STEM related degrees have increased in numbers in Albania I'm so happy to say that I work in a communication company for several years this sounds like hope to me because this is the way we are fighting inequality and breaking the borders others created there are many recommendations in the report and I would like to analyze some of them firstly girls have a really hard time starting a job so extracurricular STEM and enrichment programs would be very helpful then the work-life balance becomes very difficult as in Albania boys are raised by the lesson that the women have to do the housework and to take care of the children I would say teach the boys but this requires some more years to get fixed so at least some benefits for the work-life balance by the company they work for would be very helpful when I said teach the boys a good way to do so would be the balance number of females and male employees so they will somehow understand the equality between them that's all I got prepared for you I hope you read the report and it has so many things that I found myself in there thanks a lot thank you so much Aljona I thank you for your personal story I also hope to see you as CEO one day and I'm very happy to have a female CEO right now going back to my neighborhood in Bosnia and Sigovina Zerina Mangio welcome Zerina is a computer science engineer with the background in program management she's IT girls project officer for UN women in Bosnia and Sigovina and pretty much a local rock star when it comes to women's empowerment Zerina let's talk about STEM education and how one of the loudest, brightest most fabulous initiatives by UN women Bosnia and Sigovina IT girls initiative is doing their activities now in the week of COVID and how we can go back to our report and somehow link it to the recommendations that were given in report and also the very important part that I think I already mentioned and it has to do with cyber bullying and gender-based violence that is now in digital spaces which also IT girls initiative took into consideration while making your own curriculum and agenda welcome thank you Belma very much for these amazing words well firstly I really want to send my greetings to all panelists and an audience who is currently watching us on behalf of IT girls initiative and UN women Bosnia and Sigovina country outfits and really being here today discussing this topic makes me immensely happy because as you probably know, everyone knows that digitalization is really all around us and it's entering every single sector and we may start with some type of IT device and end our day with some type of smart ICT solutions and I strongly believe that ITU, Europe, UN women and equals already made a huge step really by publishing today's report and discussing this topic and the reasoning under this statement is that we in IT girls initiative we really believe that in order to change the situation across our countries or in our countries we really must search for barriers only after proper identification we may search for the response of these identified barriers so with the support of UN women HQ together with our local partners and internationally recognized behavioral insight experts from June 2019 UN women conducted research into girls and young women's choice architecture when it comes to education and career choice in ICT or STEM fields and behavioral science research really reveals that even a small change to the way a message or choices framed or how a process is structured can have an outsized impact on basically decisions we make and the actions basically we take and this research basically took place in the three major regions in Bosnia and Herzegovina primary and secondary schools as well as university and it was the first time in BIH basically to research into girls and women's choice architecture using behavioral insights was it done really and novelty for UN women BIH as well but most probably for Bosnia and Herzegovina I'm mentioning this is because some of these key findings are used in ITU research and for example 33% of girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina think that their family would not encourage them to take up university studies in field belonging to STEM domains and what is really really scary is that male students are really convinced that marriages is extremely stressful when both husband and wife are employed that the family will suffer when mother works and that the mother should be present at home when her children come back home from school that mothers should put their careers on hold when they start having families and etc. We really strongly believe that every single person has this bubble of people and why am I calling it a bubble because we are all surrounded by several let's say close friends and if we change the behavior or views or thoughts of one person from that bubble we may change the whole bubble in a I don't know some specific let's say time frame we also have this report which makes me think about recommendations produced by ITU UN Women and Equals and this brings me to the COVID-19 pandemic which really has had an impact on our work with girls and women imposing social distancing and somehow restricting our physical contact with them and basically this made us explore new ways how we can how we can reach basically girls and continue encouraging them to think about education and careers in ICT and what is important to say is that basically technology is the one which basically allows us to maintain communication, continue education and business and it really creates opportunities for personal development and inspired by this IT Girls initiative organized IT Girls Go Online campaign organized 13 free webinars in the range of six weeks where we wanted to present cyber security, how to protect yourself online graphic design project management, all varieties of topics in IT because we really wanted to show that IT is really wide sector and a lot of girls can basically find their interest in it and we reached around I mean it's more than 20,000 live views on Facebook and more than 300 people but it was like individual accounts on Zoom platform. At the end of the day, basically the messages we received from girls who were inspired by our gender and our pursue careers are the best definitely indicators of our success. There is one important part as we try to motivate more girls to enter ICT we really must think about all the challenges they face online and the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in kids and teens using digital platforms not just for personal use but for educational purposes as well and for many young people social distancing guidelines mean the only contact they will have with their peers that will be done basically virtually and as a result young people are using online communication platforms more frequently than in past and as school work has moved home in Bosnia and Herzegovina so has bullying and harassment and according to new studies there has been I think 70% increase in cyberbullying in just a few months and that is basically the reason why we organize many awareness raising events including parents and children as well because data in Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that more than 60% of parents in VIH does not know what their kids are doing online so a lot of events were organized basically to outline what is online violence how basically to recognize online violence and last but not least whom to report it we even include psychotherapists from VIH to discuss this topic and in the end as I previously said as we try to motivate girls to enter some of STEM fields we have to think about their security online we have to think about their access to let's say online world especially in these countries that ITU report basically is mentioning where socioeconomic situation is so much different across countries and we have to close this digital gender divide we have to think about innovative solutions or innovation and I think that today we made a really huge step in achieving these I absolutely agree thank you so much Zarina I'm so sorry and sad that we are up with our time as the agenda is already a bit late Andrea, Leona and Zarina I would like to thank you for today's conversation but also being a part of young women that are changing this statistics for the better I would also like to thank ITU, UN Women and Equals Global Partnership for making this important report you can find report on ITU website use it as a tool for further lobbying equality starts with providing the same starting points for everyone and here's hoping that all of our future generations will have the same starting points my name is Belma Kucukalić Yaroslav back to you and I wish you all fantastic day ahead great thank you very much for the moderation and thank you very much for the all panelists let's move to the next panel where we'll be exploring some of the concrete steps to deliver transformative change for women and girls using ICTs with particular focus on the Europe region I'm today joined by the five excellent panelists who will bring the government private sector and the academia I would like to welcome to this panel my miss Mariam Lashki who is the member of the parliament of Georgia she's an innovation and technology champion who served as the deputy chairman at Georgia Innovation Technology Agency and was involved in the innovation policy elaboration from the early stage while working at the World Bank welcome to Dancheva who is international relations manager at the GSMA responsible for coordinating GSMAs strategy across various gender initiatives in the digital space welcome to Babu Olena Abhi a founder and CEO of Next Billion for profit for impact and a brilliant start-up with an infinite mission to raise the visibility of one billion women in business and welcome also to other speakers miss Priyanka Banerje CEO and co-founder of Business Whis a company helping organizations create sustainable diverse inclusive workspace culture in the Nordics as well as finally Emilia Stojmenova assistant professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Rubeana who is also the head of public private and people partnership the Digital Innovation Hub so today we are looking for concrete steps to deliver transformative change for girls and women in Europe region this was the propose also of the study to move the things in the region and to help the national level and to drive a little bit of dynamics in this field so let us start with Mariam as our government representative to give us an overview Mariam you have the floor Thank you very much Thank you I would like to first of all start with thanking the organizers for the excellent event and it definitely is emotional hearing from such an inspiring female representatives in a previous session and also the moderators so thank you very much for giving this opportunity I would like to ask the technical facilitator to open my slides and I would like to give before we kind of start as you correctly mentioned I am coming from the ground of being from the government currently in the position of being a member of the parliament but me myself by the education I was an IT specialist engineering I used to work as a developer as well and then moved to the government to support the innovation policy development and now I'm kind of lobbying this from the mandate from the regulatory mandate so I would like to ask you to go to the next slide before I start with the concrete steps what Georgia has successfully done I would like to just give you a few facts and tell you that from the worldwide from 781 million illiterate people to third are women and this is like we have to be very cautious when talking about this and we have to take the attention to that also from the ICT workforce 7 million people only 30% are women and also worldwide from the global tech companies only 6% of CEOs or the board members are female representatives by the UNESCO of gender equality in the ICT would open up a market of 50 to 70 billion US dollar market so and we in our mandate is to give the open floor to everyone who are who are like future female leaders I cannot agree if you can go to the next slide so I cannot agree more to the like opening remark speaker miss alia eliazir that SDG currently is the urgent agenda definitely it is and especially the fifth now goal for gender equality we saw that the gender equality and gender empowerment is essential to expand economic growth and especially after the pandemic we saw that the ICT is not only the enabler of the works also new professions are being opening up and current like situation of pandemic also kind of highlighted that there is a big gap and digital divide between and within the countries also we have to know that the the workers 30% of women who do work in the ICT sector only a small portion are in the formal ICT please go to the next slide please now a few figures and this slide doesn't seem to be kind of intensive because this is also one of the problem of our country of lacking the concrete and good statistics and we are working with the statistics office together with the UN organizations we are also trying to harmonize Georgian statistics generation and census to the European one as you know we are associated members so we are harmonizing the systems that we are being ... ذا and Georgian women future ready well, we have put some of the progressive steps forward one of the important thing which has to be highlighted is that we have introduced the regulatory incentives which is women quotes in parliament and we are now trying to advocate to transfer this good practice We had also the, we have institutionalized the support as well, and from the government organizations we are trying to educate this vision. Georgia is a well positioned to take the advantage. We do have the high literacy, we also have connectivity accessibility infrastructure and good coverage of internet throughout the country. We have strong academic foundation and math skills and we are pretty kind of famous in the Soviet time because of our math skills, including female representatives. As for the female STEM college graduates, we have the statistics of 44% and it's a rapidly increasing, which is a good sign. Still in our mentality, we do have that females who are kind of from STEM field, we are calling them that this girl is thinking like a boy. So this mentality is still kept in the country, but we're, these type of incentives and programs are changing the mentality as well. Next slide please. With the next slides, I would like to present the two concepts, two concepts which are, especially for the ones who think that the female entrepreneurs and the mom entrepreneurs is not kind of easy to balance. Those who do not know these two concepts are, one is the FemTech, female technologies, which is the term applied to a category of software, diagnostics, products and services that use technology often to focus on women related industry and women's health. So especially in this FemTech direction, we do have female entrepreneurs representing because women know their kind of problems and challenges. On the other side, I'm presenting the concept of mom-preneurship, which is a combination of mother's business work life and the politics of kind of a mom-preneurship, which is giving also the opportunity to moms who are staying at home to work from home and kind of come up with the new entrepreneurial ideas. Next slide please. With the next slide, I have presented some of the female inventors with their FemTech inventions. I even didn't know before the research that some of the very useful kind of products of our daily use were invented by females. So for instance, the refrigerator, ice cream maker, dishwasher, iron and so on and so on, we do have the female inventors who just sitting at home and looking at the challenges which were at home, they have come up with these inventions. Next slide please. So here I have just clear logos here. And next slide please. With the next slide, I have just shown up a few applications which the Georgian female FemTech representatives have developed and this is also kind of rapidly going forward. So these type of opportunities have been opened through the governmental grant programs through which we were able to kind of give the seed stage financing for the start-upers, for the entrepreneurs who were coming up with this idea. So some of the milk cooling devices, we have the beauty lab, which is also in the FemTech industry, mine any which is pretty very popular application in Georgia, became very popular in Georgia and more and more are coming. Next one please. With this, I wanted to just say that it is crucially important to have on the one hand, the enabling environment, which is the joint efforts of governments, private sector, academic sector and civil society as well. And with this kind of efforts, we saw that the female entrepreneurship is being and founders, female founders are increasing. So when I started at the agency, when we had around up to 20% of female founder start-upers currently is the up to 40% it is increasing. So 38% of applicants are being female founders. So to become more kind of future ready for female, so I'm proposing the, especially two concepts to support the readiness. One is the incentives. And in incentives, I'm meaning the quotation, which is a good practice, which has been already implemented in Georgia and which has to just scale up in every field and in every industry. And on the other side, the access to finance, which is a key challenge for female entrepreneurs. It is important to have this scoring methodology when entering, like when getting access to the funding. On the other side, there has to be a big scale of the projects such as women in tech boot camps, women's week, like March is pretty intensive with the women related activities, but it doesn't have to be only one month. So it has to be throughout the year. And also the ICT trainings, which Georgia recently started for advanced level ICT specialists. And we saw that in the beginning, around 29% of ICT specialists who have been involved in this program are female, but it is increasing through the awareness raising incentives. So next slide, please. And last slide, last but not least, I would say are the key directions which we have to work together. It's connectivity. And I'm sure that the UN and ITU are the very good and excellent platforms through which we have to increase the connectivity between each other, between the countries to bring the best practices and have the joint implementation. And this is very important because sometimes we just see the good practice, but it doesn't work. Like you cannot just copy paste from one country to another. So when there is the joint implementation tool and instrument, it is even better. Kind of this practice is even better implemented. On the other side, I have mentioned about the incentives quotes for females, coring methodologists, as well as gender education. Gender education to give the opportunity to all participants to choose the kind of, to choose their, to have the good information about the gender issues. And on the other side, awareness raising, which is crucially important to have the awareness correctly about females involvement in ICT sector. So this is it and I'm ready to answer the questions. And I'm very happy to be an honor to be on your platform. So I hope that I was on time. Great, thank you very much for this insights on the FEMTech and the presentation. We'll come back to you with the questions after the series of the presentations. And now I will turn to Tamara as she wears two hats today and brings us the perspective of GSMA as well as the Equals Global Partnership. So Tamara, handing over to you. Thank you, Jaroslav and thank you colleagues. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. Indeed, as you already alluded, I am proudly representing GSMA, which of course in turn represents the global mobile industry, but GSMA also has a special place in the international gender equality space and that is as chair of the Equals Global Partnership for Digital Gender Equality and chair in particularly of its steering committee. So I'm very happy to wear my two hats today and of course share some best practices on behalf of GSMA because I think it's important to emphasize that we work across all four areas and that is access skills leadership and research because we recognize that addressing the digital gender divide is impossible by just addressing or speaking for that matter around just one issue. Now I've chosen today to give you two examples of concrete programs that GSMA has been spearheading to showcase how are we making a difference? If we could go to the first slide please. I think it's fair to say and I'm sure that all of you have recognized particularly during the pandemic that an access to a mobile phone can be a lifeline, particularly for women and young girls who tend to be marginalized. As such of course, a mobile phone can also provide access to critical services, not least healthcare and education. And this is precisely what GSMA's connected women program looks into. It basically aims to understand and subsequently tackle the mobile gender gap in access. And of course, when it comes to access to mobile phones on the one hand and also when it comes to access to mobile internet which once again can be critical especially in rural areas when we speak of connectivity. Now, how does the program do that? On the left you will see that there are currently two focus areas. We work to reduce the gender gap as I mentioned in mobile internet, but also in mobile money because that is becoming increasingly important again for ensuring that women are not left out of the digital ecosystem and for that matter financial ecosystem as well as mobile money is becoming more and more the primary way in which women can access financial services. Now, what approach do we undertake? And that you can also see in the middle column. That of course we do through three ways. First is advocacy where we drive awareness of the issues and we work closely with stakeholders. How do we do that? We share insights, we share data not least our mobile gender, data from our mobile gender gap reports which I hope that you're all familiar with. And if not, of course I'm happy to share also link so that we also work to build a capacity in clear understanding of what the barriers and challenges are when it comes to both access to mobile phones and of course mobile internet. And of course to engaging in policy related discussions and today of course is one example. We also drive our three spearheaded approach to market engagement by which we work closely with the mobile industry of course to have a real impact on the ground. And I'll give you an example shortly on the next slide but we do that through our Connected Women Commitment Initiative which basically works with mobile operators to bridge the gender gap in their customer service. And of course we also support them on the way to ensure that they're able to do that. And finally through insights where we develop insights and thought leadership on the size of the mobile gender gap and of course the main drivers around that. Now, what is the ultimate goal, right? Or the desired outcome? First of course we want to ensure that women have access and increase that access because it's not only enough to ensure that women have access to mobile technology but of course it's also subsequently how are they using that mobile technology? Secondly of course we are working to drive growth of the mobile industry itself because we recognize the potential that closing the gender gap has to support the economy more broadly. Of course of which the mobile industry plays a very big part because we know that connectivity is becoming a critical and crucial enabler of economic activity worldwide. And finally something that colleagues before me mentioned and it's incredibly important is of course working towards the achievement of the SDGs for which again connectivity is hugely important because we believe that equipping women with mobile technologies and of course the opportunities that bring can be particularly helpful in achieving many of the SDGs. We can go to the next slide please. Great, so this really showcases the impact that our Connected Women Commitment Initiative I mentioned has had. As you can see we've reached over 39 million women so far. The commitment has encompassed 40 operators the current cycle which runs for three years has 16. And I should also point out that actually the Connected Women Program is only 10 years old. So I think this is a remarkable achievement for given the short span of the program. Next slide please. And these are just some examples of the data that the GSMA Connected Women Program produces to support of course the mobile industry but also a number of other stakeholders in the system including governments, regulatory bodies and of course also the tech industry at large. So again in the interest of time I would not go too deep into that but I'm more than happy to share some resources as links in the chat option or alternatively please feel free to reach out to me and I'm happy to share that. But I did mention of course our annual mobile gender gap report and please be on the lookout. It's supposed to be published in June around our landmark event which is the Mobile World Congress and some preliminary data was in fact released yesterday in honor of the International Women's Day. Now this is of course one example. I would like to proceed now to my second example which is very applicable to some of the discussions we're having today and something that can easily be implemented across the Western Balkans and Eastern country partnerships especially when we discuss how do we empower girls with STEM skills? How do we raise awareness of the importance of STEM education? So next slide please colleagues. This is done by the GSMA Tech for Girls Initiative. Now this is an initiative the GSMA started initially in our North American region but it has now become global not least because of the support of many partners from across a number of sectors for members of the equals global partnership and this is why it is now powered by equals because we recognize the importance of really growing this initiative by involving all relevant stakeholders. Now what does Tech for Girls aim to do? In the first instance, we want to educate. You want to educate by conducting typically one to two day very hands-on workshops on particular topics that aim to spark both interest in STEM and in tech concepts in general. And of course on the other hand, introduce typically young girls and women ages 10 to 25 to technology and why it's important actually to have advanced digital skills. Now of course these workshops are as I mentioned, limited in time span but we do recognize that initial interaction and initial introduction is critical to spark interest subsequently. So a young woman or a girl can continue to pursue her interest in the field. Now secondly, the program is unique because it doesn't just end there. We ensure that Tech for Girls alumni are actually is the next step in role in an eight week e-mentorship program which actually connects stakeholders from the mobile industry with some of our Tech for Girls alumni whereby they're enrolled in a, as I mentioned, eight week soft skills program which actually complements the very introductory STEM skills they had accomplished through the workshops. And lastly of course, that all fits into the global talent pipeline because we've all heard that we do have challenges actually with recruitment, not least because the talent is sometimes not there. Next slide colleagues. And again, I'm cautious about time so I'll try to quickly wrap up. Now what are our target groups? I mentioned 10 to 16 and of course subsequently 16 to 25. Now currently we are offering two types of curriculums. One is mobile app development and the second is introduction to Tech through e-commerce. Now why mobile app? Of course as one, this is at the core of what GSMA does and of course represents but also I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to hear that they're currently in circulation 179 billion mobile application. And so of course it's a very quickly growing field where there is demand for talent and we want to ensure that women are actually well positioned to become mobile app developers not least because that of course comes with a very substantial renumeration which in turn of course ensures that women are able to become enablers of their own future. Secondly of course, introduction to Tech through e-commerce. Once again, we want to empower our participants and if they know how to build an online store which is what this workshop teaches them to do they can of course launch their own business completely online. And again, that is critical in rural areas where normally there might be logistical challenges in doing so in person. And of course the initiative as you can see on the right really aims to capitalize on both the hands-on STEM training and the e-mentorship platform whereby we are really preparing these young women ideally to enter the workforce. Next slide colleagues. Great, and these are just some examples of over the past let's say six months where we've targeted participants. But as you can see the Western Balkans and of course the global Eastern European region does not feature on this map. And this is actually a great occasion to brainstorm and collaborate and see how can we address that gap and that need that we heard this morning. Because again, I think introduction of such initiatives such as Tech for Girls can really help to move the needle in the region. And finally, and with this I will conclude I really wanted to showcase you the impact we have been able to achieve so far. So next slide colleagues. Now again, keep in mind that this, even though this initiative as I mentioned originated two years ago, it's only in the past, let's say six to eight months where we've really tried to achieve a more global outreach. So I think again the results are remarkable. As you can see 94% of our participants had improved their understanding of STEM and what possible career paths in STEM may look like. 88% told us that they felt confident about pursuing further tech studies and 70% had increased their knowledge of STEM career opportunities. So again, I cannot emphasize enough the need for such initiatives, especially as part of former or informal educational curriculums. I myself come from Eastern Europe, I'm Bulgarian. So for that reason, I'm also very happy to be speaking today. But I can also share that when I was growing up STEM education wasn't emphasized as part of my curriculum. I wasn't necessarily encouraged to develop skills in that field. Now, luckily that was never, let's say necessarily a passion to become, let's say a mobile app developer or a software engineer. But nonetheless, obviously now I work in this field and I'm incredibly passionate about digital gender equality and women's rights. And I wish that when I was growing up, the importance of STEM education was emphasized a little bit more and it wasn't just left as something that's dominated just by boys and men. So thank you. And I look forward to the discussion and questions later. Thank you, Tamara. This is really a lot of excellent work and a lot of impact generating at the regional level. And we are looking forward for the engagement and support to be given from at the national level and to all those initiatives which you referred to. And now I will now welcome Babu and to tell us more about the need for women to be more visible in business and how tech can help achieve this. So Babu, the floor is yours, you are muted. Sorry, hi everyone. Just want to say thank you very much first of all for this opportunity to come in and take part in this very important conversation. Before I just tell you a little bit about the company and how we are addressing this issue of gender equality and diversity, I'd like to give you a little background about myself and from a personal perspective why this really matters to me. I was born in Congo in Kinshasa but grew up in Europe mainly. My mother was a diplomat so we moved around quite a bit but throughout my childhood, it was very much honed on me the importance of education and how lucky I was to be able to be, that my mother was able to afford an education for me and she made a point of putting me in what she calls the best schools possible. I went to a French school in most of these markets in the city countries and what I really realised and what I really appreciate now today is that all of the opportunities and that I've been able to manifest in my life, I'd say are a direct response to the education that I receive and the opportunities that unfolded from that. And also coming from a country like DRC where so many young girls like in most developing countries in the world are not afforded the same access to education. It was very important to me in starting a company that not only would we be empowering women and finding a way to unlock what we say is women's economic potential as a catalyst for unlocking access to growth opportunities. So I access to capital, access to markets, access to education, access to upskilling. And that was a premise of why I started the next billion, which ironically used to be called Monsignor's business because we started as a crowdfunding platform for mompreneurs actually, Amiriam. So I completely understand the value of supporting mothers and especially seeing how innovative this group is when given the opportunity to grow. But what I realized when we started with funding, I realized very quickly that there was a step before funding, we were finding a very hard to find women that wanted to show up even though they needed the money, even though they needed the funding. Many of them preferred, I say, to hide at home until their products were 100% perfect. And so we started noticing that maybe there was a step before actually funding that needed to be addressed when they came to unlocking women's economic potential or in business or in entrepreneurship and which was visibility, which was finding. So we looked at our mission and we kind of rethought our mission. And from that experience, we decided that as a company what we wanted to focus on and the key, the driver that we want to focus on was visibility. Focus on raising the visibility of one billion women, entrepreneurs, producers, manufacturers and employers. Because we believe that a lot of the things that we have learned through our journey, whether we're speaking to journalists, to investors, to women themselves, constantly we don't invest because we can't find. We don't invite women to speak because we can't find. I don't buy any women-owned products because I don't know it's owned by a woman. So it's very important to us to use the power of technology and that's the basis of what we do at the next billion is how do we leverage technology and the power of the crowd? How do we engage everyone around this problem? And how do we invite them to contribute at a nominal level? So we say that we are in fact a for-profit and for-impactor in company. We deliver visibility as a service for women in business globally. And I would like to share with you my screen and I hope it works to show you the two products that we have and how we are through those products, actually tackling directly and indirectly gender equality and diversity. So globally spotted is what we call our global discovery search engine. And we conceived this because we wanted to and this was before the wake of COVID it became even more apparent the important to us that visibility for women-owned businesses became a higher priority because of COVID. But we have been working on this site for the last two years and we just officially launched it a couple of weeks ago. And the premise is that we wanted to build a place, one global discovery home for women-owned businesses, a place where anyone who wants to contribute to the growth of women-owned businesses can do so by searching for products and services that they need and in doing so, put back money into these businesses. So as you see, you can search for services but you also can find inspiration. I think it was Adya that mentioned the power of role models that they saw then levels of enrollment increase. And that's the power of visibility. And we wanted to really much mimic what Google offers but the difference is that we say we're people powered. We don't rely on algorithm to find companies owned by women. We rely on people. So if you don't mind just on the top corner there's a spot company button that I would like on the other side, yeah, a spotter company button. I don't think you can see. And this is really at the basis of what we say about letting everybody be able to contribute to the issue. Anybody can come in here and adjust these four, with this full field can actually contribute to raising the visibility of women-owned businesses. So whether it's a service you've bought yourself or a product you've bought yourself or just a woman-owned business that has inspired you you can come and tell us the name of the company, their website, the city it's on and the female entrepreneur and what inspired you to spot this company. And that's it. And we really wanted to lower the barrier of entry of how people can contribute and participate. And we believe that by doing so by lowering the barriers that way you actually can scale up contributions. You can scale at mass level. And because we're all about visibility we also recognize the people that spot companies for us. So if you don't mind going, scrolling down the page to give over the quick view, just scroll all the way down. We wanted to be very, very visual and we wanted to move away again from text-based, results-based because our ambition is for people to visually see and discover not only the profiles, the women behind these companies but also the companies themselves. And so we really thought about, okay, Google has images but we wanna have profiles. So then you start to recognize every single face of the different women behind every single one of these companies. And then you can also discover their stories and go to their LinkedIn and in a way empower people to learn more about these women but also to purchase the products that they offer. So if you go back up and tap into profiles so that we can give, yep, click on to profile. So sorry, that's the next one. So it's the same website, sorry. If you just scroll down to below in profiles. As I said, yep, as I said here is where you can actually discover the different women that are spotted on our search engine. If you scroll down again, I just wanna give a video glimpse of how we do it. So if you click on any of these women you get a glimpse of what the industry is, their location where they're based, what their title is, the CEO founder of the company and their companies themselves. And when you click on it you also are able to actually discover more about them. So please click on any profile that you see. So here you'll be able to read about them, their impact, how they're contributing to the economy through their business, see the level of experience, connect with them. So if you scroll further down, connect with them as well as if they have any press written about them you can also discover the stories that have been written about them. And we have companies on our website that offer product-based, consumer-based products all the way to tech companies that are really changing the lives of children. And a good example is No Isolation. So No Isolation is an Norwegian-based company and they have an amazing technology. They've developed a robot, a small robot that actually kids who aren't at school because they're affected by long-term illness can actually use at home to follow their whole education whilst away from home. And these are the kind of tools and I think the kind of tools and also the kind of innovation that can be applied and used in developing countries where especially right now in COVID time where so many students and young people have been affected by school closures. So I really want to show you the power of this. If you just go up again and click on and just type in No Isolation. And although this isn't the technology that was developed for the, I would say the West there was great potential in this technology because it can be used as a say in so many regions of the world in particular to address the issue of how do we keep children educated in places where, or young girls educated in places where they can no longer go to school. If you scroll down the page, you will see No Isolation there and you can click on them. So this is what they do. And they started this because the founder herself was ill for a very long time and was isolated from her work of friends. And she had to stay in isolation at home and she conceived this product for herself but then saw the bigger picture and the bigger ambition and the bigger impact there was in actually offering this product to children who in some form or the other are isolated because of illnesses initially. But now they're looking to use it for more broader of humanitarian uses as well and also for the elderly as well. So this is one of the ways, just one of the ways that we're using technology and loving technology to really readjust the balance of provisibility because we believe that if you were able to build what we call a global discovery home where anytime you want to buy a product you are driven by your need you can actually give back an effect and change the life of women-owned businesses. And by doing so, of course, we all know the multiply effects of women that they reinvest 90% of their income back in their families and communities. And so this was very important as to use the power of the crowd and technology in this way to address this issue for women-owned businesses. And our second product which we have developed is called Profarmi. So if you don't mind going to the Profarmi website and Profarmi was directly created to address the visibility gap that women have in business as a way to also accelerate and increase diversity in the workforce. As it's been mentioned before, women are adversely affected by COVID, has been adversely affected by COVID in the workplace as well. And seeing that women represent over 50% of the world's population, 75% of us on paid workforce and 1.2 billion of us active workforce. We felt that instead of focusing on the narrative that women don't have or still can't or won't, we wanted to use the power of something like photography and storytelling and technology to be able to give another portrayal and show another narrative of women as a way to inspire not only those women to show up in their lives, but also to inspire and doing so, inspire the next generation of young girls to see all that they can be. And that's the premise really of Profarmi. And so we use photography a portrait shoot because in essence, a portrait shoot seems very vanity based. So if you scroll down the page, I can show a little bit more. That again, our goal is to raise visibility to 1 billion women in business, but really it's an invitation for women to show up themselves and take ownership of their visual identity because there is an intentionality when you book a shoot. You do not book a shoot just to have pictures in a corner. You book a shoot because I either wanna use it to apply for that job. You either wanna use it to tell a story on your website or your marketing. You either wanna use it to have greater visibility on your social media. So there's always an intentionality. And by choosing to shoot or book a shoot with us, what you're actually saying that I'm ready to show up for change in my life, whether it's for that job or not. And that is a subtle power of photography that we wanted to use and wanted to do diverse in a very different way, in a fun way. And we felt that this was a very digestible way that we can engage hundreds, if not millions of women to show up for change in their own life. And in doing so, what we are very excited about, which we launched yesterday is this compartment of real tangible impact. So when you show up and book a shoot or gift a shoot for women in your life, then we take, we commit to gifting a percentage of that booking fee to send more girls at school so that more girls get to show up at school. And one of the organizations that we are supporting we starting with is She For She Pads. And what was amazing to me was the number of young girls adversely impacted by their menstruation. 80 million young girls do not show up at school because of menstruation. Something that we take for granted that we can walk into a shop and buy pads. So many young girls not only die of complications by using alternative methods of menstruation pads, but also the dangers associated with having to come back alone from school. So there are so many and we wanted to support She For She Pads because we felt that they were aligned with how we saw the impact that we wanted to achieve. So yes, when somebody books a shoot with us, you're not only helping us build a image bank, a role model that we can tell the stories of and show young girls, hey, this is who you can become. And in doing so, what is great about it is democratic because we don't choose who gets to book our shoots. So we have everybody from marketing assistants to CEO of companies to PhD doctors too. So every time we shoot, we write the stories of these women and we share them in a campaign that we even titled, this is what. So it's either this is what a tech founder looks like, this is what an architect looks like. And we believe that that and like, I think we're getting more awakened to the power of representation and the power of seeing. Babu, it's really a hard time to interrupt you because this is what you are showing. This is real story from the grassroots. And this is something that we would like to see more massively happening around the world. But unfortunately our time is running. So with this, I would like to thank you very much for your contribution and to this panel and it will come still back with some questions. And now let me turn to Priyanka to share with us how can we create a sustainable and diverse and inclusive workspace for women and girls, the florist girls. Thank you so much, Yara Slo for the introduction and such an amazing session today. I have been super inspired by all the stories and very honored to be here. To be here as a first of all, thank you all a few. A little bit about myself. My name is Priyanka Banerjee and I'm originally from India. And I have done my electronics and communication engineering from India and that's how I entered into the ICT field that led me to Finland, luckily. And it was a very interesting phase because coming from a very different country and a culture into the Nordics, there was a huge gap in the understanding of not just the cultural differences but also the way ICT sector works. So inspired by my experiences here, working with a lot of different clients, with global clients and working in Finland, I decided to start my own organization, my own startup, which is called business with. And we are working with businesses to help them become more sustainable and inclusive. So, and what was the inspiration for me to start this organization was definitely my own experiences working in the industry. And I saw that there is an understanding of how we can provide the ecosystem to women and to people from diverse backgrounds to thrive in the companies. And a lot of times people really forget about the intersectionality that comes into the, when we are talking about equality or gender equality, because for me, when I started working here, of course I was from a different culture, from a different country, it was a woman of color, I don't speak the native language or from a different religion beliefs, and it was all coming together into one whole experience. But as you know it, people say that one person can actually make a lot of difference. I wanted to really test that if it's possible and if it really can be done. And so I started my own organization and what we are doing is we definitely provide a lot of awareness and education, but one of the main things that I realized what we are using very less into building more equal companies is the data. We are not using technology and the data insights from the organizations enough to help them create a more sustainable place. So what does that mean? It means that when people or when companies are starting initiatives to build gender equality or to create inclusion, a lot of times they put people in a box. So they also put women, all the women with different experiences in one box and think that all size fits everybody, kind of initiatives. And I'll give you an example, we have been reading about one case that a company, they were having a lot of attrition rate for young women in their late 20s and early 30s. So they assumed that maybe because women at that age are more likely to have families and they might be leaving the company because of lack of maternity and support for women and parental leave and so on. And they definitely put a lot of resources into developing a really good maternity initiatives with parental leaves and so on, but the issue did not change. And why it didn't change was that they did not really look into the data or understand why the women were actually leaving. And when they looked into it, the reason was that these women, they were very ambitious and they wanted more challenging jobs. And the organization was not able to provide them with the challenging jobs and ambition levels that they were looking for. So this was one of the example. We have also seen the examples based on intersectionality. For example, in the organizations, we found that trans women, they have a very low belongingness level in some companies because they feel that they don't have enough voice or they don't have enough decision-making power. And so we kind of helped the organizations to see what their strengths are and what are the exact pinpoint places where they need to put their resources and create customized initiatives. So not putting one initiative for everyone but identifying what initiatives are actually required for people and for people from different sections and from different parts and industries. So even now, like I saw the recent survey that we did with one organization, we found out that there were women in the lower sections or the job roles in the organizations. And sometimes people say, okay, we have a lot of diversity and females in the company. But then when you start looking at, there is very less women in the top or then there are very less women in the tech fields. We have seen that there are a lot of women in business, in marketing, in design, but not really engineering product development and these kinds of services. And this is what we also tried to do, initiatives that can improve the number of women and people from different backgrounds into the product development and also like actual technological fields so that we can have products that are inclusive. So building inclusive products and using data insights is one of the keys that we have seen that has been working in order to build more inclusive places. And I would also like to say that in Finland, still we have a lot of gender balance or it is seen as one of the forerunners in gender balance but the industries here are still segregated which means that for example, 84% women, there is 84% women in let's say health and welfare sector while in ICT I think as per statistics in 2019, there were only 13% women which is like a huge gap in the segregation of the women. Also we have seen that as I'm a startup founder myself, that there are some less female founders and as per the state of tech in 2020, there has been like 90% of the whole, you say investment went to all male founding teams. So these data really shows that there is this queue and you know that Finland is under the generation equalities leading the action collation for technology and innovation and they have like four priorities and one of the priorities there is improving the participation of women and girls in the STEM fields and also in leadership in the STEM fields. Also reducing the gap of digitalization and digital skills among the women but also they also have two other priorities for example, building gender sensitive products which are which promote non-discrimination and also this has been reducing the gender-based violence on the digital platform. And I think these are really great initiatives because it provides the private companies or the companies that are impacted driven towards a direction where we can form partnerships. That is another thing that I think has helped us quite a lot is collaboration with public services and also with different nonprofit organizations. So for example, I'm also on the board of international working women of Finland and we have around 5,300 over 5,300 members and we are working with all those women to help them in their professional journey and reducing these gaps, providing them with a safe space and not recreating the wheel. We're also partnering with European Digital Society for example, to create ethical digital ecosystems and these kind of collaborations has helped us to not recreating the wheel. And this platform is so good because now you can see what people are doing and we can just learn from each other and not repeat what has been done. So just to, I see that we are running out of time but to summarize, I think sustainable transformation requires structural changes. So we cannot just create on and off initiatives that we don't know why we are building. And my personal vision is to create inclusive workplaces that will attract women and people from different backgrounds themselves. So it's like a pull effect, not a push effect and also provide them with a culture of work where they can thrive and be themselves. We also need to change the narrative, provide more role models. So it's, we have to not think about I-City as a masculine thing or a masculine topic and definitely active collaborations and that's why I'm really happy to be here. And last but not the least, using the digital innovations like data insights and data analytics, machine learning to bring the future that we are envisioning faster. And we can talk a little bit more about how and what we are doing in the discussion. So over to you, Jerozlo. Thank you very much, Priyanka, for this intervention and sharing with us your perspective. As access is one of the key components in delivering transformative change in every girl's life. I would like to invite Emilia, our last speaker of this round, to give her perspective. Emilia and the floor is yours and I would like encourage all participants to put your questions in the chat box using still the time remaining. We are aiming at finishing wrapping up our event at 12, 15, 12, 20. Thank you so much and I'm very sorry that because I'm the last one, I have the least time at all. We have time. Okay, so my name is Emilia Stimenova-Dugena. I was introduced as assistant professor of the faculty of electrical engineering. I'm very glad that the other participants also share their personal stories. I think this is very important and I will share my personal story with you as well. So when I started studying electrical engineering, I was the only girl, I was the only woman between 150 students. Now I'm a professor of the faculty of electrical engineering and this year was the first time in my life when in the first year I had more female than male students. So I was very happy about that which means there is some progress going on. So maybe very shortly I would like to state what is the current status of ICT industry when it comes to gender equality in Slovenia. In Slovenia, female ICT specialists, they're around 19% of all the experts in the country. However, if we see the number of STEM graduates, it is very different because 15 women per 1,000 individuals finish their studies in STEM and 26 male per 1,000 individuals. So you can see that not even half less women than men finish STEM studies, but then the number of the specialists is much, much lower. Another thing, another problem in the ICT industry in the country is the unadjusted pay gap. So 17% of unadjusted pay gap. And it was also mentioned that there is a very low share of women in the management positions. And even when they are in the management position, usually they're leading the human resources sector. So they're not CTOs, they're no CEOs and so on. Another thing is in the country, there is so many times where there are no women present at panel. So at today's event, we only, sorry, Aroslav, you were the only male today, so which is a completely different situation. But if we have an expert talk or panel or whatsoever, it is happening over and over again that there are no women or there is usually one woman that is present there. So the situation is quite different than the today's panel. So if we can go to the next slide, I will shortly go through why digital technologies and ICT is so important for women. So first is access to quality education and training. Even if they don't have good education in their own region, in their own environment, because of the internet and the access to the internet, you can follow very good. And also many times free trainings or co-funded trainings or trainings for a very low price at very good platforms. And here you can see just some of them. So this is a great opportunity for women who otherwise did not have good access to quality education and training. Then the next one, slight if we can go forward. I think this is again, very, very important access to work and income. In the picture on the left, it's me with my son and this was happening over and over again. So when my son was younger, I even though in Slovenia, we have a very generous parental leave. However, in ICT and in tech, if you want to be there, then you must be there. So even when your child is small and ill and so on and so on, you have to work and you have to keep on going. So because even before COVID, because I was able to work, I still was able to have access to work and to income. And for me, it was a major, how shall I say this? It was very important because I was able to stay at the university. I was able to keep applying for new projects. I was able to work on the projects and also I was able to apply for higher positions. So the other two pictures are pictures from one of our projects that we are working on with smart villages. It's about how digital transformation can help rural areas. And here in the first picture, you can see ladies that are working with wool. So they're developing wool products. And because of the ICT, they were able to market and sell their products all around. So again, access to income. And the picture down, it's from COVID right now. So it's about a wine hub that was not able to sell their wines and to organize wine tasting. But due to COVID, of course, because everything was stopped because of the lockdown. So what we did is we introduced new digital technologies and they started a new service, a new product which is a virtual wine tasting. So again, these women found a way to still be part of the work and to earn income during COVID times. If we can go to the next slide. A very important thing for ICT and women is access to health and social care. Because I usually work with rural areas, a lot with rural areas. And we can see that many times for them, it is not so easy to have access to good health and social care where they live. So because of the e-services of e-health, e-care and so on and so on using sensors, now it's much, much easier to get this access to health care. So even during COVID, we had a very good project with the hospital where instead of going to the hospital, they gave the equipment at home. So the people were able to do the measurements and to take care for their health at home. And if we can go to the next slide. Another thing is access to public services. We talked a lot about work-life balance today. So for example, if you need to go to the municipality or I don't know what other public service, many times you need to take a day off or I don't know to get from the job earlier. But now when we have these public services, which are available 24 seven, you don't need to drive anywhere. You don't need to put some special time to do that. It's also very important and this is especially for women. So I work at the University of Ljubljana, but I live in Maribor, which is 120 kilometers away. And before anything that I had to do, I had to stay, which means I was not able to work because before COVID, the faculty was not so much fond of working from home. And having e-services and in Slovenia, we really have a good e-government was very useful for me and for many of my colleagues. So with the last slide, I will just put some unknowns. No, I have one more. I think this is very... Yeah, you can move to the next slide. I think this is another very important issue that ICT technology gives women a voice. So you remember what was happening in Poland and I don't know what was in the other countries, but in Slovenia, in support of the women of Poland, we all had in Facebook this science. So it means that using digital technologies, it really gives you a voice. It's not you, but then through media, through social media, you can share what is happening and there is a visibility and then you can find support from not only your region and your country, but all around the world. So I think this is very, very important for women and this is why we're also important to be digitally literate. And now the next and the last slide is the concrete steps. So the first and foremost concrete step is access to high-speed broadband everywhere, anytime and for everyone. In Europe, there's still so many areas that are not covered with high-speed broadband and as I mentioned, I'm working with rural areas. So especially in the rural areas, this is the problem. And I think that we all need to have equal access to broadband because without equal access to broadband, we don't have equal opportunities. Then raising awareness about ICT, again, everywhere and anytime, what ICT is. Many times, I keep receiving questions that what if robots take all our jobs, but ICT is not only about automation, about robotization, ICT is much, much more. So because of ICT, some jobs will disappear, but then some jobs will again will be created. Creation and delivery of digital public services. So at all levels, at governmental level, municipal level, regional level and so on. But the most important thing is skills. We have to work on skills. If we want to reduce the digital gap, it is very important to provide programs and projects where people can get these skills. And it was mentioned earlier as well. So trainings, I think it was in Bosnia that parents need to receive trainings for ICT. I completely agree. And also I believe that teachers in schools must receive ICT skills because otherwise they would not know how to help the children and the girls. Then funding ICT trainings or giving some other incentives. And this is where industry can help a lot as well. So funding projects and programs in ICT programs in schools and not only in high schools, but in elementary schools or even earlier and then setting out the whole ecosystem offering support. So the last thing I would like here to say is what concretely we should do. We should stop talking and start doing. At the beginning, there was a presentation from Slovenia. How good is everything in Slovenia? And this is not true. This is, some is data and statistical numbers, but then here comes the reality. And we, for example, just last week there was an organization of a conference of the future of Europe by the government. So the same government that is preparing all these action plans, but there was not single women present at that conference. So then it is very important to give role models. And I really liked the presentation where we saw a visibility of women female entrepreneurs. And here it's again the same. We need to see who engineers are. Many times when I come to a event, I'm treated as a secretary. Or even though I'm leading my group at the University of Electrical Engineering. So, or people ask me, so this is how electrical engineers look like. And we need to give role models. We need to show that what electrical engineers or ICT specialists look like, what they do. So why is it important to have women in electrical engineering or in artificial intelligence or so on and so on. And then let them speak for themselves. So not that some other people would present what ICT specialists do or what the challenges they're facing with or so on and so on, because they're the ones who know what challenges they're facing with. So yes, I really believe that we now need to move from words on paper and action plans, concretely to action and realization with very clear deadlines and responsibilities. And here I would stop. Thank you very much, Emilia, for this presentation. It was really great to hear, in fact, and see that it should be a call for action, in fact, which we should now focus on. Unfortunately, now we are arriving to the time which is not allowing us to make the round of the questions and the answers, but we hope that this is not the last time when we are meeting with all these distinguished speakers and will be having the opportunity to see each other on the nearest occasion. However, before we are concluding, I would like to ask each of the speakers to make the 30 seconds pitch for the action. So what would you like to see happening in the coming three months? And I would start from Mariam, going to Tamara, Babu, Priyanka, and Emilia. Mariam? Sorry, I was just typing, so I missed the question. So we are asking you for 30 seconds pitch for action, what you would like to see happening in the coming three months from your perspective? Thank you very much again. So my pitch would be to empower the females, so not to be afraid from your side, because when you are a mom or when you are at home, like you can still work and be a mom, premier. I myself, with the ICT background, I'm currently active mem and active politician. So there is no border for females to go farther. And we, from our nature, are bringing the new life to the world. So be kind of brave, and we will bring like new life to the new world with the, and especially in ICT. So empowering females and giving the environment for every female. Thank you. Tamara? I personally would like to see, and I think this is also something mentioned during this event, commitments translated into action. I think we have a great opportunity with the generation equality process. But then again, the question remains, how do we translate these numerous commitments into action? And from an industry perspective, of course, how do we ensure that we drive change internally and externally? And I'm very sorry, we didn't have time to share with you what GSM is doing internally. But I think we must not forget that when women reach these leadership positions, they need to stay there. And that is, of course, a responsibility for that, has every organization looking into their culture, looking into their incentive and so on and so on. So yeah, thank you. Thank you very much, Babu. You are muted. Sorry. In line with the others, I think it's less talking and more action. But from the perspective as well, I think it's about empowering women to take ownership of that change. I think a lot of the time when we talk about women and young girls, it's always how other people can help them. But I think it's important that women realize that in showing up in their lives, whether it's for their job or whatever they have a start-up in business, that if you don't do or take the first step, nothing changes. And so from that perspective, for us, it's really about empowering women to show up. But also think about mentorship. Everybody has a journey and a story which can help somebody else. And you do not have to be a CEO of a company to do that. You do not have to be a board member to do that. So giving back what you already have, I think is a very powerful tool. And it was also a tool that can inspire women and build confidence in women as well. So that's what I would like to see women do more of, to show up in their lives, mentor other women, and eventually in that way also show the next generation all that I can be. Thank you very much and Priyanka. Thank you. And I think what I would like to ask, especially workplaces, to create more long-term and sustainable solutions and strategies in place with proper action items and measurements. Also thinking about intersectionality when developing initiatives so that we don't leave anybody behind. Also as an individual, I would like today all of you present here to question yourselves. Are you yourselves putting or having promoting gender stereotypes in science or in technology yourselves to your kids? And what can we do to improve or develop our own behaviors in empowering and promoting women? So thank you. Thank you and Emilia. Thanks. So three very concrete things. An action plan very concrete when everyone on this planet will have access to high-speed broadband because I think this is very easy to be done. The other one again, a good action plan to raise digital skills for children, parents and teachers. And then last but not least, it would be nice to have a catalog or platform, a network or whatsoever of a female specialist where media can find an expert for different events where you can find your mentor, where you can see what other women are doing when teachers can show, see this is what she's doing and these are the projects she's working on and this is the impact she's doing. So these are the three things. Great. Thank you very much. Let me thank you very much for contributing to this. I think that we have clear call for the brave action with very much actionable items to be addressed in the near future, ensuring self-sustainability and sustainability and the impact at the national level. So thank you very much for all of your proposals and all your calls and great presentations which we really enjoyed during this event. And ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of these events. I will let me thank on behalf of the all organizers of this event to be with us. Also for being with us and sharing this important moment of launching the study which should serve us to focus on the actions which are evidence-based and not theoretical but really closing some gaps existing in the region. I'm delighted to be closing this vibrant discussion today. Let me start by saying how lucky I am to run a team with this 70% of women being on my team, women. So and also being guided by the leadership of our director Berlin Bogdan who is the symbol of the change in terms of the gender equality. ITU telecommunication development bureau is dedicating efforts to achieve gender equality internally but also promoting gender equality across the world through a successful initiative such as BERS in ICTs, X equals and the network of women and additional network of women has been just launched today in Asia Pacific when we are deliberating on this report. So distinguished speakers, Elia, Elia Sear, director of the UN Women, Aida Ankuderman, and state secretary from Slovenia. And distinguished colleagues, I would like to thank you very much once again for precious words, which I'm sure we have very inspiring for participants in this event. This morning, the launch of this report is opening the new chapter for us to act with the countries and also act with the engagement of the youth. And we are very grateful and to our members of the European youth group which joined today and to contribute with some observations but also with some ideas to advance the gender equality at the level of the Generation Connect initiative. Finally, this round table also is closing at our ITU regional forum for Europe on meaningful connectivity, where the gender is a very important component because within the framework of the meaningful connectivity we're not only taking a look at the heart infrastructure but how the infrastructure is used and for what purposes. And this is the reason why this session was so important to us. And therefore let me therefore thank the ministry of public administration of Republic of Slovenia for supporting the organization of this today's events as well as this session. Before I close, just let me remind you that this meeting was held within the framework of the United Nations Regional Forum on Sustain Development which is a joint initiative and event of the all UN system working in Europe and Central Asia with the final week on the 17 and 18 of March but with a special session on digital transformation happening on the 15 March. So don't miss this opportunity. Also we draw your attention to the other opportunities coming up and including the forum on digital skills and accessibility is still in March. So with this, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to inform you that all information, all presentations will be posted on the website of this event. We encourage you not only to go through the materials but also to join our initiative and in case you have the concrete proposals and to bring to the table and to join the forces to work on them at the national, original level or global level and please contact us and wishing you all a good continuation and see you in our next event. So thank you very much. One more time on behalf of all organizers of this event and we see you very soon on the next occasion. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.