 Welcome to WRC 19, the World Ready Communication Conference here in Shamashake in Egypt, where I'm very pleased to be joining the studio today by Cindy Cook, who is the deputy head of the delegation of Canada, as well as being chair of the ad hoc group of the plenary, and Luciana Camargos, who is a member of the Brazilian delegation, as well as being co-chair of the Network of Women. Luciana, Cindy, welcome to the studio. Thank you. Now I'd like to start off by asking you, Cindy, perhaps that you could tell us a little bit about a declaration that has happened here at WRC 19. It's quite a unique declaration and perhaps you could give us a little insight into what's being declared here. Certainly. So there was an input contribution from many countries that was actually spearheaded by Luciana and her co-chair, Jennifer Manor, to raise awareness of gender equality and parity and balance. And I was very fortunate to be chosen as the chairman of the ad hoc group that took a look at that document and made edits to it and then moved it up to plenary for approval today. So the declaration is about raising awareness about the gender issues, about declaring and trying to move the ITUR to incorporate more gender mainstreaming in its hiring processes and its day-to-day work, not just at the Bureau but also by its membership and participants in the meetings. And then setting a plan forward for what can we do going forward. So inviting administrations to consider as well a possible resolution for the next cycle on the same topic and as well asking the Radio Communications Bureau to keep track of some of the statistics around gender. And Luciana, you've been involved with the network of women fighting for women to be seen and heard here at Radio Communication events. How do you feel now that this declaration has been made? For me it's a great victory. I have co-chaired in this cycle the network of women with Jennifer Manor and it's been great throughout the meetings, throughout the ITUR meetings and also at CPM and trying to pair some mentors with some mentees and to basically guide and try to help the newcomers to the ITU. And this work has been very, very, very good but we still see not a big participation of women in the delegations. In this conference we're only 18% and in chairmanship roles it's even less. In heads of delegation it's even less, although we do have some very big delegations here with heads of tel who are women. So for us this is a really big step in the right direction to be able to bring more women delegates to these meetings, especially as a commitment from the Member States to do that, but also as a commitment from the Bureau to look into more women into their hiring as well. So I think it's many elements, as Cindy was saying, it's a many, many elements declaration. Cindy, what do you hope that this declaration will achieve for the work of the ITU Radio Communications sector in real terms? So in real terms, as Luciana was saying, obviously we want to try and increase the percentage of women that are participating in the work in all levels of the work. So as delegates to the meetings who are taking on the technical roles, becoming the technical experts on a topic and fighting those issues and bringing them forward, but also in the leadership roles, leadership roles within the delegations, leadership roles within the ITU are within the Bureau itself. I think as well, though, part of the declaration is trying to encourage Member States to increase the numbers of girls that are taking on the ICT education. Get more girls into STEM, increase the number of girls and women in the field. And I think that's important and part of what I hope will come out of this resolution, or the story of this declaration as well, is that we will get more of a female perspective around radio communications. Now, Luciana, let's talk about the network of women, something that you've been involved with as a mentor and involved as a co-chair as well. Are you encouraged about the way that the ITU radio communication sector is going? Yes, very much so. I think it's really important to highlight the work that Hanan and Asiri has done from the BR. She's been taking on so much in terms of launching this program and getting the mentees and the mentors to register and to pair them together. It's really important. When I started 20 years ago, I navigated through the ITU corridors myself, and it's daunting. It's really difficult to understand what is going on and there's so many meetings and so many color documents. And having someone to help guide you through this, especially if you come from a smaller delegation, makes the whole difference. And I have feedback from the mentors and from the mentees that they're both enjoying the experience a lot because the mentors learn a lot from the mentees as well. Cindy, finally, I wanted to ask you, what do you think is most needed when it comes to ensuring that more women play a leadership role in radio communications? I think it's encouragement and opportunities. So one part of the declaration asks for women to be given more opportunities where they can learn and where they can grow in their efforts. And I think that's really important. I think if we're going to move people, all people, including women, up through the ranks of the leadership ranks, they need to be given some opportunities to learn what it's like to be a chairman, to learn what it's like to take the floor, to progress in their efforts within the ITUR. And so I think those opportunities are what's really important. And as people gain confidence in their abilities, they take on even larger roles with more responsibility, and then they will gradually move their way up. So opportunity is my word. And Luciana, is a mentor seeing people come from the ground up? Yes, absolutely. It's really rewarding to see that starting from presenting input contributions, she may be taking a chairman position from a small drafting group and then taking walking their way up through the ITU. And that's what we would like to see. Great. Well, thank you very much for joining us in the studio. I know it's been a really busy time here in the last week of WRC. We've managed to rush you in here. But thanks very much indeed. And very best of luck for the end of the conference. Great news about this declaration. Thank you very much. Thank you.