[WSIS CS-Plenary] Fwd: Input to the CSTD from the Gender Advisory Board
Sophia Huyer
shuyer at wigsat.org
Thu Apr 3 17:58:09 BST 2008
Dear friends,
I'm attaching below a message posted to the CSTD discussion list on
the agenda and programme for its May 2008 session. The Gender Advisory
Board is an NGO advisory body with a mandate from the CSTD until 2010
to provide inputs and recommendations on gender dimensions of its
work. The CSTD is addressing two "substantive themes" this year:
"Science, technology and engineering for innovation and capacity
building in engineering and research" and "Development-oriented
policies for a socio-economic inclusive information society, including
access, infrastructure and enabling environment".
We will be sending separate submissions on the Reports of the
Secretary-General prepared by the CSTD Secretariat for each theme,
which I will post to this list as well.
Regards,
Sophia Huyer
--
Sophia Huyer
Acting Director
Gender Advisory Board, UNCSTD
shuyer at wigsat.org
voice: 1-905-355-5124
fax: 1-647-723-5069
http://GAB.wigsat.org
> From: Sophia Huyer <shuyer at wigsat.org>
> Date: April 3, 2008 12:48:20 PM GMT-04:00
> To: UNCTAD - United Nations Commission on Science & Technology <UN-CSTD at LIST.UNICC.ORG
> >
> Subject: Re: Input from the Gender Advisory Board
>
> Dear Mongi,
>
> It is a shame that there is no specific agenda item for gender this
> year. If you recall, in the past it has been the practice for the
> Gender Advisory Board, as a mandated advisory body to the CSTD, to
> make a presentation. Generally the Director or Chair addressed the
> session by presenting a report on activities and commenting on the
> gender dimensions of the current substantive theme.
>
> It is also regrettable that we have not had a chance to comment on
> either of the Secretary-General reports before they were finalized.
> Again, in the past we have had the opportunity to provide input on
> gender dimensions and recommendations. The fact that this was not
> done this year is evident -- both reports contain only one reference
> to gender or women in a non-substantive. This does not reflect
> where the international community is on these issues. As I
> mentioned in my earlier message, both the UN community (WSIS;
> UNESCO; UNCTAD and others ) and the NGO community -- Interacademy
> Council on Science, Third World Academy of Sciences, CONGO, APC, and
> many others -- have acknowledged the importance of recognising and
> addressing gender and socioeconomic diversity implications of both
> STI and the information society. Neither are addressed in the
> Secretary-General reports.
>
> These gaps do not reflect the experience and policy of many of the
> countries represented on the Commission itself, many of which have
> established high-level policy bodies and taskforces addressing the
> issue of women in STI and/or the information society; and many of
> which have instituted national programmes to promote the
> participation of women in a national knowledge society.
>
> When developing strategies to take into account groups that have
> historically been marginalized, the strategy needs to be one of dual
> inclusion. So, even though gender is included as a cross-cutting
> issue in the MDGs, there is still a separate goal that focuses on
> gender. Unless there is a strong and persistent presence and strong
> and consistent review of outcomes, it has been our experience that
> there is a loss of ground. We are concerned that this is where CSTD
> is headed, despite the investment of resources, time and goodwill,
> and in spite of the positive work of many of its member States.
>
> Best wishes,
> Sophia
>
>
>
> On 3-Apr-08, at 3:15 AM, Mongi Hamdi wrote:
>>
>> Dear Sofia,
>>
>> As you may be aware, the provisional agenda for this year's regular
>> session of the CSTD had already been adopted by ECOSOC at its last
>> substantive session (July 2007). The agenda has a number of items.
>> Some of them are substantive while others are procedural. Since
>> gender dimensions cut across all issues and themes, there is no
>> specific agenda for gender. However, as in the past, you or anyone
>> of the members of the Gender Advisory Board will have opportunities
>> to speak under any agenda item you chose. In addition, we will be
>> happy to circulate and post on the website any report/input you may
>> wish to submit to the session.
>>
>> With best regards,
>>
>> Mongi
>>
>>
>>
>> Sophia Huyer <shuyer at WIGSAT.ORG>
>> Sent by: UNCTAD - United Nations Commission on Science & Technology
>> <UN-CSTD at LIST.UNICC.ORG>
>> 02.04.2008 19:41
>> Please respond to
>> UNCTAD - United Nations Commission on Science &
>> Technology <UN-CSTD at LIST.UNICC.ORG>
>>
>> To
>> UN-CSTD at LIST.UNICC.ORG
>> cc
>> Subject
>> Re: Input from the Gender Advisory Board
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear Mongi,
>>
>> Thank you for your response. We are happy to hear that the WSIS
>> followup report includes references to gender dimensions and
>> activities. We have not seen the report, so we were in a position
>> to make comments only on the outline.
>>
>> On the Reports of the Secretary-General on the two substantive
>> themes which were circulated recently, our brief initial review
>> found only one reference to women and/or gender in each, in a non-
>> substantive way. We will send you more detailed comments and
>> suggestions for inclusion of gender issues in these Reports very
>> shortly.
>>
>> In regards to my question on the Agenda -- can you clarify whether
>> you have identified speakers to present on gender dimensions of the
>> information society and of science, technology and innovation?
>> Where in the agenda will these speakers be slotted? We are hoping
>> that our Board member for India, Dr. Sudha Nair, will be able to
>> attend; and our Co-Chair Dr. Shirley Malcom may also be able to be
>> there, depending on her schedule.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Sophia
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sophia Huyer
>> Acting Director
>> Gender Advisory Board, UNCSTD
>> shuyer at wigsat.org
>> voice: 1-905-355-5124
>> fax: 1-647-723-5069
>> http://GAB.wigsat.org
>> http://GSTGateway.wigsat.org
>>
>>
>> On 2-Apr-08, at 12:08 PM, Mongi Hamdi wrote:
>>
>>
>> Dear Sophia,
>>
>> Thank your for your email, and for bringing to our attention the
>> importance of the gender dimensions to science, technology and
>> ICTs, which we attach great importance to the work of the CSTD.
>>
>> With regard to the Report of the Secretary-General on WSIS follow-
>> up, I am not sure which outline you are referring to. The report
>> of the Secretary-General, which is currently with UNCTAD Document
>> Control for editing, does indeed include information on gender-
>> related activities, based on inputs from relevant agencies that are
>> tasked with WSIS follow-up, especially by the regional
>> organisations, such as ECA, ECE, and ESCAP.
>>
>> We would be happy to post reports/inputs of the Gender Advisory
>> Board on the substantive themes as well as WSIS follow-up on the
>> CSTD website along with the inputs from other agencies.
>>
>> With best regards,
>>
>> Mongi
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Sophia Huyer <shuyer at WIGSAT.ORG>
>> Sent by: UNCTAD - United Nations Commission on Science & Technology
>> <UN-CSTD at LIST.UNICC.ORG>
>> 02.04.2008 16:33
>> Please respond to
>> UNCTAD - United Nations Commission on Science &
>> Technology <UN-CSTD at LIST.UNICC.ORG>
>>
>>
>> To
>> UN-CSTD at LIST.UNICC.ORG
>> cc
>> Subject
>> Input from the Gender Advisory Board
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear Mongi,
>>
>> The Gender Advisory Board of the CSTD has reviewed the agenda, and
>> we would like clarification on where the gender dimensions of the
>> MDGs, the information society and of science, technology and
>> innovation for development will be addressed in the programme.
>> Major recent UN policies in both sectors have ratified the
>> importance of addressing gender mainstreaming and women's
>> empowerment; and the major international science organizations
>> and NGO networks have also affirmed the importance of these issues
>> - the InterAcademy Council of Science, UNESCO and CONGO, among
>> many others. We would like to see the discussions in Geneva
>> reflect this
>> international consensus.
>>
>> The GAB has also reviewed the Outline of the WSIS Followup report
>> and the Reports of the Secretary-General on the two substantive
>> themes of the 11th session.
>>
>> Our overall comment refers to our concern that the failure to call
>> out gender dimensions explicitly, by subsuming them under the MDGs
>> or making a general reference to WSIS, will not only be sufficient
>> to ensure that gender aspects will be addressed, it in fact will
>> ensure that they will NOT be addressed, even where relevant. For
>> example, women have been using the technology in their businesses
>> and technology AS their business. The way that women/girls likely
>> use technology in education and capacity building may be different
>> but what models are assumed as standard as these systems are
>> constructed? Should we expect that women and girls should continue
>> to use technologies that they have no role in designing or
>> developing? A major concern remains women's lower participation
>> in all aspects of the design of hardware, software and systems
>> infrastructure, or support for truly "human centered design."
>>
>> We will make more specific recommendations on the Secretary-
>> General's reports shortly. Regarding the Outline for the WSIS
>> Followup report, we would like to observe that gender is not
>> referred to anywhere. There are important gender differences in
>> situation, access, use and perspective between women in men in many
>> of the issues referred to, which have been confirmed and
>> highlighted in many major UN policies and documents: the Beijing
>> Platform for Action; the World Summit on the Information Society,
>> and most recently the UNCTAD Information Economy Report, among many
>> others. The sectors and issues of greatest gender relevance
>> include access; governance; social networking; disaster warning;
>> local language and content; access to banking and credit; education
>> and capacity building; and indicators/indices.
>>
>> Many of the WSIS reports submitted to the CSTD by UN agencies and
>> regional Economic Commissions include references to gender and
>> women in many of these sectors, with a strong emphasis on gender
>> and economic development. This reflects the importance the
>> international community places on this issue.
>>
>> In 2006 the GAB submitted a paper on Gender in the Information
>> Society which also refers to many of these issues; the paper was
>> posted on the CSTD website at the time. I've attached it for your
>> information.
>>
>> We hope that the CSTD report on WSIS followup when it is released
>> will reflect these inputs and the UN position on the issue.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Sophia Huyer
>> Acting Director, GAB-CSTD
>>
>> Shirley Malcom
>> Chair, GAB-CSTD
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> <Gender-InfSociety.pdf>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
--
Sophia Huyer
Acting Director
Gender Advisory Board, UNCSTD
shuyer at wigsat.org
voice: 1-905-355-5124
fax: 1-647-723-5069
http://GAB.wigsat.org
http://GSTGateway.wigsat.org
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