Dear panelists, ladies and gentlemen, good morning, good afternoon. I do hope you're safe, whatever you are. Big thanks to ITU for bringing all of us together today to speak about closing the digital gender gap. We'll be speaking a lot about this topic, so please do not hesitate to drop your questions, your comments in the chat, the interactive live chat that you're seeing on your screen and let's get going. Thank you so much for being with us today. So, well, we already know that SDG9 commits governments to strive to achieve affordable universal internet access. However, high costs are keeping billions offline and women who are earning almost 20% less than men globally and Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, earn on average 48% less than men. These women are being more impacted by costs to connect and as a result phase, also limited digital opportunities. So, worldwide is estimated that approximately 250 million fewer women than men are online. We are talking about a country like the size of Brazil just not being online. So, internet user penetration according to the ITU in the globe is 12% lower for females than males. This gap between the two rates goes up to 31% in the least developed countries, $18 billion. And I repeat here, $18 billion could be added to the global GDP if women were as active as men in the digital sector. Ladies and gentlemen, that's my question to you. Are we failing at implementing efficient, fast-paced and tailored intervention to the realities of these different countries? Should we call this perhaps some sort of lottery of birth? Some believe that where you're born will define your future, your opportunities. And in this case, we'll define also your level of internet and ICT access as well, I suppose. So, my name is Anna Mori. I work for the She Trades, the International Trade Centers Initiative which aims to connect three million women to markets by 2021. I'm also a member of the Ecos partnership, multi-stakeholder partnership with a goal to close this digital gender divide by 2030. So, today we hope to provide you with some concrete ways to ensure women have access to equal access to online sources as well as that they are able to seize digital opportunities. Without any longer, I'd like to introduce you to your audience, to our distinguished panelists who will help us understand basically what needs to be done, all right? So, are you there with me, all panelists? Let me check if I have all of you here. If Francis is online. I hear some background noise. So, for the sake of your microphone, wonderful. Thank you so much. So, let's start with my first question, goes to Aida Nganga. She's the president of Women in STEM Network and it's Women in International Artificial Intelligence Africa Network, regional consortium of experts for development and regional head UNESCO emerging technologies for development. Basically, she wears many other hats as well and I would need I think another 10 minutes to do justice to your biography, Aida. Welcome Aida. Very happy to have you here today. So, the very word pandemic means pertaining to all people. However, we know that this crisis highlighted that indeed we are in the same storm, but we are not in the same boat. Partnership and collaboration are much needed now. So, in your opinion, which stakeholders should be mobilized for women in tech to basically to foster, right? Women in tech, socioeconomic transformation and why? What's the role of these stakeholders in empowering women in tech? So, the floor is your set to see for us, Aida. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, excellent. That's a great, great question and actually it's a great way to lead in this conversation because this is some of the things that women in tech do not seem to be aware of. They seem to be aware of the challenges in their own areas, in the work that they do, in the kind of people they're trying to mobilize in their own specific small areas or sectors. But when it comes to engaging other stakeholders, there seems to be, and this is something which needs to be addressed because women in tech need to understand that there are decisions that are made that are not within their own circles. So, this in other words just means there are the people who are there that we can engage in order to productively set their agenda and move forward. And some of these are policy makers. ITU, having organized this session, I think has done an incredible job. I think it just shows us that there are people who are willing to aid women in this journey or in this war because some people say it's actually a war. But that is very okay because all it means it's that women are positioning themselves in order to go forward and they're not going to go forward by themselves. So, that is a win. When it comes to policy makers, it becomes a bit of a challenge for women who have not engaged policy makers before because women might be on the front line of their own areas but they may not understand that policies are there to aid them in order to set the agenda forward. So, when it comes to meetings being run in your own country, the first thing that I always say is you need to know who are the people who are making policies in your own country even before you go regional or international. You need to know who they are. Be it the ministries of ICT and innovation, be it ministries that are dealing with other areas such as gender and development, be it communications authorities in your own country, be it other bodies or agencies such as innovation agencies that have been set up specifically to deal with the matters of ICT, development and gender inclusion.  Those women or those people you're always with already understand the issues. You have to take the issues to where policy will be affected or can be informed. And that is what we are discussing here today, Anna. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Ida. I totally agree with you. It's a lot about crafting the correct policies to give the equal access to women and girls to use internet, ICTs, technologies and digital. But it's also about making sure these information on the policies are accessible for such women and girls that sometimes might not even be aware of the policies and problems that they could benefit from. So, thank you so much for your first comment. And we'll get back to this point. You have a lot to share. But for now, I'd like to move on to our next dear panelist of the day. Her name is Zara Nazari. And I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly. Zara is the board member at Afghanistan Telecommunication Regulatory Authority. She is also the associate professor at Computer Science, faculty of Kabul Polytechnic University. She has a degree in computer engineering and master's in information engineering and a PhD by the University of Reacuse Japan. What an honor to have you with us today, Zara. And I just want to confirm if you can hear us, if it's always set, you're online, wonderful. So please tell us a little bit about the situation of women in tech in your country in Afghanistan. In your opinion, what are the main challenges you are facing to improve the role of Afghan women in technology? Later on in the conversation, you'll bring you back to talk about the best practices. But right now I'd like to know in your opinion, what are the main challenges you're facing to improve the role of women in Afghanistan, the role of women in tech in Afghanistan? The floor is yours. Thank you so much for joining us. Hello, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm very happy that I'm here virtually with you. And thank you for introducing me to other dear panelists of this program. I'm living in Afghanistan, and you know that. We are facing a very long civil war. And as you said before, the number of, unfortunately, there are very few women who are entrepreneurs around the world and especially in my country, Afghanistan. And I think this situation is mainly due to gender gap in STEM education. The most important challenges that we are facing in Afghanistan are wrong family expectations and stereotypes, uneducated parents, cultural issues, teachers' capacity, old school curricula, lack of digital skills, and lack of safe learning environment for girls. But recently, the government of Afghanistan has started to develop policies and strategic plans to improve girls' education and participation in STEM. Because now we believe that providing equal access to STEM education and ultimately STEM careers for girls and women is an imperative from the human rights, scientific, and development perspectives. For example, we are about to launch a national program named Coding for Girls that will improve coding skills as well as other digital skills that are required for women and girls in school and college level. And also, we are trying to increase the number of girls in engineering and tech fields in universities. For example, 10 years ago, when I was a student, maybe we were around six or seven girls in a class. But recently, because I'm teaching recently, I see that around half of the class population are girls, and we're very happy that this happened. And yeah, thank you. Thank you so much, Zara, for your contribution. It's very good to know from the government side what has to be done. You spoke, you touched on very important points about also some cultural aspects, but also this gender gap in STEM subjects as well, as well as teachers' capacity to deliver such training right now, since the world, because of the pandemic, is moving towards online education, is really the right moment that we are bringing all of us together here to see how we can create these partnerships or access curriculums that are available in other countries. So we do not need to replicate and do double work where we still need to develop in some areas, which is pretty much everywhere. But thank you so much for your intervention. We'll get back to your point on the specific best practices that your government is doing, such as the Coding for Girls initiative. But for now, I would like to bring all the speakers to briefly speak on the topic. I'm moving, and I think it's just a perfect flow, I'm moving to a private sector now with Lindsay Nefesh-Clark. And my next question is about, let me first introduce Lindsay properly. Lindsay is the founder and CEO of W4.org, a social enterprise dedicated to girls and women's empowerment with a focus on promoting their equal access to and participation in ICTs. She has previously worked for human rights, watched UNICEF, Enfondasi, and many other organizations. So we are really talking with a passionate woman, entrepreneur in gender and tech. So Lindsay, welcome. What would you say, and picking up from what Zara has mentioned already, what would you say that are some of the best practices that can be leveraged to encourage girls and women's to pursue tech studies and tech careers? That could be employees of big companies in tech, as well as entrepreneurs in tech. So tell us a bit of these best practices in your experience. Thank you. Thank you, Anna. And many thanks to the ITU for bringing us together to discuss this crucial topic at this critical time. And Anna, thanks for driving the urgency of this issue home. There's so much at stake when we discuss women in technology. The pandemic has really underscored the urgency of closing the digital divide and the digital gender divide. So we have to get this right. Well, the good news is we know what the barriers are that are holding girls and women back. And we have myriad solutions and best practices and excellent recommendations and roadmaps, just as there are multiple interrelated barriers as Ida underlined. So we need to mobilize all stakeholders from families and school to the government and corporate and civil sectors. We need ambitious government strategies backed up with budgets and investments and we need metrics and accountability. Obviously, and as you said, Anna, we need to ensure girls and women's access to affordable infrastructure and technologies, including broadband access. Then there's the challenge of adequate education and as Zara, you compellingly explained, we must invest more in digital skills education and upskilling with curricula that are free from gender discrimination, unconscious bias and persuasive stereotypes. We need to boost girls and women's self-confidence. We have to make tech an attractive proposition and we can do that through real-world learning opportunities and raising girls awareness of the truly vast and exciting career options and we need mentors and more visible, relatable role models and all of this can help to shift mindsets, excuse me. But of course, that's the external pipeline. Corporates must fix the worrying attrition of women in tech. How? Well, with more transparent recruitment and HR policies addressing unconscious bias, including bias in AI, by harnessing, mentoring, networking, sponsorship and implementing policies to promote more women to senior technical and leadership positions and to foster a more inclusive company culture and environment. So, you know, there really is so much we can do. What gives me hope is to see a cross-sector collaboration and I'll work at W4, from DR Congo to Pakistan to Cambodia and Nepal. We're collaborating with schools, companies and relevant government sectors to implement adapted digital skills training for girls and women and to foster women's tech-based entrepreneurship. And in this regard, I would really like to salute the work and leadership of the ITU and ECOLS for pushing this urgent issue up the global agenda and for mobilizing partners from across all sectors to work collaboratively to address this issue. Thank you. Very powerful intervention. I really like how practical you got with some, you know, strategies and tricks on how we can actively improve access to internet and digital services to women and girls. And before I move on to the next question, I would like to invite the audience as well to drop your questions in the chat. Very soon we'll be picking up some of those to ask to our dear panelists. But moving on now and thank you so much, Lindsey, for bringing such a practical perspective that is much needed. I am going to ask a question to the next, the fourth speaker of today, Silvina Moschini. She is the founder and president of Transparent Business, a platform that manages remote teams. And she's also the CEO and founder of SheWorks, a marketplace for hiring professional women with flexible models. She won the 2019 Equals in Tech award. So Silvina, welcome. You are a truly innovator and believes that we should challenge the status quo to include more women in the digital world, right? So tell us, why is it important to accelerate models where women can combine both professional and personal life? And I would love to hear a little bit about what you do, having such a strong platform that does exactly that. So the floor is yours. Thank you. Thanks so much, Anna. Thanks, ITU and my fellow panelists. It's a pleasure to be here with you. And there is one simple answer to that. It's because women mean business. It's not a matter of feeling sorry for us because we have been left behind because we are paid less because we have less opportunities than men. Today, women accomplish more advanced degrees, masters, doctorates and bachelor's degrees than men. Yet we have been left behind. When women start businesses, the fact for them, it's extremely, extremely limited. Just to give you some numbers, only 2.0 all the total capital from venture capitalists go to female entrepreneurs. This is absurd. When women run businesses, their businesses are much more profitable. So what we do and what we do here, and just by the way, I have the financial system and I became the first woman in running a unicorn. We call it a female unicorn because it's the first unicorn run by a woman who didn't go through business. I appeal to people because I do believe we work together. We are much more powerful. So I second all my co-panelists here in the concept that we all need to work together with ourselves, with public sector, with private sector. And what we do what she works is to basically connect the dots between the talents of the opportunity. I was inspired by two companies. One was match.com because I met my husband in March. But also, and match.com for those that don't know is a site where you can find a boyfriend or girlfriend. But I also was inspired by Amazon. And when we have technology and the amazing power of the internet, we can connect the talent that is absolutely universal with the opportunities that are not. And we do believe that one thing that COVID left as the silver lining is the unity to understand that the work is something that you do, not somewhere that you go to. If we have internet, we can have access to the training that we need, no matter where we are to develop the skills that the global market needs. If we have internet, we can have jobs that fits into women's life. And when I say jobs that fits into women's lives, I'm thinking about the 51% and with kids that leave the workforce because of lack of flexibility. When we're living in the digital age, lack of flexibility is absolutely a nonsense. We cannot afford not have flexible work models. We cannot afford leaving women behind. So at SheWords, what we do is to create a marketplace in which we work with NGOs, with educational institutions, with governments and with companies to tell the companies that they say that they are super committed to gender inclusion to have the opportunity to make the women visible for them so they can hire with no excuses. Because sadly, there are many companies that says that they are committed, but yet women are still being left behind. So this is what we do and we hope that we will now with the status of a new corner enable women from all over the world to connect with job opportunities where these opportunities are. Thank you so much. Really enjoyed listening to you. Can you just tell me where you based right now? So in Miami. Based in Miami and your platform operates in which country right now, United States or? Absolutely globally. The platform is a internet based. So we have women representing over 121 countries and it's a tech power. So we have clients that can train from countries such as Argentina, my home country to Saudi Arabia, where we work a lot with Saudi talent remotely enabling women in the kingdom to export their services without even having to, well now when it's moving from their homes in many countries now, but without having to limit themselves to the local opportunities. Wonderful. So we have already a first example and a good platform for those women entrepreneurs who are self employed women that want to find a potential business partner. So please check she works out. And thank you so much. I really like the point that I mentioned on access to finance and how women really suffer because they tend to have also smaller businesses, less collateral when they go to request bank loans and also less understanding and financial management. So there are some challenges there indeed is a need. Is a topic that needs an ecosystem behind to move us forward and finance is extremely important. So now moving to our last but not least speaker is Francis Kubahiro. Can you confirm that you're online? Can you unmute yourself? Thank you so much. Francis, my question, let me introduce you first, right? I feel that I already know you. But the audience does not. So he graduated as telecommunications and computer engineers certified in the internet of things and many other things. Currently Francis is the director of ICT infrastructures and IU national focal point. He's also Burundi's national IGF focal point and equals national focal point. Very happy to see a male face in the conversation today. This is very much needed. So Francis, would you like to share with us some best practices undertaken by your government to improve women in technology to help their access to digital solutions and basically inspire us Francis? Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all. You hear me? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much and good afternoon everyone. And as you said, Anna Mori, since two years ago, I've been appointed as an equals national focal point. And indeed in our Africa, I mean, especially in our region, the main challenge we are facing is the culture. We have many, many women talented PhDs in ICT academia, but most of the time they are seeing that mother not take women. So what we did firstly, it was not to ensure that women are included. Firstly, in a high-level position, I mean, most of the time when it was about for voting budget, for example, most of the time we were women, no, we are men. So what we did, it was to include also women, to incentivize women and also to make so what we called in French, what I mean is networking, ICT women networking, high-level as one. And for me, it was, I mean, it was very easy because my minister was a women and then my chief director was women, ICT. So it was very, very easy to start those small projects with women, software developers, for example. And as I mentioned two years ago, we did for the first time in our country what we call the Miss Technology.  This is a key thing you have to understand because most of people who came in our countries, there is some difference approaches. And the most of people that are living in rural areas, even if within in our many cities, I mean, in the urban areas, there is a gap, I mean, discrimination for women to reach those opportunities that ICT can bring. And so can you imagine in rural areas, they are well people, they are very, very conservative. So what we did, it was firstly, and I mean, in terms of policies, is to initiate projects in the high schools. Most of those cases are located in rural areas. And then we mentioned that all programs, all ICT programs, we have to have 50, 50 men and women. It was a big goal to achieve, and then we did it. So now in all high schools, in my country, rural areas, we have what we call, Cliptyce in French, I mean, ICT club. ICT club, and the most of those ICT club, they are running by women. I mean, they are younger, younger ladies. It was one of what we could achieve with difficulty, but now it's what we call in French, a key. That's mean that is there. And every year, we have a small budget for that activity. And the government, when they saw, when they have seen the result, we had a good feedback from the prime minister office and even if also for our state house, the presidency house, they saw the reports we made, they said, congratulations. So I can say that we have been victim of our success because they came in our ministry to say, okay, you have to generalize all those programs. And then we said, okay, it's okay, but we are facing budget issue. But for me, it was a good achievement because the standardization is one of things I think is very, very important. And secondly, when we had a university service found, I have, I fight again in order to include in the director for both of this university is found. What is a huge amount? There was no women inside. And now the vice president of the university is found is my chief. So what is very, very good for me because now we have planned for three or two or three years to come, many, many projects because she was on the decision makers. She's the vice president of that university found. This one also in terms of policies is what I can call, excuse me, I'm French, French people is the French call it enarchy. What's mean is something that we have it in this writing somewhere. And what we are doing also is to draft a policy called if I can translate it is a women and men engage, no no, men engage to women in ICT. So we are drafting it, it's very complicated because we have to involve the many ministers because we have a minister of gender but the priority of minister of gender is not necessarily ICT. They have many problems. We have to bring first the women in schools who have to women to give a good education, the health and so and so. But because of what I said, my minister went to see her colleagues and say, you have to include ICT approach in all your projects. So we are drafting this project. It will be a law. So because when something is in law, everyone has to do, has to follow. But if something is only a recommendation, I mean, when there is a cabinet ministers meeting, they can give a recommendation but that can take a time to be implemented. But when it's a law adopted by parliament is a must for everyone. So just briefly is what we are doing. And also what I can say is that the COVID, this COVID pandemic also stopped many, many of our events. We have organized the regional event to... This is, we are getting there. We are continuing with the, my other question to you later on will be exactly what's the future for women in tech. But for now let's park this. Thank you so much for your contribution so far. It was very important for us to really understand what you actually, it reinforced what we mentioned before, right? That in every country, women need of course more and more to access and opportunities to access digital solutions. However, and the issues are the same everywhere, but the list of priority issues might differ from country to country. So your point that you made in bringing and changing the mindset, right? Of government, of the population in working at the cultural level, awareness raising is extremely important. I'm very proud of the ICT clubs that you mentioned that is present in the high schools, very practical as well, the Miss Technology and all that. I think many of us that are listening, that are tuning in this discussion today and other government officials that might be listening will come back to you to learn about what you're doing in Burundi. So, but for now, just in order to keep track of our time, because we unfortunately have only one hour schedule for today's session, I would like to go to our second phase of today's conversation. We want to hear from you. We want to hear from everyone that is tuned in the discussion today. So please drop your questions in the live chat. I'm here collecting some of them. And right now, I would like to, there is one question for Lindsay, you there with us continue, of course. Of course, that's wonderful. So what we wanted to know from you is what can we do better to promote women's tech based entrepreneurship? And what exactly is W4.org doing that could beneficial for our listeners? I think they want to learn more from your perspective. Okay, thank you, Anna. Excellent, excellent question. I just want to preface my comments with, we know, as Silvina was saying, we know the opportunities of investing in women's digital entrepreneurship are immense. There's another important point. So there are all these headline grabbing the economic figures that we can, we can capture if we increase women's participation in the economy, in formal employment, also as entrepreneurs. And that's great. But there's a point I also want to emphasize is, we also know that women's increased participation in the economy correlates positively to wider development gains. So it's also about ensuring inclusive sustainable development. And arguably this entire conversation we could say extends to women's participation in the economy when you look that the future of jobs will require digital skills. Now to come to the subject of digital entrepreneurship, I would completely agree with Silvina that we clearly need to do more and better to create an enabling ecosystem. And one persistent barrier is obviously access to funding. I mean, right here in Europe, women make up only 19% of ICT entrepreneurs. And according to the European Commission, 93% of capital invested in European companies last year went to all male founding teams. Well, that's just not good enough. Maybe to strike a more positive note as where there are initiatives that are hopefully moving things is we also saw last year the introduction of the Women in Digital Scoreboard which is monitoring women's participation in the digital economy. Nevertheless, we seriously need to address this issue of access to financing for women entrepreneurs both in the public and in terms of public funding and private funding, addressing biases, market failures. And we need to see more gender lens investing. We need to invest more in women digital entrepreneurs. Another point I'd like to make about that before maybe I mentioned what we're doing at W4 is also the other factors that we tend to call soft factors that I think should not be underestimated, role models, women role models, women entrepreneurs, digital entrepreneurs, the world is full of them. The global entrepreneurship monitoring report has underlined though, and I think this is very important, we have to be careful not to narrowly focus on these high tech, high growth companies and entrepreneurs and also recognize the huge and important contribution of trailblazing women, tech entrepreneurs in the small and medium sized enterprises. I think that's really important. And just to close with regard to W4, well, W4, as I said earlier, we implement IT skills training ranging from digital literacy right the way through to specialized geno specialist, ICT skills training and also entrepreneurship training. And we also propose crowdfunding because women are not going to wait. I loved what you said, Silvina, we mean business. So we're not going to wait. So okay, well, crowdfunding can be a source of financing. And so we're rolling up our sleeves and we're out there trying to make a difference. Listening to you is like an injection of motivation, Lindsay. Thank you so much. I want everyone that is there with a good IT project, a woman entrepreneur willing to get a finance to go and drop your project to see if Lindsay's team can help you crowdfund your dreams in your business, right? So thank you so much. Very useful intervention. Now we have a question from the chat. It's by Akia, if I'm reading this correctly. And perhaps I'm going to, let me see, I'm going to direct this question to either Aida or Silvina. She's saying that there are still some, there are still out there some software companies that are not interested to take women as a programmer. How can we change this scenario? You can please be very, very brief. Tell us like one, two, three or only one, whatever you have in mind. Thank you. Aida, you wanna go, or should I start? Either way. You could go ahead, Silvina. Well, as I said, like many more companies need to put their money where their mouth is. They are many companies saying that they wanna hire women engineers. There are many women engineers around the world. Perhaps they are not just living in Silicon Valley in the headquarters of many of the big firms, but now with remote work, this shouldn't be a problem because as we said, like they can be hired anywhere and they can be brought into the workforce just with a click. If we have internet, we can connect that. So I think one thing too is to encourage them to embrace not only during the COVID, but beyond COVID, the possibilities that the internet is bringing to them and work with companies to push them to have more diverse teams. I think that they will see when they started to create as let's say, it is inclusive culture because many times it is a topics cloud where the guys are leaving the women behind because it's hostile environments. They just do their things and we don't let us participate. So we need to fake it, fake it till we make it. So we need to create an environment in the companies in which just by pushing, we make it become the norm. And this will happen because when they see that they can have the point of view of the significant part that makes 80% of the purchase decisions in the world, they will see how much better, how better they can do. And in times of change, as we saw, the best countries that handle the pandemic were handle, but where those countries that have women leadership, empathic, inclusive, diverse, communication driven and emotional intelligence driven teams perform significantly better. I think it's just the matter of like, fake it, fake it till we make it. I'm pushing to get the norm, to make it the new normal to have women in the workforce. Thank you so much, Silvina. I will go to Aida now if you have a comment. Yeah, I have a comment. Anna, women, I think we need to be more active. It's one thing to say that women are not being hired by these software companies, but how engaged are we? Remember, software companies are one of the stakeholders that I was talking about. It wasn't only government, it's also the private sector. It means that there are many programs being run out there by the tech community. We need to be part of those tech communities. For me, it took so long, I was part of every tech community out there. I was going for hackathons, I was going for meetups, I was so engaged, they knew my name. So you cannot sit at home and say that you're waiting to be hired when you are not actively engaging in the community's activities. So women, we need to be out there. Let's build our skill sets. They are going to be seen and this is where the hiring process becomes very easy. It's not even a matter of loving. You're automatically one of the best candidates. Thank you. I think governments should hire you, Silvina and Aida if they want to really increase the participation of women and tech companies and push this through the throats of business companies and all that.  We have, wow, we need to wrap up in some minutes but we still have some time. I would like to now make a quick question and quick reaction please to Zara and Francis, both representing two countries where I can see that the government is really pushing the promoting women in technology. So if you could tell us in a few words what's the future look like for them? Do you see that in five years things will be much better? Do you think that now with COVID we were forced to accelerate that? So what does the future look like for women in tech? In a very nutshell, maybe Francis and then Zara. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think I'm agree of what I have heard from Aida and the Silviana. If I'm going to, from the comment of Madam Aida, I think she's true, she's right. Women, you have to be more aggressive, because market is very aggressive, because just to give you my case, one of the pioner in my country, she's a woman, the pioner in the intelligent and sophisticated, very, very smart women. But no one knows, and one of the IT in our private second bank, she's a woman, and she was a friend of my sister. And I told her, no one knows what we are doing, because she told me for the three last years she can take a leave, because even if she, last time she took a leave in Dubai, she came quickly because everything was going down, and she was one of the, she had a PhD in the programmer. But I told her, no one knows. So I think the women, you have to be very, very aggressive, because the market is very, very aggressive. This one, the second one, I think in my country, I think I'm very, very optimistic, because of we are doing quickly, is what I said to my minister, I said, you have to be quickly, now people they understand you, you have to be quickly, to push those policies, document, to be adopted very quickly, because now we are in the beginning of the new, a mandatory on the French, I mean, because we had a new election, so now we have a new government, you know. So I told her, because in one year, there's many, many priorities, because now the president, he is trusting you, so please make many things, and then we push the parliament to be adopted quickly. The budget also, when we are adopting a budget, also include those projects, and I think everything is going good, despite this COVID, is what I was saying, because this COVID, we want to organize a national women events. I think if we organize this one, everybody will be sensitizing, and also, I would like to thank you, because the ITU is giving us a very, very good, I mean, last time I think Madame Loli and Kara, we have launched a good project, and we had two ministers, and they said it's okay. I'm sorry, thank you so much. I need to allow some of the other speakers, I know we have a lot to share, thank you so much. Very briefly, coming to Zara, and I'll ask, actually, Zara, if you could tell us, basically the same question, right? What's next for women in tech in Afghanistan? So in a nutshell, if you compare to where you are right now, where you see the situation for women in tech in five years? I know it's a tough one, but... Thank you, thank you very much. As you said before, during the COVID-19, most of the countries that they didn't have online learning or e-learning, they were forced to have the e-learning to launch the online learning, and Afghanistan also, we did this, and fortunately, I saw that ladies, girls, women, ladies, girls, women, they were much more active than guys, and also we are trying to building the teacher's capacities. Also, we are trying to remove the gender bias from learning materials, and we are also promoting positive images of women in esteem through the media, and much more activities that I cannot remember right now, but I see a very bright future for the Afghan girls in tech, and maybe in a very near future, maybe five years later or 10 years after 10 years, we can have at least 25 or 30% participation in the tech market. Wow. Yeah, I like the market. I hope it's a commitment, huh? Yeah, I like that, yeah. But I see a very bright future. Thank you, Sarah. Indeed, I do agree with you, and the stakeholders that are present in the call, I think we should continue the discussion also and help each other. There's a lot of content there. There's a lot of policymakers and strategic panelists, experts here. So we need to continue the discussion. We are wrapping up. So now, what I would like from you, and before actually asking that, I agree with Francis when you mentioned that women need to be bold. They need to be more aggressive, safe networks, and a good environment for them to be able to speak out. It must be insured by policymakers as well. And one comment from the chat, which is very important is that we need more ICT policymakers that are female because right now, men are crafting the policies in ICT in those countries. So this is another important comment from the chat. Now I'd like to ask Silvina, if you could give us your concluding statements, 30 seconds for you only Silvina. I'm so sorry because we are running out of time. A concluding remark. I think that COVID-19 give us the best opportunity for women of our times. It will enable us to access the knowledge that we need to develop the skills that will help us to become employable at the global scale and also will bring the opportunities. So as my colleague says, we just need to do it. We just need to make it happen. We just need to be brave and aim for the sky because now with internet and with technologies that connect the dots between the talent and the opportunities for us, the sky is in. Thank you Silvina. Wonderful. Now saying 30 seconds for Francis. 30 seconds Francis. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much for all. I think we have to make things change. We have to make change. We have to make things happen. That's our slogan now in our minutes you adopted. Make everything, bring everybody together and make changes coming in and make everything good happen. And I thank you very much for your support. Thank you Francis. Take this discussion that we are having here and put in practice because we already know what to do, right? So Aida, 30 seconds for you Aida. Thank you. Concluding statement. Okay. For me, I would say that we need to demand for actionable ways forward and measurable strategies and interventions from the stakeholders, be it government, be it civil society, be it academia and be it the innovators ecosystem. It is your right to hold them accountable. Gone are the days when citizens were on the sidelines of the development agenda. Women in tech are global and national citizens and they must not take their participation lightly. Thank you. Thank you. Very powerful. The ecosystem message now Zara, 30 seconds for you. For your concluding remarks. Zara, are you with us? Zara, can you hear us? Okay. So in the meantime, Lindsay, if you'd like to share with us your concluding remark remarks in 30 seconds. Thank you. Yeah. As other panelists have said, I mean, the pandemic has really thrown into relief. The urgency of closing the digital gender divide. I'd say as we aim to build back better, we urgently need to close the digital gender divide. Women remain alarmingly underrepresented across the entire IT ecosystem globally. And tech is shaping everything. This is societies and economies we live in and the values. So this is an urgent issue. I think my one last urgent plea would be for everyone to get involved in the equals global movement, given how high the stakes are. And let's contribute the financial resources and the other resources we need to turn the situation around. Wonderful. Now please Zara, if you could give us your 30 seconds final remarks. Okay. Sorry. Just I first of all, I thank ITU for organizing such a program. And for my country, I have to say that we need the, how can I say, the cooperation and the support of international communities like ITU, UNESCO, and other international organizations to support Afghan women. And also we are trying, as a government entity, we are trying to make good policies to have much more ladies in, how can I say, in the market, tech market. And once again, thank you very much. Thank you. So thank you so much, everyone. We know that this digital transformation is really happening right now. COVID has pushed us to move faster when it comes to learn, when it comes to work, when it comes to produce, when it comes to deliver online. Even that 95% of all new jobs will have a digital component. We need to act right now. We need to ensure that women have the skills and opportunities in the digital economy. I hope we all, by we, I mean myself, I mean all the speakers here today, all these amazing experts have managed to provide you with some recommendations today. And it's, it's have been a pleasure to moderate such incredible panel. Thanks to ITU for bringing us all together today. And the discussion doesn't end here. So please feel free to reach out to us to schedule virtual coffees afterwards. Thanks for your time. And with that, thanks to all of you. I close the session. Thank you so much. And have a lovely day afternoon or evening.


According to the Office of National Statistics, in 2013, over a quarter of children born in the UK were born to foreign-born mothers. So what does that mean for the future of UK citizens? Well, public and policy debate on migration often sees migrant families as problematic. They are seen as challenging cultural cohesion or burdening social and health services. Migrant women are seen as transmitting the culture of their country of origin to their children, and therefore they are seen as standing in the way of their children's integration. My research at the Open University over the last seven years has scrutinized this view. I've conducted in-depth qualitative research with Kurdish, Turkish and Polish migrant mothers and their children, and also with European citizen mothers in London. I've also done participatory theater-based research. In this project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council with my colleague Tracy Reynolds from Greenwich University, we explore how an ethnically mixed group of migrant mothers in East London experience dilemmas and opportunities of bringing up children. This method was particularly useful as it allowed the mothers to try out ways of acting as citizens. They chose topics such as family conflict, the challenges of helping children to adjust to a new home and difficulties of accessing health services. I have a mother, I have children, and if I'm looking at a job every time, he says, we need the qualification, we need like that, it's not easy to get as a mother. The theater method gave me more rounded and nuanced insights of how migrant mothers think and do citizenship, which I wouldn't have got through more traditional research methods. My research has found that mothers are often deeply committed to bringing up their children as part of this society. And indeed, they play a key role in enabling their children to develop a sense of multicultural belonging. Yet, social policy on integration and citizenship has a narrow focus on how migrants contribute through their paid work only and doesn't recognize the contributions that migrants make as mothers. Overall, what my research addresses is what happens to our understandings and theories of citizenship if we don't think of migrant mothers as outsiders. Rather than viewing migrant mothers as lacking, such an approach asks what we can learn from them. The big challenge for our contemporary society is if we take seriously migrant mothers' ways of creating participation and belonging, how does this challenge and enhance our understandings of citizenship?