In summary, few and incomplete reports were found regarding oral lesions in pediatric SARS-CoV-2 positive patients. Most lesions were not specific or inaccurately described. Oral lesions in pediatric SARS-CoV-2 positive patients included erosive ulcerative lesions and macules slash patikii, primarily erythematous. After COVID-19 vaccination, oral adverse reactions were rare and typically presented as erosive ulcerative lesions with EM-like or unspecified patterns. Further research is needed to better understand these oral lesions in pediatric SARS-CoV-2 positive patients and after COVID-19 vaccination. This knowledge could help clinicians provide improved multidisciplinary pediatric oral and general care. This article was authored by Federica de Spirito, Francesco D'Ambrosio, Maria Pia di Palo and others.


We are going to be celebrating Chanukah tonight, December 10th. It was very interesting as we were trying to figure out how can we bring Chanukah to our community this year. We usually have big gatherings celebrating as the community. Chanukah is a real community of time to spend together and during this midst of this pandemic it was we were put to the challenge, but we were going to allow that to stop us. So we put our heads together and we came up with what would be the safest way to bring the light of Chanukah to the streets. And what we're doing is we're going to be doing a Chanukah menorah top parade, which will mean that all the cars can come pull up, that nobody has to leave their car, you can stay inside, and we'll put the menorah on top of the car. And together with the police escort we'll be leaving from the Chabad center here in Portland and we'll be parading through the streets all the way to City Hall downtown. And there we'll have the annual grand menorah lighting. We obviously won't be going indoors like we usually do, but there's plenty of room if people want to stay in their car, they can watch from their car, those who want to get out of their car, there's plenty of room from outdoors to social distance and participate in the Chanukah menorah lighting ceremony. It's incredible, the energy, the community, the unity, Mazel tov. This is the first time ever that we've had a car menorah parade bringing the light of Chanukah all over our community, Mazel tov. We would like to begin by words from our Mayor, Mayor Snyder, as a representative here, please come up to share some greetings. It's my pleasure to be here on behalf of Mayor Kate Snyder, who had something come up at the last minute and wasn't able to be here. So I'm going to read a proclamation from Mayor Snyder. It says, whereas the Festival of Chanukah will be celebrated throughout the world from December 10th through December 18th, commemorating the victory of a small army which, although greatly outnumbered, prevailed against the forces of religious persecution. Whereas a great miracle followed this victory when a small jar with only enough oil to burn a single day lit the menorah for eight days, bringing joy to all who had fought for the right to teach and worship freely. Whereas this miracle of light is preserved around the world through the lighting of the menorah, symbolizing the ideal of religious freedom and offering a beacon of hope to all those who still subject to spiritual oppression. Whereas Rabbi Walensky, leader of Shabbat Lubavitch, House of Maine, and director of the Central Organization for Jewish Education, shares the joy of light with all citizens of the state by annually kindling a large menorah. And whereas the annual kindling of the menorah confirms the faith of all people, the universal right, sorry my glasses are fogging up, to religious expression and spiritual freedom in the state and around the world. Now therefore be it resolved that I, or that Mayor Kate Snyder, Mayor of the City of Portland and the members of the Portland City Council do hereby join with the entire Portland community in proclaiming December 10th through the 18th Hanukkah week within the City of Portland, Maine, and urge all of our fellow citizens to join us in recognizing this special event which adds to the quality of the life in our city. Signed and sealed this 10th day of December, Mayor Kate Snyder. The idea of Hanukkah, it's not maybe a biblical holiday from the Torah, but it became a rabbinical holiday. In the temple, the time 2000 years ago and the temple stood in Jerusalem, every day the high priest will light the menorah. It was seven branches. It was lit during the day. And it had to have a special oil. It was called shemen zayezoch. It had to have the pure oil, means from an aleph. The first drops were good enough for the menorah. Anything after that, it was not usable for the menorah. When the Greeks disrupted, destroyed the temple, they defiled all the jugs of oil because the jug of oil had to have the high priest's signature on it. And finally, after years, they were able to rededicate their temple, the Jewish temple. The problem was they wanted to light the menorah and they could not find any oil that had the signature of the high priest.  And this jug of oil only is supposed to last for one day. So came a discussion among the rabbis. Maybe every day was a little bit until we were able to make new oil because to make new oil takes eight days. It was decided, better do the first day correctly and we'll see what happens afterwards. So instead of burning for one day, it lasted for eight days until the priest in the temple were able to make new oil and press the oil. And that's how come we have Chanakah for eight days. Now the miracle of Chanakah is not just a Jewish deed. It came a universal deed. It's to show everybody about the miracle that took place. A bunch of weak people, no ammunition, won against the mighty Greek Roman Empire to retake the temple because they really meant it and they wanted to fulfill God's wishes. This comes to teach us, even today in America, all over the world, the weak could win against the might if we're determination. And we should be able to do, everybody could do, should be able to do dear religion, they feel fit without persecution. America was built of freedom of religion and thank God we live in America and many countries are acting like America today and the let and the let everybody do dear, dear commands, dear religion. Now we see that America was taken place the last few weeks, last month, a lot of the Arab countries was maybe forbidden for you to go there.  The menorah lighting is a part of a worldwide Chanakah campaign launched by the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendelscherson of Righteous Memory. In 1973, the campaign highlighted and encourages the central theme of the holiday publicizing the story of Chanakah's miracle and the victory of light over darkness and spreading a message of hope and religious freedom, such as the nature of light that when one kindles a light for one's own benefit, it benefits also all who are in the vicinity. Indeed, the Chanakah lights are expressly meant to eliminate the outside symbolically alluding to the duty to bring light also to those who, for one reason or another, still walk in the darkness. The menorah serves as a symbol of light and hope for us, especially today, amidst the darkness of this pandemic as it did for generations before us. The flames of the menorah shine out in the night, reminding us that even when confronted with this much darkness, a tiny light can dispel it all. Another act of goodness and kindness, another act of light, can make all the difference. A bright and happy Chanakah to everyone. Baruch hath adonai, hallowainu malachah, hachianu vikimahanu, vikianu lismahazah. The menorah was, it's a commandment to the Torah when the Jews were in the desert. We had a temporary temple till we were going to head into Jerusalem and Israel and Jerusalem to build our holy temple. So we had a tabernacle. And that was the first time we had the commandments of the different vessels and utensils which were going to be used in the temple. And there God commanded Moses to build a menorah. The menorah in the temple is actually a little different than the menorah you see here. The menorah in the temple had six branches and this one has eight and that is because of the eight days of Chanakah. So we light an extra candle, but actually in the temple, it's a six branch menorah. We are part of a very large organization, the largest outreach organizations in the world over 5,000 branches. In 1987, I was asked from the central office to come to, if I like to come to Portland, Maine and serve the state of Maine for Chabad-le-Bavish and do different outreach programs. And I accepted the position and I'm here since 1987, not in this location, but a number of blocks away and we've been in Portland the last close to 35 years. And thank God we're able to bring some of the next generation here as well. And you see Robbie Levy's here working hard with the Chabad youth and we have in the Bronze Week a full-time Chabad house well as in Bangor, Maine and different parts of the state served by the roving rabbis. And thank God after 35 years, we've been very successful. This middle candle is called the Shamash. It's an helper candle. So it's not one of the eight candles. And because of that, it's not part of it. This is one, we just use it if this was a fire, I would use this to light the new candle. But this is my helper candle and we just want to differentiate that this is not part of the eight candle so we put it a little bit above that. And so that would make it the ninth. So we just use that to help us light the other candles. These candles, which are lit, we say in our prayers, اِنَ الْرِشُشْلِشْتَمِشْبَهَنْ That's in Hebrew. One is not able to use it. You're just supposed to look at the light but it's not meant to benefit from, like reading from it. You're just supposed to simply watch the candles. As opposed to this middle candle we actually use to light it. So that has a different significance. If anybody's interested in understanding what Chabadav Main is, Chabadav Main is just briefly has been here over for close to 35 years, founded by Rabbi Moshe Olansky, my father, who was on the interview. We are an organization which is under the leadership of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schnersen, a blessed memory. Our headquarters is in Brooklyn, New York. We are in over 100 countries. Here in the state of Maine we have three centers. We have Portland, Brunswick and Bangor, where Brunswick is having their lighting and Lewiston will be a lighting and Bangor will be a public minority lighting. And if anybody's interested in any of other programs which we do, we have Torah classes, Chala baking classes and kids children's programs, community events, check us up on ChabadavMain.com and you can also subscribe to our weekly email with all the upcoming events as well to stay in the loop. Celebrate freedom. Celebrate unity. Celebrate harmony.  Light up the world with a deed of goodness and kindness.


Today we're going to be looking at an exclusive Friends and Family Air Force One that I realized not that many people have seen before. So I'll be unboxing these, reviewing them and giving you all the history and details behind this shoe and at the end of the video I'll show you how you can actually get these for your collection as well. But before all that we gotta get into the history first. So if you see the label on the box it says W Air Force 107FF. That stands for Friends and Family and this was actually a women's release. This pair of sneakers in particular was designed by Olivia Kim and she has had other collaborations when it comes to Nike as well. Here's a few images to pop up on the screen for you guys to see some of her previous designs from the past and how she uses different inspirations of textures, materials and colors and you can definitely see a lot of cool designs inspired from different eras like the 90's as well. So Olivia Kim actually works with Nordstrom and is a VP of creative design when it comes to conceptual projects and they do special pop-ups throughout the year at their main locations throughout the country. With her having such a dope creative process when it comes to her work it ended up blossoming into a relationship with Nike which then caused her to have her own collaborations as well. Also with her being up here in the Northwest I could definitely understand how she could have potentially bumped shoulders with somebody next thing you know she's in a meeting and now she's got her own shoes. I think one of the biggest ones that popped out to a lot of people was the pony hair Air Jordan 4 and that shoe actually sat for a while when it first came out but then once the black cat Air Jordan 4 started to pop next thing you know her shoes started to shoot up in value as well. Now these Air Force ones were given to Friends and Family back in 2019 and it may look like a simple shoe but trust me there's a lot of crazy dope details especially when it comes to the packaging so let's go ahead and get into the studio and start breaking down this shoe. Alright here we go so as you can see this is more of a special box compared to your typical Nike Air Force one box you see like the gray with the white Nike on the top right there with the branding so this right here you got the all tan on the upper now you got a heart you got the yin yang and you got the peace logo and yellow right here and then on the center of the lid you have a Nike swoosh but actually through the swoosh I don't know if you can see or not this is actually a hole in the box not like just like a color of black or whatever and then on the top of the lid right here you have your different text so I love how they added this to the box it just showed more character behind the designer and the creativity even though some people are like who cares right but those little things for sneaker heads and collectors and like I said getting friends and family things and different things like that always makes it just a little bit more special so on here there's a cutout area and you have like the same color with that kind of lime neon kind of yellow green color here it's gonna be the same thing there perforated dots so I'm assuming to say it like cut out to see through the box similar to the see through swoosh here and then open it up the lid right here you got your all over print with the blue Nike Air branding the yin yang the heart and the peace sign and then peeling back the paper you got the shoe oh you got this shoe yo yo yo real quick before we get any farther into the video I had to let you guys know we just dropped some new merch and it's all available on the website shop DNA show dot com also if you look at the bar just below the video right here you can see all the products available there and there's more stuff on the website I'm excited to see you guys rocking the new gear we have a bunch of new stuff coming as well so let's go ahead and keep this video rolling and again if you haven't already checked out the website shop DNA show dot com okay initial impressions when I first saw this sneaker online I was like bro I gotta have these these are super dope and then I found out it was a women's release which I knew it was gonna be even harder to get in my size 13 had a little bit of a mix up this was a 13 in women's not a 13 in men's but it's okay either way I still love this sneaker now I'm excited to break down all the details of the shoe because trust me it looks simple but there's a lot of cool features starting with the bottom of the shoe classic all-white Air Force one midsole same thing all white white stitch white air on the branding and then to the upper the white leather on the material right here is extremely nice now this is going to be around the toe area the eyelid area at the top end of the foot and then the heel panel on the back end but you have a white pattern leather when it comes to the swoosh and then the leather tab that comes here on the backside and then the swoosh on this side now I think one of the biggest things that stands out for this sneaker is the see-through elements and this is something that I really love about this shoe just because it brings back so many nostalgic memories I know you guys all remember the UNC colored baby blue and clear Air Force once that was a shoe that a lot of people thought was fake and it was actually a real sneaker there have definitely been sneakers in the past that have featured this clear element to it and a lot of people have shied away from it a little bit similar to the eBay dunk right you have that you have the clear element some people don't like it I get it not everybody's gonna like it but for me nostalgia and bringing back memories from the early 2000 and then having the Betty Boop on the back end with all the cool details and not to mention not only is she winking but that wink is actually a Nike swoosh for her eye on the left side right there so simple clean icy I love these things now these come equipped with a standard pair of all white laces behind that you have a tumbled white leather and then on the patch at the top end of the tongue you have Nike air branding with the white patch and the black text now go into the sock liner another really dope detail to this shoe you have a all over corduroy sock liner with the white right there and then you have a white insole with the white Nike air now go into the back end of the shoe like I was talking about earlier you got your patent other patch right here matching with the swoosh another dope element is the little hang tag that they added right here it's kind of like a rubber see through kind of tag and then on here it's the same exact thing that you would see on the side of the foot right here at the heel it just brings so much nostalgia back through the design and how they went about creating this sneaker so those are some of the reasons why I love this shoe and hopefully these detailed shots throughout the video help you understand what I'm talking about when it comes to the overall quality of the sneaker because they definitely did a really good job when it comes to also I forgot to mention there's actually two lace locks right here there's a clear one and there's a silver one like your classic style so another super dope detail that they added to the shoe subtle almost forgot to mention it because it's so subtle but another cool details of the sneaker so after seeing all the details of the sneaker let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section and like always I do a poll on my Instagram as well so if you haven't already make sure you follow me over there so you can participate in the polls and see all the results here on the channel but basically I asked the people a simple question is this you fire or is this you trash this is what they said 64% of the people chose fire and 36% of the people chose trash and I completely understand because it's not your normal Air Force one it's got the see-through on there and everybody knows when you get that fog on there I could understand that and people have the different worries of it some people just don't like Air Force ones that much even though this is one of like the most iconic models of sneakers ever to be created but that's all another story either way I get those poll results it makes a lot of sense me personally I love this sneaker I wish these were my size but unfortunately they're not and that's why I'm letting you guys have an opportunity to get them so if you hit the link down below in the description shop DNA show comm I'll make sure I have these listed on the website for you guys to be able to pick them again there's only one pair available so it's kind of like a first-come-first-served thing but we also have a bunch of merch as well that's going to be available this is coming soon and there's a bunch of new stuff that just dropped also link down below underneath the video you'll see some of the products either way I hope you guys enjoyed this so whoever's planning on picking these up I'm excited to ship these out to you appreciate you guys as always if you want to see more obscure friends and family sneakers like this or other general releases or even P.E.'s make sure you guys hit that subscribe button we're on the road to million subscribers and we're gonna get there sometime soon all right y'all about I would never let you down if you made it to the end of this video and you want to be a part of the sneaker head Academy hit the link down below in the description or pinned in the comment section sign up and get joined in we have so many monthly meetings events and things that go on we have a full eight week crash course that teaches you everything about the shoe game and I'll give you guys all my inside tips and tricks and network when it comes to real estate sneakers investing and overall just taking your life to the next level anyway that I can help I want to help you on the inside so sign up I'll see you guys in there and trust me you guys are gonna have a great time I'm looking forward to seeing you there all right


It's Lloyd here with the single guy and I have a very special guest here, Mr. Jeremy. Jeremy runs a men's personal development brand. He's helping out a lot of guys out there achieve the dreams that they're looking for in life, get the most out of life. Without further ado, I'll let Jeremy take it away and describe him best. Yo, what's up, everyone? My name is Jeremy. I'm the founder of JeremyJohn.com. And for me, what I do is I help men become their strongest selves so they can be unstoppable in creating the relationships and success they desire.  Jeremy helps out a lot of guys out there and he does help a lot of Asian guys succeed in the dating world. And the number one question, or not kind of question, more of a concern is that a lot of Asian guys out there, they're worried that when it comes to like race, races, they're at the bottom peg. They're like, Asian guys are seen as like the bottom of the bottom of the list. The only girls that they can get are other Asian girls.  So what do you have to say for guys that have those concerns or are thinking that they have these negative mindsets? What do you have to say for them?  No, I'm like dead serious because like I wouldn't I'm going to I'm going to give it to you guys straight. Yes, it is generally speaking harder as Asian guy.   Things will be tougher. But the thing I would say is stop thinking about it so much because it actually distracts you from really working on yourself. And if I had to really like give them a vice, I would say your focus should be on becoming the strongest version of yourself. I'm not just saying that because of my brand.  I used to read all the studies that OK Cupid studies on how, you know, Asian guys are the least responded to race on OK Cupid. I read all the studies on how like I think there was a stat that Asian guys have to make $247,000 more than a white guy to date the same type of women. 270. 247,000. 247,000. I know, right?  Second of all. That's not fake.   And I want to just straight up tell you it is harder, but that means you got to work harder and find a unique way to start attracting the women you want.  It's not even practical. And for a lot of Asian guys, there actually are Asian guys that are doing well. They are successful with their dating lives. And it's because they're willing to put themselves out there time and time again. They're willing to fail over and over again. More than most people are willing to fail and that's what makes them successful. This might get some people encouragement out there. So I went to UCSB for college, predominantly white, 50% white. I think it was like maybe three to 5% Asian. Out of all the UCs, it has the least amount of Asians. Yeah, it's predominantly white. And so I remember I was on a party bus and I was talking to this really hot like super vine blonde girl.  He was maybe 5'2", 5'3", Asian and like really Asian. And then I'm talking to this girl, I think it's going well. And no joke, this guy stole my girl away from me. And I know for a fact, she did not know this guy before she got on the bus. He just came in, his energy was right. He was a fun dude. I was just sitting there being boring. And he straight up took this hot blonde girl who was like maybe like 5... She was way taller than him. She was like 5'9", 5'7", or something like that. Way taller than him. He takes this girl. And then I saw... I was like, I can't mess this with your mind till you're like, I gotta know if this guy really slept with her. And so I ended up seeing... We ended up getting back on the bus and I saw her go back to his place.  I was like, that's when it really showed me that it doesn't... Sure, there are factors that are gonna make it harder for you. There's gonna be things that are gonna be in your way. But dude, that's a perfect example of that guy did not care one single bit about his situation. He was gonna get the most out of it. So, what types of things do you think help... What types of things do you see Asian guys succeeding and Asian guys not succeeding? Do you find that it's people that fall into those negative thoughts that really don't succeed and people that are able to get out of it that help them succeed? Yeah, that's a really good question. And for me, I would say the guys that succeed are the ones that are able to deal with the negative thoughts. And persist. I mean, it sounds really cliche.  If you believe it, you can achieve it.    But the guys that succeed are the ones that are able to just get out there enough to find the girls that do like them if they're Asian or not Asian. And they keep working on themselves and they don't let excuses hold them back. Because, yeah, maybe if you were to, let's say, move to Los Angeles or New York, maybe you might have a better chance. But at the very core, the willingness to always change and evolve yourself is what I notice makes these Asian guys successful. The other thing is most of them are fit.   Yeah, exactly. Yeah, thank you for saying that.  If you have tattoos that adds edge. I would say a lot of my guy friends are Asian that also do well.  You're taking care of yourself. You look good.  And that helps a lot to, I hate to say get validation, but to get, like, that proof that people find you attractive. The people that don't succeed are the guys who are usually really led by fear. They're just, like, so scared of going out there. They're also really analytical and always trying to support the belief that, you know, we're on the bottom of the totem pole. And, again, I did say, like, it matters, but they're so fixated on finding evidence about it and, like, trying to, you know, use strategies. And the real problem behind that is they're not willing to fail. Or they're like, yeah, you know what, I like talk to 10 girls. They rejected me. Women in L.A. are cunts.  You know, no one likes Asian guys. And I'm just like, well, the reality is, you don't know. By the way, by the way, okay. So when I go up and talk to 10 girls and 10 of them don't like me, that's L.A. Like, a lot of the girls in L.A. are just being mean because they're being mean. It's not anything to do with race. So, yeah. Yeah, and, like, they just, like, come up with more and more excuses.   Yeah, right?  But the thing about it is being in your head doesn't help you when attracting women, right? And the other thing I would want to say is it's possible to be right factually, but is it helpful for you? And that's the biggest thing.  You're going to find most of us saying, like, yeah, you know, it's harder for an Asian guy. Like, girls don't find them as attractive.  And that's not a good state to go out in. Yeah. Exactly. And kind of related to that point. So a lot of the guys that, you know, I grew up as someone who didn't have a whole lot of success with women in high school and in college and I saw a lot of, like, the people who were my friends, like, the kind of jocks, like, the taller, the buffer dudes. Like, I was a real skinny kid. I'm still pretty skinny right now. But I was even skinnier when I was in those ages. So I was, like, thinking, well, you know, if I was buff like these guys, I could get all the girls coming towards me. And so I worked on other things that I could work on. I worked on my personality. I worked on my humor. I worked on, like, being motivated and proactive and leading and doing all those attractive qualities that we talk about all the time when it comes to gaming, when it comes to getting women. And now I'm better than those guys. Like, I go out with them. Sure, they got all the muscles. They got everything going on. And that's cool. And that works for them. But I still do better because I worked on all the other things. The guy who is most threatening to the guy who's great is the guy who's just good. Or the guy who is, like, coming up. Those are the guys that are willing to work, that are willing to do those things.  They're not going to be willing to push themselves to the next level. And eventually you're going to be able to overtake those guys very easily. From hearing this, I want to know a little bit more about your story, Jeremy. The kind of things that you had to go through. Because I was reading your website and you have a crazy story, man. Like, take us from the beginning. How did Jeremy Jong start? Yeah. All right. So let me drop some truth.  I'm going to try to keep it brief because it can go well. Basically, I grew up super Asian. I grew up Taiwanese. My parents are Taiwanese immigrants. It's not like I'm third generation. I grew up in a suburb around LA that was 70% Asian. My parents are also really Christian. It was around Pasadena. Pasadena. Yeah. And my parents are also super Christian, too. It's like conservative and even more conservative.  I played Starcraft. I know it's cliche as fuck, but I did that. I played Warcraft, too.  I went to church every Sunday, played violin and piano.  And you know, I was really socially awkward. And I got to say like this really hit a peak when I went to college at USC. Because when I went to... Social awkwardness? Yeah. I didn't realize actually how scary it was to people. And like I actually had terrible social anxiety. It wasn't just like, oh I'm scared of talking to hot girls. I was scared of talking to everyone. Like going to a club meeting, like reaching my hand out and saying, hey I'm Jeremy, right? That was like so scary for me because even like walking across the street, I hated that because I felt like everyone in their car or passing by was like looking at me. So you know, there was a lot of anxiety and fear. And like in college, things weren't going well with girls. At the very end, I kind of turned it around a little bit. But like for two years, I literally did not party because I was so scared of people due to social anxiety. And after college, I thought things would become better because you know, now I'm an adult, I have like more money. But I actually got worse. I didn't have any money. I was working like 12 hour days. I was getting paid like $30,000 a year. So that wasn't going. I found pickup and I was going out consistently and I was continually getting rejected. How old were you at this point? I was probably like 22 to 24. That's the age range. 22 to 24, okay. That's the pain here for a lot of people. Yeah, I was trying so hard. It wasn't due to the fact that I was just focused on career. I was trying so hard. I would endure rejection after rejection after rejection.  Like before you even say anything. I was like, damn, what's going on, right? And one thing I want to mention to you guys is I actually did work for a pickup company not as an instructor, but like on the tech side doing marketing. That's where my skills shined. And that was actually a really tough time because I was living at home. I wasn't getting paid a lot. Things weren't going with women. Nothing was going well at all, it seemed. I was really jealous of friends that were doing well with women in their careers. And I remember actually my mom, I never told her like what my career was but keep in mind like my parents are really Christian, right? And she found out that I worked for this dating company and like, quite possibly like the worst, she like, I don't know how she came across it, but I think she found my personal blog and I mentioned it so she kind of like threaded it and then she like went through all the instructor bios and all the courses on like how to get a threesome and all that stuff.  Like my mom has her own issues, right? I love her but she has her own things to deal with. And for like nine months, we didn't talk because it was just like this really toxic environment.  So like I'm forced, I'm living with your parents at the same time they're like, Exactly, exactly. It's kind of like, have you guys ever like went up to a girl on the dance floor and you get rejected and you're trying to like slink away but there's like no way to get away.  So eventually what happened is I was able to move out, I was able to get a better career and I actually kind of went through an unconventional route where I focus more on myself and I know a lot of guys like they talk about this like as intergame but I really kind of dove into the root of why I sucked with women and for me specifically and for a lot of Asian guys it's a sense of shame and it kind of relates to the whole feeling of not being good enough. Absolutely. Yeah. Like everyone has that but Asian guys especially the way we grew up with a helicopter parents with always feeling like we need to prove ourselves not only in society but also in our career. Like that thing was the thing That was careers especially. Oh man. I was about to mention that. Yeah. For sure. And for me you know eventually after just working on my confidence just to keep it brief and just like working on myself and really just kind of focusing on my strengths I came out the other side but that's kind of my story in a nutshell hopefully it wasn't too long. Alright so now that we talked about like the turning point where you felt like okay now I'm starting to get better and better at what point in time did you feel like alright now I'm being successful now like now I'm a badass what point did that happen for you?


Okay, colleagues, welcome back to our second session. Thank you for all of the colleagues who intervened in the earlier sessions. We know there's a lot of people who want to intervene and we do hope to get to everybody throughout the course of the day. And of course, the more succinct you can be in all of your remarks that we do really want to hear, the more time we'll have for more people. Our next session now is on advancing gender equality, a key issue that's already come up many times throughout the morning. And I'm delighted we have a focus on this session and I'm equally delighted that it's going to be chaired by Andriana Sokolva, who's the Director General in the Director General for Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion in the European Commission. So Andriana, we're delighted to have you with us. Delighted you've agreed to chair this session and I hand straight over to you. Distinguished participants in this summit, I'm really very happy to be here today. And I want also to join everybody's thinking for the organization of this event because this is exactly the model of how we should be discussing the green transition. Especially its people-centered approach and the impact of any action on how social and personal aspects should be taken into account. This session is extremely good because we will be discussing the gender inequalities in the energy sector, which is one of the sectors with the strongest gender gap. And that's a fact that women are underrepresented in the energy sector in many EU and non-EU countries. And according to the International Renewable Energy Agency, in the renewable energy sector, the share of women is one-third of the workforce. But the share of women in the oil and gas industry, it's only 22%. And looking closer at the kind of jobs women are doing within the renewable energy sector, we see that the majority work in administrative roles. It's almost 45%. Rather than in STEM, which is only 28%, or other technical jobs, which is 35%. In Europe, the energy sector is dominated by male professionals, engineers are mainly men, and they are over-represented at about 78%. And women are only 22% of the energy sector workforce. So we observe similar trends for other key sectors, which are linked to the energy transition, where the share of women is also low, and such are the sectors of construction, agriculture, forestry, transportation. The European Commission and European Union have adopted a number of initiatives to address and support gender equality. Let me start by mentioning that it is extremely important and it is enshrined in European pillar of social rights. Principle number two of the 20 principles of the pillar is about equality of treatment and opportunities between men and women. And in 2020, the European Commission adopted a gender equality strategy, which has among the deliverables initiatives like the work-life balance directive, which seeks to enable parents and people with caring responsibilities to better balance their work and family lives. The pay transparency directive, which introduces rules for an effective enforcement of the equal pay principle. The gender balance on corporate boards directive, which sets targets for EU companies listed on the EU stock exchanges to accelerate the move towards better gender balance. We have also established in 2021, an equality platform for the energy sector, aimed at offering a space for discussion and sharing of best practices on issues relating to equality for different stakeholders. These initiatives support all sectors, including the clean energy sector, but we have a special focus on the support for gender equality for the fair transition. First, I would like to single out the council recommendation on ensuring fair transition towards climate neutrality, which provides guidance to member states to set comprehensive policy packages to ensure that no one is left behind. In the case of women, the recommendation suggests to ensure equal access to education, training, and lifelong learning for women and other vulnerable groups, to promote women's entrepreneurship and social economy, especially in transitions which are covered by the Just Transition Fund, and foster participatory and inclusive whole of society approach to just transition, empowering organizations representing women and other vulnerable groups. Another example are the skills academies in the context of the Net Zero Industrial Act, which also consider the need for activation of more women and young people. The European Commission commitment is also visible internationally as we work at the Clean Energy Ministerial, where the commission work on the gender equality in energy transition initiative, and the equal by 30 campaign to support equal pay, equal leadership, and equal opportunities for women in the energy sector by 2030. We also work in the empowering people initiative together with Canada and the US to support skills and inclusivity. From a European perspective, I'd like to finish here that the fairness of the transition must take into account this gender angle, and we need to put in place enough incentives and measures to allow women successfully develop their careers in the sectors through the energy transition. We should not forget that renewable energy sectors often face labor and skills shortages, which may hamper the energy transition. Skills were mentioned by many of you, and this is a moment to refer to the European year of skills, which will be finishing on the 8th of May. Since 9th of May last year, the European Union has announced 12 months of action throughout Europe at different levels, drawing the attention and putting the spotlight on skills and the necessity for everyone to be upskilled and reskilled regularly to be agile and also matching the needs of the labor market. And within these skills angle, we're also putting a lot of attention to young people and women because they will need an additional support in many instances. We have adopted an action plan for labor and skills shortages a month ago, and we are identifying also skills, upskilling, reskilling measures throughout Europe and throughout different levels of governance as an important step in making sure that the transition is accompanied by the proper assistance to people who need to change their skills or their competencies and be ready to have another profession or another job. We must continue exchanging best practices, and I'm very happy that today this is one of the points and one of the reasons for this meeting to exchange practices and experiences and effective strategies to ensure that we not only accelerate the grid resistance such, but we create the right opportunities for the women to play a more active role in it. And I am conscious about time, so I will not talk more, but I will just introduce our keynote speakers today, and I want to tell you that I'm really looking forward for all discussions that we have today to make sure that we are sharing, we are learning from each other, and we are ready to implement some of the lessons learned. I'll start by my first keynote speaker, which will be Sarah Agnesen. She already spoke a while ago. She's the State Secretary for Energy in Spain, and Sarah, you have the floor, please. Thank you, Chair. Muchas gracias, Adriana, por permitirme la oportunidad de estar aquí. Thank you very much, Adriana, for giving me the opportunity to speak as a keynote speaker on this important topic. I think we're all aware of the importance of including women in this energy transition. We're also aware of the opportunities provided by the energy transition to be a catalyzer for gender equality. We have an agenda for transition and an agenda for equality, and they have to move forward hand in hand. And here, I'd like to share six lessons we've learned in Spain, which I believe could serve as a basis for all of us around this table. The first is the importance of data. Without information, it's impossible to follow what's going on on the ground to understand how many women are employed in the energy sector and other related sub-sectors. Without this data, without that information, we won't be able to adopt the necessary measures. This is also important in light of the qualifications, which will be required in the future. Secondly, this knowledge must enable us to disseminate and implement the most effective policies at government level, but also within companies. We've heard very successful examples in our country of companies who have included the aim of including women at positions of responsibility. Now, when it comes to the energy transition, we have adopted a cross-cutting approach at government level, involving not just the Ministry for Equality, but also in our 2030 agenda, we include gender equality. We also include this in public procurement processes. Our recovery plan, which was in response to a very complicated period for all of us is based on four main principles. The first is the environmental transition, the second, digital, and the third, gender equality, and the fourth is territorial equality. Now, third, we mustn't only have data, we have to conduct an assessment of that data with indicators, which are very important. And five to six years ago, we didn't actually have any information on the situation and its development. So we need to make this information available to society as a whole and all relevant institutions. Fourth, just as we said in the previous session, and I believe this is relevant for all of our discussions, we have to work together, companies, government, civil society, private and public sectors working together with the same goal, ensuring effective equality. Fifth, the role of institutions, not governments per se, but institutions, agencies, those of you who have a capacity to disseminate this knowledge and to participate in various fora to ensure people know what's going on. For example, this agency itself, but also the advisory council, which was created in 2021, they play a significant role in recognizing the importance of this data as well as disseminating that data. We need indicators regarding the number of renewables, the number of electrical cars, the number of women who are involved in the renewable energy sector, not only as staff, but also in leadership positions. And lastly, a transition such as the one that we require needs us to ensure that women and men are all working together to achieve our goals. This is why we believe that we need to encourage young girls to pursue careers in science. We've seen this in Spain. There is a lack of women in scientific careers and study paths, and that will be particularly important to address as part of this transition. Now, my colleague from the previous session also mentioned that we also need to be fostering this at university level. Adriana, the chair also mentioned the Equal By 2030 objectives, which aim to increase women's visibility in work through training programs, mentorship programs as well. We also want to ensure effective equality when it comes to innovation. We need to know how many women are involved in innovation sectors as part of this transition. We also need to have better data, as I mentioned earlier. So we have an observatory, which is working to that end. We've also been working with entities, public and private entities with the civil society as well. And here, I'd just like to make two last comments. I know that I don't have much time, but I'm wrapping up. In Spain, we have been assessing how women are involved in employment. And we've seen that the energy sector can actually attract more women's participation compared to conventional energy sectors. We also see that the wage gap is lower, and that's important. And then we also have an association of women for energy. And these types of associations are very important in disseminating this knowledge to young women and girls. Now, last, 40% of work for mining sectors, which are usually dominated by men, are actually now involving women. Thank you. Thank you very much, Secretary of State. Very relevant comments and very useful reference to activities that Spain is doing now. Let me now turn to another continent, and to a key one in international discussions on just transition. I would like to invite Ms. Sheila Oparocha, who is the Director of the International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy, Energia, and who had agreed kindly to share her views. Please, you have the floor. Thank you. Thank you for inviting Energia to speak at this sustained session. The stock taking of the Sustainable Development Goals at the SDG Summit in September 2023 recognized that Sustainable Development Goal number seven on energy is one of the SDGs that produces the most co-benefits and synergies with other development goals, including SDG 5 on gender. Yet, the reality today that we face is stark. According to the UN Women and UN Dessert 2023 report, and less progress accelerates by 2030, an estimated 341 million women and children will still lack electricity, 85% of which will reside on my continent in Africa. The absence of clean cooking also perpetuates the cycle of poverty and reinforces gender disparities. Today, I'd like to share with you a five point framework advocated by Energia that can enable women to be drivers of a just and inclusive clean energy transition. The first is that we must prioritize ending energy poverty. This entails using a leaving the one behind approach that targets women and is intentional not only by increasing their access, but also their ownership and decision making over sustainable energy products and services. A good model of this is the PMUI scheme in India, which facilitated access to clean cooking fuels for millions of rural households through direct cash transfers to bank accounts registered to women. Second, we have to provide equal opportunities for women's career advancements so that they can enjoy decent and productive employment. As has already been stated, the energy sector remains unrepresentative of the workforce at large, despite the clear benefits of employing a gender diverse workforce. To take advantage of the millions of jobs that the clean energy transition offers, we need to encourage women in STEM education and offer equal pay as we heard earlier. But we also need to make the work environment more favorable for women with family-friendly human resource policies, zero tolerance for sexual harassment, and consideration of women's safety and mobility. Third, we need to exponentially increase gender smart investments and financing for women's businesses. Supporting female-owned and lead businesses in local communities where commercial distribution networks are inadequate or nonexistent is a successful model that is spreading rapidly. For example, counting only the work of energy and two other women-led programs in the global south, solar sister and frontier markets, in less than 10 years, 42,000 women energy entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia have been supported, providing energy access to 21 million consumers in low-income communities. However, in spite of these tangible impacts, less than 30% of off-grid investments go to female-led companies, according to the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association. Fourth, we need to create enabling policy and market environments that champion gender equality with pathways for women's individual and collective agency and leadership. Women-led organizations and gender-responsive financing needs to be supported so that we can scale up successful models. And we need to step out our efforts to include gender in international energy and climate cooperation. It is concerning that for energy, only 18% of overseas development assistance is tagged for gender, compared to 45% overall. And finally, we must have accountability on gender. By mandating the collection of sex-disaggregated data and monitoring gender-specific indicators in all energy and climate transition interventions, we can track gaps and progress. You and women has pointed out that SDG7 is one of only six SDGs that do not include any gender indicators to measure progress. This is frustrating, because it is well recognized that gender equality is key to success in meeting the energy SDG targets. Moving forward, we must not repeat the current mistake post-agenda 2030. We call on the International Energy Agency and the other custodian agencies of SDG7 to show leadership on this issue, including at the forthcoming UN Summit for the Future. Let us galvanize transformative partnerships for agenda-just, inclusive, clean energy future. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Oparocha. I have very nice insights and very structured presentation of your ideas, so thank you very much. Our third keynote intervention will be from Marcelino Madrigal, who is the Energy Division Chief for the Inter-American Development Bank. And we would like to know how the Inter-American Development Bank approaches the issue of gender equality and which are the tasks lying ahead. So Mr. Madrigal, please. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. The Inter-American Development Bank is the main source for sustainable financing in Latin America and the Caribbean. And I will mention three pillars of our goal to advance gender equality in the energy transition. The first pillar is policy. The IDB was the first development bank to include gender performance standards in our social and environmental assessment of projects. This meant that our interventions should do not harm or disproportionately affect women and diverse group. But since then, our gender and diversity action plans have strengthened our work to require now gender alignment in any financing intervention. And alignment means that we must identify gender gaps in our financing recipients, implement concrete actions to reduce those gaps, allocate appropriate resources, and implement a monitoring framework. In more specific terms, our financing operations in the energy sector influence companies and institutions policies on gender in different ways. For example, in Chile, as part of a policy they launched to advance the energy transition, also with the leadership of Minister Pardo here, reforms were implemented to require gender parity on energy sector, civil society, councils for the energy sector, and criteria to advance equity indicators in procurement of public sector, in the energy sector. In Brazil, or loans, for example, to Santa Catarina Distribution Company implemented the first gender and diversity policy in the utility and delivered training for more than 400 women. In Ecuador, our support led to the engagement of 22 companies that, for the first time in the country, implemented gender and disability plans. So we have moved, say, from a no harm policy many years ago to now a policy that ensures our financing have positive returns on gender. Since 2021, any new financing operation in the energy sector has been aligned with this policy. But this is our work in the policy front. A second important pillar of the use energy transition is investing in infrastructure for access to electricity, the lack of which disproportionately affects women. While Latin America and the Caribbean has advanced and 90% of people have access to electricity, there are still 16 million without access to it. Over the past six years, we have been made it possible for seven 2.5 million people to get access to electricity. Latin America and the Caribbean is a developing region that is closest to achieve universal energy access and by the way with the cleanest electricity in the planet. This is a signal that clean and access inclusive transition may be possible. Also, our analytical work with international labor organization has estimated that a Latin America that reaches net zero could create 50 million jobs. And our study in public, in generation companies in Latin America has shown that the ones who employ more women have better performance in labor capital. But for women to capture those works, new skills are required. And this is the third pillar of our work, investing in people, upskilling, and reskilling. For example, in Panama, Guyana, Honduras, the IDB, we have finance and supported programs that have trained more than 300 women on rooftop solar installation, maintenance, and design and operation of mini grids. In Colombia, in the transport sector, we are supporting an ambitious project to retrain female drivers to operate electric buses in the city of Bogota. The program will train more than 450 women so that they can be hired by transport operators reaching a target of 5% women driving electric buses. In Jamaica, with a partnership from Japan, we are supporting training more than 400 job mechanics and other automotive industry stakeholders on electric vehicle maintenance. Also, in collaboration with the Green Climate Fund, we have established a 450 million fund for electric mobility in nine countries in the region, and will include the creation of the Latin American Regional Sectoral Council of Skills for Electric Mobility. This is in response to the gaps we see in the skills for these transition segments that are accelerating in Latin America. Of course, there are still many more challenges ahead. Women and other minorities are still underrepresented, and the full potential of the transition to lead people's lives, reduce inequality, and improve the competitiveness of the region is still to be tapped into. A few weeks ago, and this is my final remark, the IDB adopted a new institutional strategy which will increase our financing capacity, but above all, bring more impact. IDB Impact Plus is the first strategy in the bank that puts just transition as a core development principle. We look forward to continuing supporting women in the quality in the energy sector and learning from all of you today. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Matrizal. Very useful feedback on how the IDB is working and helping women in Latin America, but also some forward-coming projects which are quite interesting on the Impact Plus. Now I have to turn to our fourth keynote speaker, the final keynote speaker for this session, another key voice from Africa, and I'm inviting Ms. Bertard Lamani, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Africa Women in Electricity and Power. Ms. Lamani, you have the floor. Thank you so much for having us. We often enjoy participating in these dialogues organized by the IEA. I have titled my topic today as Empowering Marginalized Groups, a Catalyst for Africa's Clean Energy Transition and Economic Growth. Without mining, there can be no net zero. While zero impact mining is impossible, mining must be responsible, a careful balance of economic, environmental, political and social challenges. Achieving net zero by 2050 essentially means that we must completely face out fossil fuels in under 30 years. We can't do that without copper. On the journey to net zero electricity is our main tool. The backbone of our electrical system is copper and other critical minerals, most of which will be found in our continent. A people-centered clean energy transition globally where no one is left behind. Women, youth and persons with disability placed at the center of all transitions, ensuring dignified economic participation across all sectors, requires a total reframing of outlook and convictions. Women play a catalytic role in economic development, serving as consumers of various forms of energy as entrepreneurs and policy architects. Leveraging their contextual understanding of local conditions and communities, women contribute significantly to policy design, strategy formulation and execution. Women's access to and consumption of energy catalyzes various economic activities, driving productivity and growth across multiple sectors. Let's look at Africa. Without energy, without access to affordable clean energy, there can be no transition. African women represent a vast reservoir of entrepreneurial potential, talent and resilience. Leaders must recognize the untapped potential that women hold in driving economic growth across multiple indicators. Enabling this multiplier effect necessitates an ecosystem approach. We must collaboratively harness this potential and utilize it as the driving force behind Africa's success. In Africa, women represent 58% of self-employment and contribute approximately 13% to the continent's GDP, underscoring their significant economic impact. However, despite their substantial contributions, women entrepreneurs encounter a significant gender funding gap, estimated at a staggering 42 billion US dollars. And once in a lifetime opportunity is clear, the question is how do we catalyze change? Let's look at access to finance. There are networks of industry associations for women, youth, and persons with disabilities, NPCs, NPOs, NGOs. They must be empowered with market-related operating financial resources to act as execution arms for both the public and private sector socio-economic development initiatives. We need capacity-building interventions for these entities to strengthen their governance structures, to receive climate impact financing without incurring high administrative costs or consultants or expert costs for applying for these resources. Global powers must designate real finance for real impact for these entities to deliver wide-reaching initiatives across domestic markets and regions. Let's look at some examples that can be deployed through these networks to ensure continental impact. Educational initiatives to teach the construct of existing and emerging value chains and supply chains across clean energy products, services, solutions, and systems in local languages and using methodologies applicable to domestic markets. Producing dictionaries of value chains in clean energy transition in local languages so we all speak the same language. Delivering tailored, African, and gendered just energy transition skills development programs for entrepreneurs, utilities, and community leaders. Reviewing and supporting the basic education ecosystem with finance and human resources to review curricula and include value chains for clean energy and other forms of transitions, setting the foundations for just transitions. Finally, access to technology. Supporting initiatives that create operations and maintenance capacity in domestic markets for all imported technologies, machinery, solutions, systems in clean energy. It's okay to import products while we pursue clean energy transition. It's not okay to disrupt and displace labor markets. Let's work collaboratively together to build local skills alongside the transition and afford local populations a fair chance to participate in existing and emerging value chains. Therefore, as you can see, advancing marginalized groups and mainstreaming them is beyond a moral obligation. It is a business and an economic imperative. Let's do things differently now so that we do not spend revenues generated in future correcting the failures of today's decisions. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Lamani. And also, I want to thank all the four inspirational keynote speakers for sharing their views and their point of view. And it's been really quite informative but also quite inspiring to listen to you what your plans are. Now, I would first open the floor for a broader discussion and comments from participants. I'd like to invite you to raise your flags when you want to speak. And our discussion will be framed around three key questions. First, what strategies have been effective in bringing more gender equality into different parts of the transition? Second, what are the successful examples of promoting women's participation and leadership in clean energy entrepreneurship and workforce development? And how can policy makers collaborate with other stakeholders to develop gender sensitive clean energy transition strategies? So, I don't see any raised flags for the moment so I would like to, okay, let me see who's there. Okay, our colleague from the International Lab Organization raised the flag so I'll give you the floor first, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, we've already heard a lot of very important statements about the need for data and the need for evidence. So, I want to begin with some of the ILO's evidence. Our assessment of employment creation through an implementation of the Paris Agreement says that we can create as many as 20 million new jobs in the clean energy sector. But of that total, only six million are projected to go to women. On the other hand, we see female employment in renewable energy at about 32% globally, which is better than the 22% in oil and gas. And in solar photovoltaics, it's as high as 40%. This is encouraging, they're not good enough. So, we must think specifically that our actions can either reproduce and entrench existing disparities, or they can deliberately chart a path toward a fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable economy through a just transition. A gender responsive just transition takes account of the fact that women face compounded inequalities in labor market because the discrimination may be based on sex, but also on race, on indigeneity, on disability status, and socioeconomic status. Think about how difficult it may be for a woman from an indigenous group who has a disability to achieve equal status. We need to dismantle the structural barriers that exclude women from opportunities in all their diversity, including the fact that a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work falls to women. Importantly, we need to ensure that women have equal access to education, training, skilling, and upskilling opportunities that the green economy will require. We know that lifting women and girls lifts whole communities, and so that's why we are working to do that at the ILO. For example, in collaboration with Germany, we are currently implementing a four million euro project on green jobs for women in Western Africa. The project supports women operating in mangrove restoration and aquaculture to increase value addition, improving their working conditions, and promoting access to social protections. And we hope that this project will provide learnings for further projects on gender equality in a sustainable and green future. As Sheila Apparocha stated, everyone deserves decent work. This includes equal pay for work of equal value and freedom from gender-based harassment and violence. Leaving no one behind is part of the ILO's DNA, and let's make sure it is part of the DNA of every organization here. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Drake. I'll pass the floor to Carolina Basualdo, the mayor of Despenadores from Argentina. Por favor. Thank you very much for inviting me to take part in this summit. And I'd also like to acknowledge the fact that you have invited representatives from cities here. I'm not just representing Argentina, but the regional compact for mayors in Latin America with 13,000 cities around the world in 45 countries working towards the climate transition. We are very grateful to be able to take part in this meeting because in each and every one of our cities, we have been rolling out public policies aiming to address the climate change transition. Now, we have heard speakers saying that 340 million women, 8% of the global population, will be living in poverty if we don't address the existing inequalities. So here we have the private sector, labor, the public sector as well, and we all need to work together to create enabling conditions to move forward. Now, when it comes to strategies, I think it's essential to encourage female leadership, not only in cities, but also at leadership level because women can foster policies for moving forward with gender equality. We've heard examples from Chile and Spain, which have been very successful, but we also need to work on promoting women's involvement in labor and in companies. We need to ensure that it's not just about ensuring 50-50 parity, but actually involving women in a meaningful manner. We also need to take a robust gender approach with a focus on the climate transition in projects. We need to encourage women to become involved in the green transition. We have been working as part of a network of local municipalities with Cordoba Council, and we've been working on a pilot project alongside local universities and the private sector, which enable women to discover more about developing photovoltaic panels. So we're involving the agricultural sector and also the renewable energy sector in order to offer women an alternative form of employment in the agricultural sector, which is one of the key sectors in our area. We also need to look at different levels of women's involvement, and at the COP28 we talked about the vision for climate transitions, which will enable each country to roll out a multi-dimensional approach in line with the Paris agreements with leadership and effective public policies, which will enable women to lead this transition along with children. We know that they can be, in some cases, the most vulnerable, and we know that climate change is twice as negative in some cases for women, so we have to take all of these factors into account. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed for representing the views of a broader community than your city. Now I'll pass the floor to Ms. Rhoda Boteng, who is the program coordinator for climate change and just transition in the International Trade Union configuration Africa. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. To back some of the points already made by team speakers, I'd like to reiterate some statistics which helps us put the discussions into perspective. Recent reports show that women work almost two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half the world's food, and earn 10% of the world's income. Even more striking, women and girls make up 70% of the world's one billion poorest people. Specifically in the energy sector, as has been alluded by most, wages for women in the sector are almost 15% lower than for men at the same scale levels, less than 15% of senior managers in the energy sector are women. When it comes to entrepreneurship, only about 11% of startup founders are women. This is much lower than outside of the sector. In short, the fossil fuel industries driving the climate crisis and thus widen existing gender inequalities and discrimination. In some countries, the value of unpaid care work is up to 60%. And this work includes unpaid domestic work and paid childcare and unpaid adult care. This analysis highlights gendered inequalities within the labor market. Now, what are some effective strategies we propose as labor? One, it's imperative to understand women's roles and sectors that will contribute to or be affected by the transition to low carbon emissions. These sectors include, but are not limited to mining, energy, agriculture, forestry, and land use. The economic, social, and political participation is necessary for their lived realities to be reflected in policies, structures, processes, and solutions that guide a just transition. We cannot emphasize this participation and inclusion. To strengthen women's leadership capacity using participatory strategies whilst providing women with skills training. In several countries such as India, we recognize that strengthening women's leadership capacity through targeted programs has enhanced community efforts to reduce poverty. And a lot of these examples exist with SEWA. Three, targeted training and skills development for women in new and emerging sectors with policies to guarantee job security for women in the transition. And last but not the least, it's essential that finance is provided to support innovative women-led projects and scale up existing startups, especially in developing countries. I must say several of such initiatives exist. And I hope the upcoming initiative by the IEA on promoting clean, cool care and we'll take into account this. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ms. Boateng. My distinguished next speaker is Ms. Lossy. Don't need to introduce her again. She's popping the first panel, so please, Ms. Lossy. Thank you so much, Chair. We just want to say that our just transition discourse and advocacy must be gender responsive and inclusive. Organized labor is very articulate in the importance of social positions and roles of women and men in the just transition. And these are identified as being the determinator that equip both genders with disasters relating to climate change when it happens. The same factors can be enablers and also a barrier in various ways. The incorporation of gender equality and equity is part of a wider working class struggle around the economic and political economy. Therefore, it is important that we continue to advance and advocate for justice and gender equality in the transition. As trade unions, our position on the just transition is based on ensuring adequate investment and financing environmentally friendly activities that create decent jobs. Paying a living wages and meet standards of health and safety by also promoting gender equality. So we must also recognize that the gender just transition will prioritize women and young people in the just transition. And we want to say that it must be planned and just. It must not create new crisis that as we seek to fix the existing ones. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ms. Lossi. In fact, you're very sharp to the point and also quick. So I'll give the floor now to Germany for your intervention, please. Thank you very much. And our motto is already on my thing. Women should energize women. This is an initiative the German government has started. And when I was still the energy ambassador of Germany, I was one at the core. So I make a bit of a promotion for this institution, which is there to that female energy experts from around the world discuss challenges and energy transition, provide insight and perform a network. And I think this is the most important thing. And maybe one or the other of you has been to the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue where we make sure that we first have the panels full of women speakers before we have men, 50% have to be women before we start inviting men. And I think this has led very often to a high level of specialized speakers. When government then comes in most of the time, the level got down because in government, unfortunately, men are more prevalent still than in the other area. But now to your questions. Unfortunately, in Germany, like everywhere, the same issue is true, that there is the disparity in the gender distribution, in drop market payment, energy-related education, and participation in energy policy decisions. Strategies that effectively address gender inequalities should establish measures to ensure transparent and fair recruitment process, promote a supportive environment involving counseling and training to address unconscious gender-specific biases, improve conditions for balancing work and private life, such as adequate childcare opportunities and flexible working hours. Act transparent to reduce the gender pay gap and ensure fair collective bargaining. We need to better understand, however, what is really happening and as has been said by many speakers before me, there is a persistent lack of gender-disaggregated data to be, seems to be, one of the major obstacles here. We need data to better understand the problem at hand and to monitor the success of our actions. But what we also need to close the gender data gap in the sense that women's perspectives are often missing and male perspectives are perceived as the norm. So norm setting is very important. Gender-disaggregated data is a prerequisite for gender-sensitive policymaking. We here highly appreciate the work of the International Energy Agency on the collection and publication of gender data. But what we also need is women in the labor market as we need specialized workers. I have three more examples what all good Germany is doing. Let me just rush through it. We have an international climate initiative where we have a gender strategy. I have already spoken about women, energize women, and we have the network where we pay for projects and my colleague from the International Labor Organization already mentioned one. So let me finish here. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for this clear presentation of activities in Germany. And I think that there are good examples that can be followed up and also developed further. I have now Shekhar Satik Hedge, the partnership lead Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Young Professionals, Climate and Sustainability Task Force from India. So I would like to pass the floor now, please. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, for the introduction. I'm deeply honored to have the opportunity to represent IEEE Young Professionals. We are a global group of around 125,000 young graduates and volunteers. IEEE is a nonprofit organization and the largest professional body in the world and our motto, advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Despite progress throughout the years, women are underrepresented, especially in high-level decision-making and technical position, hindering innovation, diversity, and gender-responsive policies and programs. Obstacles in accessing education and training in energy-related fields severely limits women's involvement in the clean energy workforce. In addition to that, women are disproportionately affected by energy poverty, which also was pointed out by Dr. Birol. They lack access to reliable and affordable energy services for essential needs. And electrical engineering, and particularly in the domain that I'm working in, dielectrics and electrical insulation is a field where female representation is notably low. And I've observed this during my own PhD journey, where to date, we do not have a female candidate in the energy domain as also pointed out by Sara earlier. This observation reflects a very broader societal trend where we see more females in the domain of biology and more male representation in mechanical, electrical, and electronic domains. While efforts have been made in recent years to bridge this gap, we have yet to achieve parity. IEEE young professionals, IEEE women in engineering are actively addressing these challenges through various initiatives and programs. Women in engineering specifically focuses on promoting gender diversity and inclusion in STEM fields by offering mentorship, leadership training, networking events that are tailored to empowering women in energy-related disciplines. And IEEE as a whole advocates for gender equality and diversity in the energy sector through policy advocacy, research, collaboration with the industry partners, governments, and nonprofit organization. So to conclude, policymakers can collaborate with various stakeholders to develop gender-sensitive clean energy transition strategies that involve women organizations, academic institutions, industry partners, and community groups. It is imperative to gather diverse perspectives and insights. By integrating gender considerations into policy formulation and implementation processes, we can ensure that clean energy transition strategies are expansive in addressing the specific needs and priorities for women. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm passing the floor right away to Sreshta Banerjee, who is the Director of Just Transition in iForest. I hope I'm pronouncing the names more or less in line with your pronunciation. But excuse me for any misspelling. Sorry, please. Thank you. Thank you, Adriana. And I think many of the points have been touched upon. But at iForest, we work in a very bottom-up approach. And from our experience at working at the grassroots level and ground level through the last five years on Just Transition, I would like to highlight two important points. One is that when we take a gendered approach or a solution, we need to identify that there is a difference between women in the formal workforce and women in the informal workforce. And the approach has to be tailored, recognizing that. The second thing is also between women in urban space and rural areas. Because it determines their access to information, their ability to speak, their ability to engage. And when we design intervention measures, I think the three points I was noting down was recognizing this disparity. Number one would be that we need to understand one of the biggest important interventions will be to assess the impacts on the women due to the transition. And I think one of the most important ones will be to look at the impact on the informal women workers. Because there is really, really no data on them. It is very poorly understood. And these women are also a lot of time migrants. So it will require engagement. And here is where government can engage with think tanks, research organizations like us and many present today to generate that data. The second thing is we need a more formalized process of social dialogue and engagement. I mean, it's good to have in theory that social dialogue needs to be done, but how? How do we measure that women have participated? And more importantly, the points have been taken. I have been part of many forums where women come, but they don't speak. And whatever they speak are never part of the plans. So we need a process to ensure that their voices are heard, but also integrated and reflected. So a formalized process needs to be developed. And I think one of the mechanisms can be done is strengthening local grassroots organization to engage with them. Because external organization are maybe often not the best ways to do it. They can be the starters, but a capacity building will be required. And the third thing is I would end with a positive example is that women entrepreneurship can be important to strengthen. And in India, there is a process of developing women's self-help groups through micro-financing. And these women-led groups have been successful in many rural areas for generating employment in more sustainable economic sectors and not just fossil fuel sectors. And that can be something when we look at the economic diversification process and strengthening women's livelihood, but also better employment opportunities. I'll stop to that. Thank you. Thank you very much. I have three more speakers here and I have a few flags raised. So I'll ask Canada Ambassador to come in, please. Thank you very much for giving me the floor. Gender equality is a key priority for Canada, ensuring a woman's political, economic and social equality is imperative to building a prosperous, inclusive and sustainable society. But clearly listening to all of us, we still know that there is huge gaps in this planet and this is so important to close in order to get to the economic growth for all. Empowering and increasing that representation of women in the energy sector is essential in the transformation to a low-carbon future. And I will not repeat the numbers that was mentioned by Mrs. Drake from ILO, but clearly we know that we have a long way to go. To tackle this challenge, the Government of Canada chairs the Equality in Energy Transitions Initiative, a joint initiative of Clean Energy Ministerial and the International Energy Agency working to advance gender equality in clean energy globally. Under the Equality Initiative, Canada leads the Equal by 30 campaign, an international effort asking the public and private sector to work towards equal pay, equal leadership, and equal opportunities for women in all marginalized groups in the energy sector by 2030. Some of us, as asked around the table, the importance of the indicators, that initiatives really help to track progress at multiple levels. So I invited you to consider this initiative and as my colleague from Germany mentioned, desegrated data is so important to get in order to pursue our journey. Since its launch over five years ago, the campaign has reached over 200 signatories worldwide, including many represented here today, with a global signatory base that spends multiple areas of the energy sector. The campaign recently released a self-assessment tool to help organizations evaluate their progress on implementing inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility practices and policies on the road to 2030. We are keen to continue this work with our international partners and to increase our ambition using the Equality Initiative, the Equal by 30 campaign, and IE-led efforts as platforms to advance our joint objectives. Let me also add another point that we were talking about all these gaps around the planet, but yesterday had the chance to have a see different reports regarding the young generation and I'm glad that the young professionals are at the table and in that study from North American European, there is a backlash regarding the young people who are going back to very traditional social norms. So this is, and that leads also to look about not only the energy sector, but the image that we have on the digital platform is pretty bad and the violence that is there. So we've got to watch out that backlash also in some part of this world. I encourage any governments and organizations here to get involved in these important initiatives. If you haven't already done so and demonstrate your commitment to building a more equitable and inclusive energy future as lead for the Equal by 30 campaign, Canada is here to provide information to anyone who may be interested in joining. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ambassador. I pass the floor now to Yuan Zheng, who is the regional focal point Asia for SDG7. Please. Thank you, sex madam, for giving the floor of our youth and young professional with an intergenerational dialogue in shaping a more inclusive future leadership in the energy sectors. The need for a more gender inclusive energy transition is crystal clear and we reiterate the bottom up process that helps the key to securing our planet future strategically. In addition to put the economic, political, and technology capitals at the centers of the energy transitions, we should never estimate the power to identify and invest in the social innovation and local community. And to see how the energy innovation locally and society can trigger a tipping effect to accelerate the energy transition process. So one exemplary initiative that we identified through our youth constituency is the bottom up approaches in Waga, which operate in Tanzania, bringing the electricity to homes and business by recycling the lithium batteries. Not only does them contribute to the hiring the sustainable energy solution, but it also addressed the local employment challenges by hiring male and women from the local community. So this dual impact highlights the transformative powers of the grassroots initiatives led by women, but these solutions are not well represented. We recognize that there remains a wealth of untapped nature based solutions embedded in the indigenous knowledges across our planet, which have the potential to catalyze significant social tipping point in our energy transition process. But, and there are huge potential of local value created by the women, children, and indigenous community. Mailing young women professionals have already developed a scalable like solutions utilizing AI and imperative that their journey to be documented and integrated in our database before conducting any analysis and scaling up energy transition and solutions and investment is really important. So we emphasized the importance of the international leading energy related agency like IEA and Syntax like civil society to provide observers like our use which is the most sensitive like observers of all those local solutions and also to its crucial that those entities offer collective data and also provide technical tools that enable us to visualize and map these micro solutions for every communities and regions while safeguarding the labor rights. Additionally, there is a pressure need to adopt a gender inclusive lens through the data collection process in ensuring that women are not merely tokenistically included in the paperwork, but actively involved in identifying the barriers in the energy transition process, shaping framework and providing solutions. As the first, yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for your thoughts. I don't want to finish and close the session before giving the floor to a man. So I'm sorry. Women can speak a lot as you know, but we have also a request from Mr. Andy Deacon who is the Co-managing Director of Global Covenant of MERS and I want to ask him for three minutes to share his views. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chair. It was a brave middle-aged white man who asked to speak in the middle of this session. So let's see how this goes. And just a few points that I wanted to make to support the intervention of Mayor Baswaldo just to say that data and research, as others have highlighted during this session, are tremendously important. The Global Covenant has worked to produce a global research and action agenda on cities and climate science as part of our Innovate for Cities program. And later this year, we will convene a scientific panel and a group of experts in Montreal, Canada in September to review and revisit that framework and which has equity and justice dimension at its heart. And we would welcome additional contributions towards that activity, but also through the work of the IEA's People-Centred Transition Commission and opportunity alongside that Innovate for Cities program and for the IEA's work to help feed into the special report on cities that will be the only special report in the seventh assessment cycle of the IPCC. It really is a landmark moment for subnational leaders and a key opportunity to highlight that urban dimension to this activity. My second point I also wanted to emphasize that it's important that we recognize the implications and gender implications of not delivering a smooth, equitable, and rapid energy transition. And we've seen local leaders and local women leaders on the front lines of the impacts of climate change in cities. And some of the work that, for example, Mayor Yvonne Akisoya has led in Freetown to provide shading for market traders has been in particularly valuable in protecting then female traders who make up a large part of the workforce in that environment. There are many other examples that we could bring from the local level to the table and Mayor Bazwaldo spoke very eloquently about work in Despeñaderos and elsewhere, and there is much that we can do to highlight these examples, but we need to be clear that we must deliver an equitable transition rapidly in order to avert the increasingly severe aspects and dimensions of climate impacts. Finally, I would just say multilevel governance is important and at COP28, a new initiative led by the COP28 presidency, the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships was endorsed by 72 Paris Agreement negotiating parties. That provides a clear way for national governments to engage effectively with sub-national actors at all levels and across the whole of society, and we very much welcome those who want to continue to engage on those issues and to bring forward the voices of women local leaders and through initiatives such as that. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I want to thank everyone for this very fruitful, very rich discussion. Of course, it was enlightening. I believe that some of the experience and examples shared will raise additional questions and also the possibility for bilateral exchanges. Trying to sum up is not gonna be easy, but I'll try. First, I've noted down that data is becoming a vital starting point for any policy and any decision-making process. It will be about employment of women, it will be about pay, about skills levels and so on. So gender-sensitive policy is based on data and that's one of the main actions that we have to undertake. We have to fight discrimination of any aspect and this was mentioned by a few of the colleagues. We have to go forward and ensure that women get decent work and decent pay and equal pay for the same type of work. We have to ensure that economic, social and political involvement, inclusive policy-making but also measures securing the long-term women employment and the implementation of all measures at all levels are some of the lessons for the future. Access to financing was one of the issues and I thank IDB for sharing what the experience is in this area, empowering women and ensuring their participation in social dialogue. And by this, I want to complete this session. Thank you very much. I'll pass the floor to Jane for some internal housekeeping messages now but thanks a lot for your active participation and also we'll keep continuing working jointly. Thank you.


NBA in-season tournament play continues. So I think it's time for an update before this all began the Celtics were the favorite at plus 800 Just behind them the Bucks and the Nuggets valued at plus 850 right now The Celtics are plus 450 and the Nuggets and Bucks are plus 500 But I want to talk about a sneaky good value play here the 76ers at one point started at plus 1700 now they are just behind the Bucks and Nuggets at plus 1,000 also MVP Who will be the MVP of the in-season tournament? Well, I'm looking at Joel Embiid as a value play at plus 1,100 He sits at number four right now in terms of being a leading score in the NBA in-season tournament Averaging 33 points right now and as for tonight Luca the leading score right now averaging 44 points to hit his over against the Pelicans team who gives up the sixth most threes to opposing point guards Make sure you head to the Fandalsports book app right now to place your NBA in-season tournament bets best of luck Let's make some money