Discussion of equitable and equal gender lenses, technology, and the sustainable development goals.

1. Gender, Technology and the SDGs
Sophia Huyer,
Executive Director, WISAT
UNESCWA Gender Training, Beirut, October 22-23, 2018

2. Gender equality and women’s empowerment
• Gender equality – the equal rights, responsibilities and
opportunities of women and men and girls and boys.
• Not only a fundamental aspect of human rights and
social justice, but also a precondition to improve the
development process by putting social concerns at the
centre
• Equal participation of women and men in decision-
making, equal ability to exercise their human rights,
equal access to and control of resources and the benefits
of development, and equal opportunities in employment
and in all other aspects of their livelihoods

3. Equality or equity?

4. • Gender equity: Allocation of resources, programs,
and decision-making fairly to both men and women
without any discrimination on the basis of sex, is a
stepping stone to achieving equality
• Equity: increasing women’s access to productive
resources supports
• Equality: Women gaining equal control and decision
making over (with men), over the productive
resources they need and use

5. Gender mainstreaming in the UN
• Ensuring that gender perspectives and attention to
the goal of gender equality are central to all activities
- policy development, research, advocacy/ dialogue,
legislation, resource allocation, and planning,
implementation and monitoring of programmes and
projects.

6. Gender, technology and the UN:
Human-rights based approach to development
• 1986: United Nations General Assembly Declaration on the
Right to Development: Everyone is “entitled to participate in,
contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and
political development, in which all human rights and
fundamental freedoms can be fully realized
• 1979: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW): calls on States to
ensure that rural women have the right to “enjoy adequate
living conditions, particularly in relation to housing,
sanitation, electricity and water supply”

7. Gender and technology in the UN:
Fourth World Conference on Women 1995
Beijing Platform for Action
Addressed the role of S&T in relation to
• Improving women’s access to technologies, information and technical
assistance (as entrepreneurs, farmers and sheries producers);
• Measures for improving women’s access to science education and
technical training;
• Women’s access to non-traditional employment;
• Gender-sensitive health research;
• Recognition of women’s indigenous knowledge;
• Strengthening the position of women scientists
• and technologists;
• The impact and potential of new technologies,
• including information technologies; and
• Women’s role in natural-resource management and the impact of
environmental degradation on
• women’s lives.

8. United Nations Commission on
S&T for Development 1995
• Gender Working Group (GWG), United Nations Commission
on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD): gender
the “missing link” in national S&T programmes (1995) in
environment, health, energy, agriculture, education,
information, employment, small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs) and indigenous knowledge.
• Found technical change was benefiting men more than
women, largely because S&T policies and programmes did not
explicitly recognize the gender- specific nature of
development.
• UNCTAD, 2011: Promoting gender equality and ensuring that
both men and women bene t from STI policies is fundamental
to reducing poverty and ensuring equitable development.

9. World Summits on the Information Society
2003 and 2005
• Gender mainstreaming a cross-cutting issue in the 2003
preamble
• Both Summits affirmed that ICT development provides
enormous opportunities for women, as an integral part of,
and key actors, in the Information Society.
• Governments committed to ensuring that the Information
Society enables women’s empowerment and their full
participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society
and in all decision-making processes, mainstreaming a gender
equality perspective and using ICTs as a tool.
• Calls for removing the gender barriers to ICT education and
training, promoting equal training opportunities in ICT-related
fields for women and girls, and promoting the use of ICT in
service of women’s health and entrepreneurship.

10. UN Commission on the Status of Women
CSW 55, 2011
• “Access and participation of women and girls in education, training and
science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal
access to full employment and decent work”
• equal access to education, training and science and technology is integral
to the empowerment women and girls in view of global economic and
technological changes.
• S&T promotes development, all human rights, human rights education and
learning at all levels, including gender equality, the elimination of all forms
of discrimination and violence against women and girls and the
eradication of poverty
• Noted that full and equal access and participation in science and
technology for women of all ages is imperative for achieving gender
equality and the empowerment of women, as well as an economic
necessity, by providing the knowledge, capacity, aptitudes, skills, ethical
values and understanding necessary for enhancing and encouraging
women’s participation in the economy.

11. GE and HR results at Rio+20
Recognizes:
• GE as a cross-cutting issue
• sustainable development requires the meaningful involvement and
active participation of all major groups, incl women and children
• women have a vital role to play in achieving sustainable development.
We recognize the leadership role of women, and we resolve to
promote gender equality and women’s empowerment and to ensure
their full and effective participation in sustainable development
policies, programmes and decision-making at all levels.
• the importance of rural women as critical agents for enhancing food
security and nutrition
• human right to safe drinking water and sanitation
• access to safe and affordable drinking water and basic sanitation for all
necessary for poverty eradication, women’s empowerment and to
protect human health,
• modern energy services are essential to social inclusion and gender
equality

12. Gender Context: Access to resources
UN Women, 2015

14. Power and decision making
UN Women, 2015

19. Women’s economic activity (ILO)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Agriculture / Services Agriculture / Services Agriculture / Services
Egypt Morocco Sudan

20. Participation in the formal labour force
• Approximately 30% in the Arab region
• Highly segmented by sex: horizontal and vertical
segregation.
• In GCC States, women tend to be concentrated in the
education sector
• In the Maghreb and Mashreq women are mostly found in
agriculture and services.
• Men represented in nearly all professions, certain sectors
almost exclusively male: fishing, mining, construction,
and transport
• Unemployment for women is 13% higher than for men,
the largest gap in the world

21. Internet Use – Jan 2018
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Bahrain Egypt Morocco Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Serbia Sudan United Arab
Emirates
Internet Use - %
All Individuals Male Female

22. Women in SD-related disciplines
UNESCO Global Science Report 2015

23. Part II: Gender Dimensions of Water,
Energy, and Food Security

24. Gender, Technology and the SDGs
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Agriculture / Services Agriculture / Services Agriculture / Services
Egypt Morocco Sudan

25. End hunger, achieve food
security and improved
nutrition, and promote
sustainable agriculture
• Women have less access to productive resources for
agriculture and food security, greatly affecting their
production:
– Finance, credit
– Inputs
– Information and education
– Technology
• Male migration to urban areas for employment
• Less decision making power at HH, local and national levels

26. Technology for women

27. • Clean water for sanitation and health
• Irrigation
• Pumping water
Ensure availability and
sustainable management of
water and sanitation for all

28. Technology for women:

29. Ensure access to affordable,
reliable, sustainable and
modern energy for all
• Clean, affordable household energy
• Energy initiatives can be empowering for women
• Work with women’s organizations
• Consultative and inclusive work

30. Technology for Women
IRENA

31. Digital technologies and the SDGs

32. Take urgent action to combat
climate change and its effects
• Climate change will have disproportionate consequences for
women, poor and marginalized communities who are
especially at risk due to their dependence on natural
resources – Climate Change Adaptation in the Arab Countries,
UNDP 2018
• Climate change has the potential to increase existing gender
gaps and inequalities as a result

33. Climate technologies: Where do women fit?
Climate
sector
Adaptation Migitation
Energy Promotion of renewable clean
energies
Water Adapt to variable water conditions,
drought, irrigation, water use and
management
Transportation Women drive less for socio-
economic reasons
Disasters / risk
reduction
Warning, recovery from impact of
disasters, resilience
Agriculture Access to agricultural practices and
technologies to deal with impacts
of climate change: drought,
changing growing seasons
Low-carbon intensive agricultural
practices; low and reduced
emission practices can be more
efficient, cheaper and productive
for smallholder farmers
SD-related
professions
Increasing participation of women increases national capacity to adapt to
and mitigate climate change

34. Disasters and early warning systems
• Analysis of data from 141 countries affected by disaster
between 1981 and 2002 found that disasters affect
women’s life expectancy more than men’s, and that
women, boys and girls are 14 times more likely than men
to die during a disaster.

35. Where do women fit?
Role of ministries of
gender and social
developmentRelation to national
SDG and CC
commitments
Access to credit and
finance
Innovative
mechanisms to reach
women with credit
Promoting women’
entrepreneurship
FHH
Gender / age
migration trends Fertility rates : what
influences them
Restoration, reforestation,
sustainable agriculture
Water mgmt.,
use for HH,
agriculture
Small-scale renewable
energy use & mgmt
Youth
(un)employment
Promoting women’s
entrepreneurship
Understanding and supporting
women’s food security activities
Participation in S
workforce

36. Example of gender-responsive
SDPD initiative:
Regional Initiative for Promoting Small-Scale
Renewable Energy Applications in rural
areas of the Arab Region

37. Integrating gender into policy and planning

38. Moving forward

39. Thank you!
Sophia Huyer
Women in Global Science and Technology
(WISAT)
sophiahuyer@wisat.org