Background
This session will highlight examples and lessons learned from gender and STI initiatives that are helping to move the needle towards making innovation ecosystems more inclusive and representative and explore what is needed to scale up and accelerate further progress. With the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its SDGs, countries committed to sustainable development that leaves no one behind. This will require significant global transformation in which science, technology and innovation will be the key transformers and enablers. Women and girls make up half the population and without their full participation, we are losing half of the potential creators, innovators and scientists, and their essential contribution to solving the world’s major problems. Closing the gender gap in this area throughout the cycle of education, employment, entrepreneurship, and leadership will be essential. It is also an imperative for women’s economic empowerment, enabling girls and women to make their own choices and participate fully in society. Against such background, this session will follow-up to the recent recommendations of the UN Commission on the Status of Women by exploring specific solutions, critically assessing cases and identifying best practices and practical measures on how to shift priorities, investments, and perceptions on women’s and girls’ place in science, technology and innovation.
Chaired by H.E. Mr. Thomas Woodroffe, United Kingdom Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council
Moderator:
Ms. Maki Kawai (Japan), President, National Institutes of Natural Sciences.
Ms. Maki Kawai (Japan), Director General, Institute for Molecular Science, Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo Prof. Maki Kawai is the Director-General of the Institute for Molecular Science and Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo. She has been serving as a member of the Japanese government’s committee on science & technology policy planning, and contributed to the drafting of a model plan for intellectual property strategy (2003-2007), as well as for a new system for education as a member of the Prime Minister’s Education Rebuilding Implementation Council (2013- 2021). As a scientist, she has been working on interdisciplinary research in the fields of surface science, physical chemistry, condensed matter physics, materials science and nanoscience. Her research has been highly evaluated by many academic societies, and she has been the recipient of various awards, including the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Award (2008), the Gerhard Ertl Lecture Award from the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Plank Society (2015), the Medard W. Welch Award of AVS, U.S.A (2016), and the L’Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award (2019). In addition to her fundamental scientific research, she is a widely respected leader in scientific management. This activity, involving science in the USA, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan, has made her a highly valued member of the international scientific community, culminating with her former position as the RIKEN Executive Director in charge of research affairs (2010-2015) and former president of the Chemical Society of Japan (2019-2020). She is Fellow of the American Physical Society, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Panelists:
Tara Chklovski is the Founder and CEO of Technovation - the world’s largest technology entrepreneurship program for girls. Technovation has empowered 400,000 participants across 120+ countries to tackle local problems using cutting-edge technologies (mobile and AI). Tara has been featured in the award-winning documentary Codegirl, and named “the pioneer empowering the incredible tech girls of the future” by Forbes. She has presented Technovation’s work at COP27, at UN Transforming Education Summit in Paris, 2022, led the Global Online Education Taskforce addressing education needs during COVID and the education track at the UN’s AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, 2019.
Najat Aoun Saliba
NA. Saliba is currently a member of the Parliament of the Lebanese Government. She is also a Professor in Chemistry at the American University of Beirut. Saliba leads several projects related to understanding the chemistry of inhalable tobacco and non-tobacco smoke and atmospheric aerosols. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, Dr. Saliba has collaborated with many colleagues from the health, engineering, and social science sectors to bring a holistic view to the air pollution problems in the region. In addition, many of her most recent projects concentrate on community-led environmental projects that are based on the co-production of knowledge for finding the most suited local solutions. She was the co-founder and executive director of Khaddit Beirut and theDirector and co-founder of the Environment Academy (EA). NA Saliba has given numerous keynote addresses and presentation at UN and Ministerial conferences. She has over 100 publications that are well cited and in 2021, she serves as a Member of the Scientific Board of the International Basic Science Programme (IBSP) at UNESCO and as a Chair of a Technical Advisory Group on the Global Air Quality Platform and Health (GAPH-TAG) at WHO.
Also, in 2021, she was nominated by Apolitical’s the 12 most influential people in climate justice and 100 most influential people in Gender Policy. In 2019, she received the 2019 L’Oreal UNESCO International Award for Women in Science, the National Order of the Cedar from the President of the Lebanese Republic, the Honorary Cedar Shield from the Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon and the Paul Harris Fellow Pin from the Rotary Club Beirut Cedars. Also, in 2019 she was voted among the top 100 most influential women by BBC. In 2016 she received the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research Award in the Environmental Category.
Janet Abbate is Professor of Science, Technology and Society at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on the history, culture, and politics of computing and the Internet, including the underrepresentation of women and minorities in computing. Her 2012 book Recoding Gender: Women’s Changing Participation in Computing explores how gender has shaped computing and how the experiences of female software pioneers can inform current efforts to broaden participation in science and technology. Other major publications include Inventing the Internet (1999) and Abstractions and Embodiments: New Histories of Computing and Society (with co-editor Stephanie Dick, 2022).
Navroop Sahdev is the founder and CEO of The Digital Economist, a global impact organization with the mission to drive technological convergence toward a human-centered global economy. Along with the world’s most respected digital economists, in 2019 she co-authored “Blockchain Economics: Implications of Distributed Ledgers: Markets, Communications Networks, and Algorithmic Reality”, the first book on the economics of blockchain. She has co-authored Hyperledger’s "Blockchain for Business"
online course which has trained close to 200,000 entrepreneurs globally, and counting.She is also the founder and CEO of Rethink Markets, a global action-tank focused on the Economics of Emerging Technologies, with the mission to bridge the gap between scholarly economics and business applications. She was listed as one of the Top Blockchain Influencers in 2018 by Media Shower. She holds three masters in IP Management, Economics of Innovation and Applied Economics. Previously, she has worked at Harvard University and the United Nations Environment Programme. In 2017, Navroop served as a United Nations Youth Delegate.
Interactive discussion:
Ms. Diene Keita, UN Assistant Secretary General Deputy Executive Director (Programme)
Ms. Diene Keita is the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. Prior to this, she served as Minister of Cooperation and African Integration of the Republic of Guinea, and brings to this position nearly 30 years of experience including senior leadership with the United Nations.
Ms. Keita first joined to the United Nations System in 2006 as UNDP Program Officer in New York. Subsequently, she served as UNDP Deputy Representative in Africa and the Caribbean, and Representative to the African Union in Addis Ababa. During her tenure at UN System, Ms. Keita served as UNFPA Representative in Mauritania, Benin, DRC and Nigeria (two of UNFPA's largest programs worldwide). Concurrently, she was the UN Resident Coordinator in Mauritania, Benin and DRC.
During this period, Ms. Keita led with success large and complex public health programs, expanded strategic partnerships and mobilized critical resources to support efficient delivery at local and global level. Throughout her career, Ms. Keita has worked extensively on women and youth empowerment,
inclusive growth, demographic issues and sustainable human development, sexual and reproductive health, as well as gender-based violence issues in the context of humanitarian crises. Dr Keita holds a doctorate in law, summa cum laude, a DEA in international economics and development law, and a DESS in international relations from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and is fluent in English, French and Italian, among other languages.
Elizabeth Bryan is a Senior Scientist in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit at the International Food Policy Research Institute, where she conducts policy-relevant research on gender, sustainable agricultural production, climate-smart agriculture, and small-scale irrigation, using mixed-methods. She currently leads the Gender, Climate Change, and Nutrition Integration Initiative (GCAN), co-leads the Methods Module of the CGIAR GENDER Platform, and contributes to the CGIAR Initiatives on Nature Positive Solutions and Gender Equality (HER+). She has considerable experience integrating gender into large, interdisciplinary research programs, including the Feed the Future Innovation Labs on Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) and Policy Research, Capacity, and Influence (PRCI). Elizabeth has published numerous articles based on her research and regularly presents research results to diverse audiences, including at policy workshops, trainings, and international conferences. Prior to joining IFPRI, she worked as a consultant for the Poverty Reduction Group of the World Bank. From 2002-2007, she was Program Assistant in the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She holds a doctorate in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Hohenheim, an M.A. in Development Economics from American University, and a B.A. in International Affairs from Wagner College.
Dr. Eleonore Fournier-Tombs is the Head of Anticipatory Action and Innovation at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York. She has worked as a data scientist and researcher in the UN system for over a decade. In 2012, she was awarded the UN21 Award, given by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for noteworthy UN staff contributions. She has since worked for the UNDP Human Development Report Office, the OCHA Centre for Humanitarian Data, and the World Bank. Before joining UNU CPR, she was a Senior Researcher at UNU Institute in Macau, where she led a research portfolio on gender sensitive AI policy in Southeast Asia. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law Research Chair on Accountable AI in a Global Context, and has taught several graduate courses in data science, international cooperation, and cybersecurity at McGill University and Université de Montréal. In addition to reports on AI and gender for ITU, UN Women, and IOM, Eleonore is also the author of Gender Reboot, due to be published by Palgrave MacMillan at the end of 2023.
Natalia Bayona
Director of the Innovation, Education and Investments
Department at the World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO)
Natalia Bayona leads the innovation, education and investments strategy of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations specialized agency for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and accessible tourism worldwide. With a diverse background on politics, destination management and business, she has become the first innovation director at UNWTO, has introduced entrepreneurship and education as key factors for tourism and development, and has positioned UNWTO as an innovation benchmark within the wider United Nations system as recognized in the UN 2020 Mapping of Innovation, Data and Digital Capacities. Furthermore, she has joined the UNExecutive Leadership Programme for Sustainable Development led by the UN System Staff College (UNSSC).
During the last 4 years, Natalia has developed 20 UNWTO Startup Competitions and Innovation Challenges with outcomes such as more than 214 million USD in support for entrepreneurs and pilots for safe travel. She has also opened the Multilateral Investment Cooperation area for tourism and has built a network of more than 290 investors interested in the sector and is currently working on high-impact projects to recover tourism, including the Investment Readiness for Green Finance Mechanisms in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank Group. As recognition for her work, Natalia has been awarded the IIPT (International Institute For Peace Through Tourism)’s 5th “Celebrating Her” prize for “Innovation & the Empowerment of Women Through Tourism” at ITB Berlin 2021, an acknowledgement that is only given to 3 women from all over the world each year. Natalia graduated in Government and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia and holds an Executive MBA from the IE Business School.
Announcements
Session 4 concept note is updated and can be accessed here!
