It’s a wrap.
At approximately 7.30 p.m. in New York City on Friday night, the final gavel fell on the negotiations at the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations headquarters. The negotiations around the session’s theme of social protection systems, access to public services and the needed infrastructure to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls were long and difficult. Reaching agreement on a road-map for the next six years and having all 193 member-states agree to each and every paragraph is huge!
ISACA’s SheLeadsTech program worked closely with the Australian National Rural Women’s Coalition (NRWC) and the Australian Government Delegation to ensure that our constituents’ requirements were not lost during the negotiations. Access to reliable, inexpensive and consistent technology infrastructure can assist in keeping women and girls safe, provide them with access to educational opportunities, and connect women entrepreneurs with access to global markets, leading to financial empowerment. We fought hard to ensure the right language was adopted into the road-map so that member-states can be kept accountable to these provisions. Notably, in the final agreed conclusions, there were no less than 14 inclusions related to technology.
Having left New York at the end of week one, the SheLeadsTech team was able to continue to be part of the negotiations remotely through the auspices of the Australian NGO contingent, which remained on the ground at UN headquarters, and of course through the prudent use of technology – even from my rural home in Australia.
For this inclusion in such an important achievement, we must thank the NRWC, which has become a much-valued part of the SheLeadsTech global coalition.
Editor’s note: For more background on SheLeadsTech’s involvement at the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, read this blog post by Jo Stewart-Rattray.