Recognizing WSIS Impacts

WTDC RESOLUTION 55 (Doha, 2006)

Promoting gender equality towards all-inclusive information societies

The World Telecommunication Development Conference (Doha, 2006),

• noting
  • a)the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, namely the Geneva Declaration of Principles, the Geneva Plan of Action, the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda;
  • b)Resolution 70 (Rev. Marrakesh, 2002) of the Plenipotentiary Conference, on the inclusion of gender perspective in the work of the Union;
  • c)Resolution 44 (Istanbul, 2002) of the World Telecommunication Development Conference, which calls for mainstreaming gender in programmes of the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D);
  • d)Resolution 55 (Florianópolis, 2004) of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, which encourages gender mainstreaming in ITU-T activities;
  • e)the Memorandum of Understanding betweenITU, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), signed in July 2000, which promotes cooperation to enable women to participate in, and benefit from, the current communications revolution,
• recognizing
  • that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are tools through which gender equality can be advanced, and are integralto the creation of societies in which both women and men can substantively contribute and participate,
• considering
  • a)the progress made by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) in the development and implementation of projects that target women and are gender sensitive, as well as in increasing the awareness of the links betweengender issues and ICTs within the Union and among Member States and Sector Members;
  • b)the results achieved by the Working Group on Gender Issues in promoting gender equality,
• welcomes
  • the financial support by Norway contributing to ITU-D’s effort to promote gender issues by establishing a gender unit in ITU, and that this contribution covered two years of gender expertise,
• resolves
  • 1 that the mission of the Working Group on Gender Issues is to work with ITU-D to promote gender equality in ICTs through recommending measures on policies and programmes at the international, regional and national levels, with continuous improvement of its working methods to this end;
  • 2 that the established Gender Unit should support the work of the Working Group on Gender Issues and BDT activities in gender mainstreaming,
• further resolves to endorse the following action plan:
  • 1 design, implement and support projects and programmes in developing countries and countries with economies in transition that are either specifically targeted to women or gender sensitive;
  • 2 support the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data and the development of gender-sensitive indicators that will enable cross-country comparisons and reveal trends in the sector;
  • 3 monitor and evaluate projects and programmes to assess gender implications;
  • 4 provide gender mainstreaming capacity training to BDT staff responsible for the design and implementation of development projects and programmes and work with them to develop gender-sensitive projects as appropriate;
  • 5 incorporate a gender perspective into study group Questions, where appropriate;
  • 6 mobilize resources for gender-sensitive projects and projects specifically targeted to women;
  • 7 develop partnerships with other United Nationsagencies to promote the use of ICTs in projects aimed at women,
• instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau
  • to ensure that the necessary resources within the budgetary limits are allocated to the action plan above,
• invites the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau to assist members:
  • 1 to encourage the mainstreaming of a gender perspective through appropriate administrative mechanisms and processes within regulatory agencies and ministries and to promote inter-organizational cooperation on this issue within the telecommunication sector;
  • 2 to provide concrete advice, in the formof guidelines for gender-sensitive project development and evaluation in the telecommunication sector;
  • 3 to increase awareness of gender issuesamong members through the collection and dissemination of information related to gender issues and ICTs and through best practices on gender-sensitive programming;
  • 4 to establish partnerships with Sector Members in order todevelop and/orsupport specific ICT projects that target women in developing countries and incountries with economies in transition;
  • 5 to encourage Sector Members to promote gender equality in the ICT sector through financial commitments to specific projects involving women;
  • 6 to support active involvementof women experts in ITU-D study groups and other ITU-D activities,
• invites the Plenipotentiary Conference
  • to build on and consolidate past accomplishments, by providing the necessary financial and human resources for the effective and sustained integration of a gender perspective in the development activities of ITU, and to instruct the Secretary-General to bring this resolution to the attention of the United Nations Secretary-General in an effort to promote increased coordination and cooperation for development policies, programmes and projectsthat link ICTs to the promotion of gender equality.