The Economist “4th Sustainability Summit”: 4th Industrial Revolution- The Role of Women in Biodiversity's Conservation through ICT

(My speech at The Economist 4th Sustainability Summit, 1 October 2020, Athens)

https://events.economist.com/events-conferences/emea/the-fourth-sustainability-summit-for-south-east-europe-and-the-mediterranean/

Good morning,

I represent the GSMA, we are the global trade body for the mobile industry, and our purpose is to Intelligently Connect everyone and everything to a better future and 5G is the next major step in delivering on this goal. This pandemic has highlighted to the world what we have all known for decades, the true relevance of robust and resilient mobile networks. Mobile technology remains at the centre of how we address our most significant global challenges.

And we are truly committed to doing all this … sustainably.

Take our flagship, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We are the “World’s Largest Carbon Neutral Trade Show” since 2014 and we count on being biggest again next year.

The role that the mobile industry can play in the sustainability discussion is crucial and one that the GSMA recognized early on by leading the industry in becoming the very first to commit to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

So, I want to talk a little about digital and gender, as well as about women and the planet.

GENDER EQUALITY

2020 is an important milestone for gender equality. It’s been 25 years since the Beijing Declaration on Women and Platform for Action and still, the GSMA SDG Progress Report needs to remind everyone that gender equality matters.

And digital inclusion matters for women. It is a key enabler of women and girls’ empowerment, and thus of achieving SDG 5 on gender equality. Especially in the less wealthy continents.

Mobile has the power to transform lives. It can help empower women, making them more connected and safer, and providing access to information, services and life-enhancing opportunities, such as health information and guidance, financial services and employment opportunities, often for the first time.

However, while mobile connectivity is spreading quickly, it is not spreading equally. Women in low-and middle-income countries are missing out.

GSMA members care about this. We assess and report on the Mobile Gender Gap every year. And we are also co-founders of the EQUALS global partnership on bridging the digital gender divide, along with the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations University, UN Women and the International Trade Centre.

Our GSMA report found that women in low- and middle-income countries are 10 per cent less likely than men to own a mobile and over 20% less likely to use mobile Internet.

At the same time, the EQUALS network reports, women lag in digital skills, in STEM qualifications, and in ICT leadership.

The global digital gender gap will close only when we have all governments taking a holistic approach addressing barriers at all levels: access, skills and leadership alike. This is becoming an increasingly urgent challenge in an era of rapid technological transformation. Changing times can both promote but also stifle women’s basic human rights as well as their growth and potential.

And as we are currently facing a pandemic, let’s not forget that the impacts of crises are never gender-neutral, and COVID-19 is no exception.

At GSMA, we drive for female inclusion through our Connected Women programme, through the Women 4Tech and Tech4Girls initiatives, which have become a leading source of data and best practice in addressing the barriers to women’s full participation and inclusion in the digital economy.

Happy to take any questions on all of this. But my key message is not ‘look at us’, but ‘everyone needs to help’. My appeal today would be that empowered women – and men, too, why not?! - join in tackling this problem. It is our problem, even if we do not see it among our immediate friends.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Let me turn to sustainability. And start with a story of hope, and gender equality.

2 and a half hours north-west of my hometown lies the region in which a famous recent film called ‘Honeyland’ was made. Watch this film, and you will see a real-life heroine of biodiversity, struggling to save her wild bee population in face of frankly greedy male wannabe bee-keepers. She wins.

She wins only because she stays true to her VALUES – always leaving enough honey in nature for nature to live well, and give you more honey next time.

This is a story to illustrate the need for more women in the driving seat.

It is also a good introduction for the biodiversity fight. Because overexploitation is one of the 3 top drivers of species loss, along with pollution, destruction of natural habitat and the introduction of invasive species. And climate change.

I am proud to say that mobile is playing its part in enabling mankind to block all 3 drivers:

-Mobile Internet is a great way for everyone, even in poor rural areas, to get the advice they need to be able to pollute less.

-Mobile data drives efforts to halt the precipitate decline in biodiversity that we have imposed on the planet.

-Mobile business is totally committed to tackling climate change.

At the GSMA, we have developed an industry-wide climate action roadmap, to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement.

The mobile industry also enables all other sectors in the economy to reduce their own emissions, notably: Buildings, Energy, Transport and Cities, Agriculture and Manufacturing. This is what the GSMA calls “the Enablement Effect”.

So, to conlude, half of the world’s population is still not connected to the internet. Our challenge is to bring these people with us and to ensure digital inclusion for all with special attention to the most vulnerable. We are making progress: from increasing mobile phone ownership among women to bringing support to more than 30 million people caught up in epidemics and natural disasters.

We still know that women have to fight to be heard. And maybe that is why in a century when we care more about innovation that helps to save the planet, the perspective of experts that are also by chance women is crucial to success.

As a young woman, I am impatient to see the whole world thinking in a joined-up way. We have one planet. One life, economic, and human and ecological. One human race, young old, man woman.

I am optimistic that we are getting there. The SDGs show that we cannot grow the economy in ways that deplete our human and natural capital.

There are no parts of the sustainable recovery, which are monopoly domains for men. The planet needs female as well as male instincts in every boardroom, every government.

As a woman, and a young professional, I take this personally. Youth and women can add the missing push to save the planet. Thank you!

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