SheLeadsTech was back this week at the United Nations for the 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women to continue the critically important work of empowering women and girls by providing access to social protection and appropriate infrastructure, including technology infrastructure. This annual meeting attracts delegations from each of the UN’s member-states and up to 4,000 civil society representatives.
There are a range of events and presentations that take place in parallel to the main business of the Commission, which is to agree a set of conclusions that will form the roadmap for all 193 member-states in relation to the theme of the session. Winning the right to run such an event is highly competitive and not all proposals are accepted, but ours was! We were very excited and just a little nervous.
SheLeadsTech proposed a panel discussion, "Building a Global Alliance to Empower Women through SheLeadsTech.” Our panelists were chosen because they were either working in collaboration with SheLeadsTech or are experts in creating coalitions or alliances. Even though our session was scheduled at 8.30 a.m. Wednesday after a big reception the night before, we need not have been concerned ... we ended up with a full house and our panel discussion was very well-received.
While the women’s leadership space seems like a crowded space, that just means that there are more voices, and more voices means that we can elevate those voices outside our traditional community. In order to be heard you need to first listen, and you need to be authentic and believe in what you say. The panel (pictured with this post) provided another important platform for those voices to be heard.
In addition, we have been involved in ensuring that the requirements of our global constituents are not lost during the negotiation process and will be enshrined in the final roadmap to move the member states toward greater equity and empowerment for women and girls.
Editor’s note: Find out more about SheLeadsTech’s involvement in the Commission on the Status of Women last year in this blog post.