ITU/UN Women annual GEM-Tech awards nominations open

Nominations are now opened for the annual Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in Technology (GEM-Tech) Awards, a global prize that recognizes outstanding contributions from women and men in leveraging the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to promote gender equality, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has announced.

The awards will be conferred on outstanding people or organisations working in the field of gender empowerment at a ceremony to be held in New York in December.

Winners will travel to New York to accept their award from Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director and join a global celebration promoting the power of ICTs to transform lives.

“In 2014 we celebrated the achievements of many amazing GEM-Tech winners from around the world, as well as some outstanding Global Achievers who have really been making a difference to gender balance in the technology sector,” ITU said.

According to Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, “ITU is delighted to support our GEM-Tech partner, UN Women, in the 2015 awards, and encourages all those committed to using ICTs to empower women to submit their entry to the competition.”

This year’s awards span three categories: Application of Technology for Women’s Empowerment: Recognizing applications of technology across all sectors, and particularly the pillars of the Beijing Platform for Action, for the empowerment of women and to achieve gender equality; Women in the Technology Sector: Recognizing success in the promotion of girls and women as creators, drivers, leaders and decision-makers in the technology sector; Gender-Responsive Technology Governance, Policy and Access: Recognizing efforts to bridge the gender digital divide through strategies, policies and regulations that ensure enabling and foundational factors such as access, connectivity, security, digital literacy and citizenship.

Online nominations will be open until July 31, 2015 on www.itu.int/en/action/women/

gem/Pages/award-2015.aspx

ITU and UN Women encourage men and women working in the ICT sector to nominate their colleagues – or themselves – with the final three winners to be selected by a committee of experts from ITU, UN Women, and 2014 GEM-Tech winners.