CSW69/Beijing+30 Side Event: Digital Gender Mainstreaming: Advancing Equity in the Digital Era
ITU, WSIS, Government of Switzerland, Government of United Kingdom, International Gender Champions, Women at the Table
Session 123 | Thursday, 20 March 2025 | 13:15–14:30 (UTC-04:00)
ON-SITE event, taking place at UN Headquarters, Conference Room E
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The digital revolution has created unprecedented opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and social transformation. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies has real consequences for people’s prosperity. AI is informing decisions on staff recruitment, public services, health diagnosis and so much more.
Globally, 70 per cent of men are using the Internet, compared with 65 per cent of women. This means there are 189 million more men than women using the Internet in 2024. This difference has been decreasing since 2021, when it stood at 277 million*. ITU Facts and Figures 2024
However, the digital gender divide remains a significant barrier to equity and inclusion. Women are underrepresented in key areas such as AI, cybersecurity, and leadership roles in tech companies. Furthermore, AI and other emerging technologies often reflect and reinforce existing biases due to a lack of diversity in their development. The under-representation of women in tech and decision making, significant gaps in digital literacy and a rise in technology-facilitated GBV also threaten to exacerbate existing inequalities.
Bridging the gender digital divide is a collective effort between all stakeholders; governments, the private sector, academia, the technical community, the UN system and the civil society.
International Gender Champions (IGC) is a leadership network that brings together decision-makers determined to break down gender barriers and make gender equality a working reality in their spheres of influence. The IGC Impact Group on New and Emerging Technologies focuses on ensuring that gender perspectives and the goal of gender equality are a central component of the newly adopted Global Digital Compact, as well as explore how this can be translated into concrete, impactful actions at the national and regional level. More generally it will strive to integrate digital and new emerging technologies in all gender equality conversations ahead of CSW69 / Beijing +30 and beyond, as well as align WSIS Action Lines and Beijing +30 Objectives in context to the WSIS+20 Review.
Global UN processes like Beijing+30 and the World Summit on the Information Society(WSIS) process including its annual WSIS Forum, have been working with all stakeholders to strengthen digital gender mainstreaming.
Objectives of the Side Event
To address the disparities in access to and fully usage of digital technologies, this side-event aims to identify actionable steps to close the gender digital divide, enabling women to participate fully in the digital transformation and to contribute to the shaping the future of technology.
The speakers will explore and promote strategies for integrating a gender perspective into global digital policy discussions including Beijing +30 and the WSIS+20 Review. They will also present examples of concrete actions on the ground to increase women’s participation in decision-making, for a more inclusive digital world.
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Dr. Henk-Jan Brinkman is the Permanent Observer of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) to the United Nations in New York.
From 2010 to 2022, Dr. Brinkman was the Chief of the Peacebuilding Strategy and Partnerships Branch in the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs. Previously, he was chief Economic Analysis in the World Food Programme (2006-2010); Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the Executive Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations (2001-2006); and Economic Affairs Officer in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (1989-2001). He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in economics from the University of Groningen and a Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research in New York City.
Caitlin Kraft-Buchman is CEO/Founder Women At The Table – a gender equality & systems change Think Tank based in Geneva; Co-Founder/Leader of the <A+> Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms – a global coalition prototyping a new future of AI and the Leader of the <AI & Equality> Human Rights Toolbox platform that supports a global community working for human rights-based approaches to AI development – working with cities and organizations on technology methodology that work for the triple bottom line and benefit of all.
Caitlin is also co-founder of the International Gender Champions (IGC) – with hubs in Geneva, New York, Vienna, Nairobi, The Hague & Paris – bringing together female & male heads of organizations, including the UN Secretary-General, to break down gender barriers. She serves on the IGC Global Board, and co-leads the IGC Impact Group on Digital and New Emerging Technologies. Caitlin is a one of the Network of Experts for UN Secretary General’s AI Advisory Body; a member of UNESCO’s WomenForEthicalAI working group; member of the Gender & AI Advisory Group for the AI Action Summit held in Paris in February, and Co-Chair of the UN Commission on Science & Technology for Development (CSTD)’s Gender Advisory Board.
Melissa Gong Mitchell is Executive Director of the Global Coalition on Aging, the leading business voice on aging policy and strategy. She also serves as Senior Managing Director at High Lantern Group, a strategic communications consulting firm.
GCOA uniquely brings together global corporations across industry sectors to promote good public policy and market-based solutions to enable healthy aging and drive growth in the silver economy. In her role, Melissa is responsible for the operations and management of the coalition, internal and external advocacy and communication strategies, and member and stakeholder outreach and development, including fostering relationships and aligning partners across industry, academia, the NGO community, advocacy organizations, governments and global institutions.
Her more than 20 years of public affairs experience includes specialties in policy-related and CEO-level strategic communications, advocacy campaigns and coalition building.
Previously, Melissa was Director of Industry Relations and Strategic Outreach at the U.S. Travel Association, responsible for grassroots development and industry initiatives, having driven multiple campaigns leading to positive legislative outcomes. Prior to U.S. Travel, she served as Executive Director of the Travel Business Roundtable, a CEO-based advocacy organization, and an associate at Prime Policy Group (formerly BKSH & Associates), a Washington-based government affairs firm.
Melissa holds an MBA from Georgetown University and a BA in Journalism and Psychology from the University of Mississippi.
The Rev. Dr. Liberato C. Bautista is a civil society leader whose professional life has been dedicated to working with faith-based, ecumenical, and non-governmental organizations worldwide, spanning the last four decades. Dr. Bautista serves as President of CoNGO—The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations—an international non-governmental organization with general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Bautista is an ordained minister of The United Methodist Church and, since 1996, served as the Assistant General Secretary for United Nations and International Affairs for the church’s General Board of Church and Society. Bautista serves as an NGO representative to the United Nations worldwide for both CoNGO and UMC-GBCS. He was previously the Chair of the Council of Organizations of the United Nations Association of the USA (COO UNA-USA) and the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN (CRNGO).
Bautista studied political science, history, and international studies at the University of the Philippines, as well as religion and social and political ethics at Drew University (USA). He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). Bautista has traveled to more than 80 countries worldwide for personal and professional trips, attending major United Nations conferences and ecumenical, interreligious, civil society, and academic meetings. Bautista has lectured and taught in university, college, and theological seminary settings and has edited books and published articles and monographs on varied subjects, including international affairs, NGO and civil society dynamics, social and political ethics, theology and religion, ecumenism and religious liberty, human rights and human dignity, indigeneity, and indigenous peoples, global and forced migration, and peace, justice, and social transformation.
, Ph.D., Adj. Professor and researcher in Applied Economics at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Department of Economics and Finance. She teaches Economic Evaluation of Investments, Transport Economics, and Economics of Transport Mobility in UG and PG courses. Her research activity is mainly concentrated in the following topics: sustainable transport, gender issues, economic evaluation of infrastructures and projects, costs and benefits analyses, equity, travel behavior. In particular, she deals with equity in favor of women and with gender topics. She is author of more than 100 publications. She is coordinator/component of several research projects groups at national and international levels. She is an active referee of several scientific journals.
She has been a consultant of several Ministries and Local Authorities as a senior economist in the transport economics and sustainability fields. She is an independent scientific expert for the scientific evaluation of the Italian research (REPRISE) for the Italian Ministry of Education and Scientific Research (MIUR). She is also component of the Italian Evaluation Body (O.I.V.) and of the Italian Evaluation Society board. President of the board “Traffic and Transport Commission” of Automobil Club Bari-BAT. She is a member of the Evaluation and Verification Board of Public Investments of the Puglia Region for the financial and economic feasibility of the projects, and for the verification of the governance models concerning the infrastructures implemented in the various sectoral areas. She has been recently appointed as a component of the technical table at the national board on Sustainable Mobility.
Urban planner and ecologist, specializing in CSR, 360° communication, and events planning, Christelle GNIDEHOUE is a graduate of the Jean-Jaures University in Toulouse, the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, and the École Supérieure de Gestion (ESG) in Paris, where she earned an MBA in Communication and Events. She began her professional career in France at the Albigeois Urban Community in the Tarn region, Publicis Groupe, Disneyland Paris, and the National Institute for the Circular Economy (INEC). Returning to Benin in 2018, she worked on organizing the first edition of the Benin Investment Forum as Communications and Events Manager. That same year, she joined the Digital Economy Communication and Marketing Unit of the Information Systems and Services Agency (ASIN), where she held the positions of Digital Communication Officer, Acting Unit Manager, and Communication Focal Point for Ms. Aurélie Adam Soule, Minister of Digital Affairs and Digitalization, for four (4) years.
She is currently the Communications and CSR Manager in the Support Management Unit of CDC Benin, where she works on cross-functional topics such as 360° communication, events, and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).
Passionate about ecology, she founded a non-profit organization named “Fondation GNIDEHOUE,” which has been working since 2012 to establish an environmental and CSR culture in Benin.