Opening Remarks by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem at the ICPD30 Global Dialogue on Technology Shaping an Equitable Future for All

Your Excellency Ambassador Olivier Maes, Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to the United Nations, 

Your Excellency Ambassador Stan Smith, Permanent Representative of the Bahamas to the United Nations,

Your Excellency Ambassador Stephanie Copus Campbell, Australian Ambassador for Gender Equality, Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates, 
Dear colleagues and partners,
Dear young people,
Dear friends,

I greet you in peace, the noble purpose of the United Nations and it is indeed what the women, girls and young people UNFPA serves all around the globe desperately desire. Peace in their homes. Peace in their communities – offline and online. Peace in our world!

I welcome you to the ICPD30 Global Dialogue on Technology. UNFPA is very pleased to facilitate –in partnership with our co-Chairs, the Government of the Bahamas and the Government of Luxembourg. Over these precious couple of days, we will learn more about the interaction of technology and equitable development.

It has been said that technology, like art, is a soaring exercise of the human imagination. It calls upon our insight to envision possibilities that do not yet exist.

Since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, technology has shaped and reshaped our world dramatically, along with other megatrends. Back in 1994, we didn’t have cellphones. The internet was just starting to take off. Fast forward to today, over half of the world's population is online. 

And of course, we have to bear in mind that the other half of the world is not online. 

The rise of the digital age has transformed communication, education, healthcare, and access to information. It is reshaping our social, economic, and cultural landscapes and presenting enormous opportunities along with some big challenges.

A significant digital divide persists that is impacting technology access and, in our increasingly wired world, access to health, online learning, and economic opportunities, particularly for women, vulnerable and marginalized and remote populations. 

As we move through this 21st century, we are grappling with a world that is both increasingly interconnected and increasingly fragmented. The current discourse around technology is itself a dichotomy. On one hand, some people are championing tech as the savior of the world. On the other hand, there are people quaking in fear that perhaps this new technological universe will propel us down a slippery slope to a dystopian future.

We know that there are complexities and dimensions to these issues. It is nuanced and depends on human beings – how we use technology, how we develop it and the regulations we put in place to harness its power and minimize potential harm.

At UNFPA, we are believers. We have seen how technology can be a force for good. 

In Nigeria, for example, we have partnered with Organon and MIT Solve to support an AI-powered mobile app, Medtracka, that is tailored for women and girls in low- and middle-income communities. It connects them to connect online to gynecologists, mental health counsellors, and makes it easier to access diagnostic kits, medicine and personal care and hygiene items.

A young woman named Isioma, who uses the app, said: “It’s not just another digital product – it has become my community.” It’s helping her to know that she is not alone as she navigates the unique struggles that come with being a woman in today’s world.

Another UNFPA-supported innovation, the Safe Delivery App, was designed with and for midwives. It enables health workers to ask questions and receive up-to-date, evidence-based answers related to birth and pregnancy – all in the palm of their hand.

This type of innovation helps us to assist expectant mothers and reach the last mile so that we can get to zero preventable maternal deaths around the world.

Today’s world is beset by conflict and crisis, and technology in the humanitarian sphere is helping the UN be better prepared to respond to humanitarian crises. 

From early warning systems to digital platforms that facilitate rapid and effective humanitarian aid, technology is mitigating the impact of crises and saving lives. It allows a family to locate a loved one during a flood or a cyclone.

In Ukraine, a UNFPA blockchain-based cash distribution initiative uses digital currency to ensure rapid, secure, and transparent financial assistance to help women who are survivors of gender-based violence.

Tomorrow, you will see the example of emergency.lu, a rapid deployment mobile satellite telecommunications platform developed in Luxembourg to respond to humanitarian telecom issues and is currently being used in South Sudan.

Technology also offers women and girls the opportunity to learn, to connect with peers, and to participate in political, public, and economic life. 

I am inspired by stories of young people like Mariam, a young entrepreneur from Armenia who has developed the SafeYOU App, connecting survivors and persons at risk of gender-based violence with support services. 

Starting as a small project, she received support from UNFPA and a lot of encouragement. Today, her app helps vulnerable women in Armenia, Georgia and Iraq, Romania and New Mexico, here in the U.S., where it is used by Native American women. 

But we also know that there’s a flip side where it can work against the common good by facilitating online violence. Digital violence can cost women their careers, their health, and even their lives. Yet, when violence and hate are delivered digitally, it is too often dismissed.

Every woman and every girl – and indeed everyone, no matter who or where they are – has the right to be online and to use technology free from fear and intimidation. 

Distinguished delegates,

Technology has the potential to advance human rights, but it is not inherently equitable. 

Over 70% of AI outcomes are erroneous due to gender-biased data. Three quarters of medical clinical trials fail to include women. Right now, only 1% of global research and development funding apart from cancers, goes to women-centric health solutions, and even less goes to sexual and reproductive health. This needs to change.

It’s a crowded technology space and UNFPA has taken steady leadership in the area of women-focused, gender equitable and rights-based technology. 

We are working to ensure that technology is safe, ethical and addresses the needs and safety of women and girls. We were the first to issue Guidance on the Safe and Ethical Use of Technology, and you will see its features tomorrow in our showcase space. 

Women represent a growing consumer market, with an enormous purchasing power. They make decisions about what to buy in the household, when to connect to a doctor, and what tech to use not only for themselves, but for the entire family.

UNFPA has leveraged its convening power to gather key public and private stakeholders to help us promote and to develop women-centric and inclusive technology. We pushed for the integration of gender in the UN’s Global Digital Compact and last year launched the Equity 2030 Alliance, which has over 60 members, including top tech companies, many of whom are present today in this room.

Technology will only benefit all when it works for all, when it is designed from the beginning stages of the process to do so. Women need to be included as decision makers, as product developers, as part of the team and part of the data set.

Inclusivity in technology, embedded in the design, benefits all, including marginalized groups, persons with disabilities and the LGBTQ+ community. Ensuring fairness and inclusivity in technology development means a better, more accessible product.

Women, and especially young women, are key to fully unlock the power of technology. They have a voice and they should be given platforms to use that voice, as we have tried to do here. They must be recognized as influencers and decision-makers in all spheres. When technology works for them and is safe for them to use, it benefits everyone.

It is not a secret that the tech world has been dominated by men. It is a challenge, but it is also an opportunity for men to step up and change that paradigm. The role of men is essential to champion gender equitable and safe technology. We have an extraordinary opportunity to close the digital divide, including the digital gender divide to build resilience in the face of economic and environmental changes.

What’s urgently needed?

• Nimble and adaptive governance and regulatory frameworks to protect individual rights and ensure equitable benefits.
• Concerted efforts to expand broadband connectivity, enhance digital skills training, and promote inclusive policies that leave no one behind. This is essential to bridge the significant digital divide – whether it’s between men and women, urban and rural areas and across different socio-economic groups or across the Global South and Global North.
• Lastly, it will take powerful partnerships, an atmosphere of stability and peace, and imagination. Together, we can develop innovative, equitable solutions that are sustainable and far-reaching. 

Over these next two days, I hope we will seize the opportunity to listen, to learn, to share what is happening in your country and region.

By ensuring fairness and inclusivity in technology, we create benefits for women, girls and for all members of society. Let’s be guided by the enduring spirit of the Cairo ICPD Programme of Action, with its focus on people, their dignity and their human rights. 

I hope that we will commit to a vision that empowers and includes each and every one of us in all our beautiful diversities. And that together, we will build a future that’s safe, fair and equal for all. That’s a future of infinite possibilities.