the ability to listen is the basis of compassion. without it, we will not much of see a future.

The United Nations Association of the USA, Global Futurist Initiative, and Accountable Impact are hosting the commemoration event "Intersecting Gender and ICT to Meet the SDGs" for the UN Observance of International Girls in ICT Day. Held annually on the fourth Thursday in April, these organizations aim to raise awareness about the need to have a gender lens in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector and its significance in the pursuit of meeting both Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 Gender Equality and SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals.  

The International Telecommunication Union estimates a skills shortfall of over 2 million jobs in ICT within the next 5 years. Girls and young women who learn coding, app development, and computer science will not only be well-placed for a successful career in the ICT sector, but ICT skills are rapidly becoming a strong advantage for students in just about any other field they might choose to pursue. The right to internet access is also becoming more inseparable from human rights including gender equality, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly so discourse has been proliferating across and through these themes which will also be highlighted. 

This event therefore will highlight the role gender and ICT has had in the solutions developed for accelerating the SDGs and in the lives of the established and emerging STEM professionals speaking.  

The U.S. has been stagnating in social progress since 2011 and actively sliding backward on targets since 2017, which is impacting American youth and putting at risk future generations.  While the SDGs aim to serve as an effective alternative to short-term thinking, they have not been framed in a way that inspires trust and effective change with the American public. Therefore, it is with growing impetus that American supporters of the SDGs have been focusing on localization to increase local ownership of the SDGs and rebuild public trust to spur action. This session will highlight experiences about making progress as well as share lessons learned in the pursuit of localizing the SDGs through policy and partnerships. 

As part of a listening tour by AmeriCorps and The White House, I spoke in support of embracing the SDGs as an integral part of the program to strengthen U.S. global leadership. Three recommendations were made arising from this theme which include leveraging data, co-branding, and academia in support of this mission. My full statement can be read below.