Gender, digitalization, environment: ensuring a sustainable future for all

This event is taking place as part of the WP.6 Forum

Standards are extensively used by regulators to set benchmarks for products and services while facilitating trade in line with the objectives of the World Trade Organization. Beyond that, standards are used extensively by organizations to make products, services and processes better, safer and more sustainable and certification to standards helps consumers to better understand what they are getting for their money. However, in the setting of these standards there is generally no process to ensure that the objectives of the UN 2030 Agenda SDG 5 for equality of women and girls is achieved. The Gender-Responsive Standards Initiative (GRSI) of WP.6 was established to provide guidance, relevant resources and reporting progress to guide standards development bodies to ensure that future standards are gender-responsive and thereby give confidence to regulatory agencies that the use of standards will achieve the objective of UN SDG 5.

During this annual session meetings of the GRSI, we will take stock of best practices in gender action plans of standards development bodies in order to promote peer learning and identification of solutions which can be replicated. The initiative will designate a champion model solution and showcase it on its website for the coming period.

In the afternoon (Geneva-time), the GRSI proposes a panel discussion on the theme of digitalization, the environment and the importance of gender in creating a fair and sustainable future for all. The pressing nature of climate change has started to become the primary imperative for organizations, sometimes at cost of gender equality. We will discuss the interconnections between digitalization, environment and gender and examine why they need to be linked. If we move towards a future where gender has not been taken into consideration, we risk creating a future which has not fully benefitted from women’s contribution, continues to leave women behind and which does not achieve optimal results with regards to sustainability. We will look at green technologies, such as hydrogen cars and/or artificial intelligence, and assess what is being done and who it is for and whether a gender dimension has been included.

This meeting is open to any interested parties. All types of standards development organizations as well as decision-makers from both the public and private sector, individual experts, academics, trade and professional bodies, non-governmental organizations etc. are encouraged to participate.