Invest in women to accelerate development for all: UNCTAD chief

Ahead of International Women’s Day, Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan outlines how investing in women builds more resilient and sustainable economies and societies.

shape our future world in a gender-biased way.

In cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence, only one in five professionals is a woman.

AI algorithms, trained on data steeped in societal biases, risk perpetuating and also amplifying these prejudices, embedding them deep within the code of new products and services.

For example, translation software has tended to give professions a gender when a language has masculine and feminine nouns, translating “the doctor” from English into “le docteur” (masculine) in French, and “the nurse” into “l’infirmière” (feminine).

‘Agents of change’

In the interview, the UNCTAD chief challenges the narrative that women are “a vulnerable group”.

“We are agents of change, agents of good, agents of community building, of economy building, of society building,” she says. “Women are vulnerable because their rights have been weakened.”

Ms. Grynspan says she remains hopeful as she sees women persist across the world.

“I really see everywhere young women coming through the ranks of politics, through the ranks of society, fighting for their rights, making a difference,” she says. “So despite this very difficult moment for the world, I feel optimistic in my belief in the new generations.”

As we mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, this episode of The Weekly Tradecast looks at the importance of investing in women with special guest Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, the UN’s trade and development body.