Project Rewrite: A conversation on women’s leadership and the power of connectivity with Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Project Rewrite, a new initiative from the Wikimedia Foundation, is calling attention to gender gaps in the information landscape (the universe of resources we turn to for knowledge), and calling on everyone to help close them. Every organization and person can help to amplify women’s stories. As part of Project Rewrite, we are sharing conversations with inspiring women leaders we want you to know about. In turn, their organizations are profiling women in their fields to help elevate them in the wider information landscape.
Doreen Bogdan-Martin is Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). She pioneered ITU’s ongoing contribution to the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Digital Equality and also serves as Executive Director of the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. She leads ITU’s collaboration with UNICEF on the Giga project to connect all the world’s schools, and spearheads ITU’s Youth Strategy to actively engage with young people on policy. Doreen is an affiliate of the Harvard University Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society, a Generation Unlimited Champion, and a Champion of the EDISON Alliance.
Read our interview with Doreen below, and check out ITU’s profile of Ladé Araba, the co-founder of Visiola Foundation in Nigeria.
Q: How did you come to the telecommunication and policy field?
It wasn’t planned. I grew up in a family that was science-focused. My dad’s philosophy was that it wasn’t just for girls or boys, I could do anything I wanted to do and be anything I wanted to be. I was super passionate about science; I loved doing experiments at home and at school, and decided to do my university studies in Chemistry. Then I did two years in a windowless lab and became uninspired. I didn’t feel like I was making a difference.
At that point, I switched to social sciences, did a range of things, and when I completed my first degree, I chose a graduate school program in International Communications policy. I ended up having a number of courses on technology, which I loved; it was something that hooked me immediately. My whole career path happened because of a couple of great professors and a fabulous internship at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where I worked on international telecommunications and information administration in their international office. That’s where it all started. A few years later, I moved to the ITU on Secondment and this has been my station of duty for the last 25 years.
Q: You are deeply passionate about ensuring access to connectivity. Can you tell us more about how connectivity changes people’s lives?
I would argue that connectivity is a key enabler or accelerator for each and every one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many of us fought to have our own goal, a goal 18 on connectivity, because it’s fundamental to all the other goals, like education, healthcare, gender equality. Connectivity can help unleash opportunities. Take healthcare or education as an example: we’re never going to have as many doctors as we need, and we’re never going to have as many skilled teachers as we need. It’s going to be through good connectivity with good digital solutions that we can stand a chance to achieve the 2030 agenda and those seventeen goals.
“I would argue that connectivity is a key enabler or accelerator for each and every one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Connectivity can help unleash opportunities.”
Q: What is “Girls in ICT”?
Girls in ICT Day in 2021 will be held on the 22nd of April. It’s our 10-year celebration, so we’re really excited about it. This event was conceptualized to encourage young girls to gain an understanding of what careers in the ICT sector could look like and to inspire them to pursue STEM/STEAM studies. We have a huge gender gap when it comes to access but also one when it comes to the tech sector in women’s representation. There’s an even bigger gap in leadership in the tech sector. The Girls in ICT day gets countries and civil society to organize special events and showcase opportunities for careers in STEAM. We want to build the pipeline for the future and get young women into leadership positions.
To address the digital gender gap, the ITU also has a global partnership with EQUALS. Recognizing the gap in digital skills between men and women, we’re trying to upskill women and girls. We’re working with over 100 partners, and our doors are open to engage with others.
Q: How has COVID-19 changed your work or the way you think about connectivity?
The COVID-19 pandemic has really put the spotlight on connectivity, and what it means not to be connected. 3.7 billion people are still not connected. 1.6 billion learners have been impacted by school closures, so we need to bring connectivity to schools and learners.
The ITU works with UNICEF on a program called Giga. It is an ambitious, bold initiative to connect every school in the world to the internet, and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice.
COVID-19 has also put the spotlight on the lack of digital literacy. We saw what it meant to be not connected, and we saw what it meant not to have the skills to use the connectivity. Even in developed countries we saw teachers and learners were not prepared. We have what we call our digital transformation centers started in nine countries in partnership with Cisco, and it’s very focused on basic digital literacy. Over a couple of months, we’ve done training for 800,000 people globally through the centers; it’s scaling to incredible rates. That’s a space where we’ll continue working in the future.
“COVID-19 has also put the spotlight on the lack of digital literacy. We saw what it meant to be not connected, and we saw what it meant not to have the skills to use the connectivity.”
Q: One of your projects is “spearheading ITU’s new Youth Strategy to more actively engage with the young people who are driving the next wave of digital transformation.” Can you share more about the Youth Strategy and its goals?
Youth are the natural adopters of digital technologies. I’m not a digital native, and young people are enthusiastic adopters. They are really uniquely placed to harness the power of digital in new and imaginative ways. We need to be engaging them in the ITU. So we do policy discussions, we help countries construct enabling environments, we have standards for radio communications. We need young people to not just be recipients of our work, but to be at the table, helping us understand their needs and create the right solutions for them.
The youth strategy is constructed in that way. We work with a lot of young people to develop the strategy, so it wasn’t just for youth but made by youth. We have constructed a new intergenerational board, with largely young members. We had thousands of applicants to that board. It helps ensure we’re very focused on young people. If we look at the developing world, Africa in particular, we see that they have the largest youth demographics, and that’s where we need to be focusing. If we empower them with access to technologies, those technologies can be engines of change for them personally as well as for their families and communities. The youth strategy is focused on engagement, participation, and policy — having them be at the table when the policy discussions are happening.
Q: You are the first woman to hold one of the ITU’s top management positions; what would be your advice to other women seeking leadership roles?
I’m one of the five elected officials, the first and the only woman in 150 years of the ITU’s existence [to attain this position]. My advice would be to be determined. Don’t give up. I think that things don’t just come to us, we have to make them happen.
The other thing I would say is dare to dream big. When I first decided to run for elected office some people discouraged me — both men and women, saying that I should be more modest in my ambitions. That was tough to swallow. I remained quite determined, and it was simply because I have a passion for connectivity. I love what I do. Working in a place with a mission to connect people who are not yet connected, so connectivity can change their lives — that’s worth fighting for.
You can learn more about Doreen’s work at itu.int.
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This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
