[Chapter-delegates] Video: Geena Davis at the UN Broadband Commission.

[Joly MacFie]

http://youtu.be/m2yjsHT7UoY

Ms Davis appealed to the Commission to set up a special focus group on
gender that would undertake research on the many ways broadband networks
and technologies could be used to empower girls and women -- for example,
through access to education, health care and useful information such as
farming advice, climate monitoring and commodity prices, but also as tools
to foster female entrepreneurship and new business opportunities.
"Broadband is having a transformational impact on the media and
entertainment industry, but its importance reaches much further than
that...Broadband will be key to meeting the Millennium Development Goals,
providing women with the means to educate themselves and their children;
improve their own health and the health of their families and communities;
start their own businesses; keep themselves safe; and innovate to build and
shape the future they want. This Commission can play a powerful advocacy
role by speaking out strongly for the greater engagement of girls and women
in the digital revolution taking place all around us," said Ms Davis.

Her call to action was enthusiastically received by the Commission which
immediately agreed to establish a special working group on gender and
technology with a specific focus on how to better engage and empower girls.
The working group will be headed by Helen Clark, Administrator of the
United Nations Development Programme. It received a spontaneous donation of
USD 1 million from Commissioner Reza Jafari, with several members of the
commission agreeing to prepare a special report on opportunities and
barriers for girls and women, to be presented at the next meeting of the
Commission in Mexico City in March 2013.

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