Ksenia Drozdova on the important role of women in the accomplishment of ICT objectives

On September 17, 2021 Ulaanbaatar hosted the Women in ICT Forum as an event of DIGITAL NATION EXPO AND CONFERENCE, commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the ICT industry in Mongolia. Ksenia Drozdova, Director General of Intersputnik, accepted the invitation of Bolor-Erdene Battsengel, Chairwoman of the Communications and Information Technology Authority of the Government of Mongolia, to the event.

The measures needed to ensure gender balance in the IT industry, and the self-actualization opportunities opening up for the women of the world were discussed by Amartuvshin Ganibal, Parliament Member of Mongolia; Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau; Tenzin Dolma, Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, South East Asia, Google Inc., and Katerina Aheieva, Dragonfly Aerospace South Africa, Business Development and Analytics in Space Sector.

While emphasizing a certain gender disproportion in state-of-the-art high-tech processes and production business, all of the discussion participants highlighted a noticeable growth of the number of women employed in the new digital economy. The female participants in the discussion panel underlined the crucial role of compliance with gender equality in access to secondary, higher and higher technical education. Internet network development on the base of satellite and ground communication channels, the reduction of communication service price and the implementation of digital applications (e-education, е-medicine, etc.) open up new opportunities and allow today’s woman to do her thing in any part of the globe.

The Directorate of Intersputnik directly employs women in the key positions, such as Director General, Executive Director and Chief Accountant. Analyzing the gender situation among Intersputnik Members and Signatories, both across government instrumentalities and institutions and private companies, Ksenia Drozdova emphasized a fairly high level of women’s presence among their senior executives. Approximately half of managerial positions are held by women.

Today’s global agenda includes a number of issues related to preserving our planet for future generations and taking the globe to the trajectory of sustainable and resilient development. It is no coincidence that “achieving of gender equality and empowering all women and girls” is featured centrally, inter alia, among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals announced by the United Nations. The uncovering of rich human potential will contribute decisively to the achievement of all formulated goals to the full extent.

Working in international partnership, Intersputnik fosters the achievement of the UN goals – the creation of a series of distance learning courses on space topics is just one example of support for the women joining ICT, including the space industry. The next two courses focus on international regulation of space activities and the technical aspects of geostationary and non-geostationary communication systems. These courses were developed for Intersputnik Members and Signatories, yet training is available to all those who are interested upon request.