Equip women with technology, stresses Copenhagen conference

As soon as the session ended at 10:00am and the five high-level panelists began leaving the stage, dozens of youths started climbing up the podium and started taking photos with one of them.

He is none but Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus.

As he started stepping out of the dais, more and more youths swarmed him to take selfies.

“Oh, he is so famous,” exclaimed a middle-aged woman standing few yards from Yunus, near the centre stage at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen where Women Deliver is organising the four-day Women Deliver Global Conference that began on Monday.

The selfie show continued and around 10:10am, the security men escorted Dr Yunus to another meeting room, yet the young people went after him.

One might wonder why he was so popular among the youths. The reason might be he spoke at the session of dreams, of something that is close to their heart.

“If you are a young girl, you have incredible potentials. Unleash the potentials. Do not wait for others to help. Do not seek jobs because jobs diminish your potentials,” he said in the panel.

The panel that included Plan International CEO Anne-Birgitte, Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg, Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen, discussed “Investing in Girls and Women: Everybody Wins”.

Dr Yunus focused on women education, financial inclusion and equipping them with technologies, arguing that these elements can make dramatic transformation towards gender equality, a major pillar of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

Citing the experience of Grameen Bank, he said the bank provided microloans to more than eight million people, mostly women, who by utilising their creativity have changed their fate. A large number of them were provided with mobile phones, used for generating income.

Besides, Grameen Shakti started providing the poor households with solar systems on credit 22 years back when 70 percent of rural households in Bangladesh lacked electricity. Now some 1,000 solar systems are sold everyday. Other companies too stepped in the sector. 

“Technology is a strong tool to solve the problems,” he said, citing venture between Grameen and Grameen Intel on using mobile apps assessing physical status of pregnant women.

The poor microloan borrowers used their creativity to change their lives and educate their children, he said.

“We have to be problem solvers,” said Yunus, drawing a huge applause from the packed plenary hall of some 5,000 participants, suggesting that the education system that teaches to seek jobs needs to change.

“Become entrepreneurs, change the world,” he said.

Anthony Lake said Unicef, through various programme, is using mobile phones to connect to the communities, tracking if children go to schools and get medical services through community workers. The communities also report on the volunteers' performance.

Thus, both can be made accountable, he said, stressing the use of technology in development programmes. 

He stressed higher investments on nutrition of young girls, who often face serious malnutrition – something that has intergenerational health impacts as programmes in the developing world were not enough to reach the disadvantaged and youths. 

Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said he is a “technological optimistic”.

Denmark, which has been ranked the best place for women in 2016, has health clinics for pregnant women who can call round the clock for help in pregnancy-related problems and it has developed apps which have handy information for the midwives, he said. 

“…connected via technology, farmers know prices of their produces and are not cheated,” Jensen said, adding, “We cannot imagine what is going to happen with technology. We have to best utilise it for social transformation.”

Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg suggested making higher public investments to enhance rural telecom coverage to enhance the quality of secondary education.

DR YUNUS AWARDED

Women Deliver, meanwhile, presented Muhammad Yunus “The Women Deliver Award for Innovation” for his contribution to the empowerment of women and children education in innovative ways.

Saundra Pelletier, CEO of non-profit organisation WomenCare Global, handed over a crest to the Nobel Laureate at a plenary in Copenhagen, moderated by Chris Elias, president of the Global Development Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“I am incredibly honored to have the award,” said Dr Yunus.