For international Women’s Month, the ISLANDS Programme is powering a campaign to spotlight women’s and girls’ leadership—as well as persistent challenges—in technology and innovative opportunities in relation to the sound and sustainable management of chemicals and waste in SIDS. As part of the campaign, we are hosting a Call to Action, to collect and share stories from around the world on women innovators. By amplifying their voices, we hope to inspire and support more women to work in technology while building a community they can rely on.   

To participate in the Call to Action on Gender Equality you only need to:   

• Join the ISLANDS Gender Equality Community  
• Share your experience on how technology and innovation can move the needle on gender equality in SIDS by replying to one or more of the following questions: 
  • How do you think technology and innovation can shift—or already is shifting—gender dynamics in SIDS?  
  • How has technology helped in your efforts to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment (and/or sustainable waste management)? 
  • What can you do/are you doing to accelerate gender equality in technology, innovation and digital access?

All kinds of submissions are welcome! Please feel free to document your response through recording a short video (or TikTok); writing a story, or poem; taking a picture or creating an art piece and include a caption of an innovation; capturing a performance; or any other contribution and submit by sharing as a post into the Gender Equality Community stream.  

All of the submissions will be accessible by the Community. The most inspiring submissions will be featured in the upcoming “ISLANDS Voices” video series and shared with our global network. Submissions sharing innovators and inspiring stories will be highlighted in our ISLANDS Community Learning Circles.  

* We recognize gender to be one of many important identifiers of people, and therefore encourage submissions that center women and gender equality but also respect and value diverse and inclusive experiences and voices of marginalized people. We welcome submissions that touch on youth, elderly populations, Indigenous Peoples, differently abled persons, gender and sexual minorities, informal workers, care providers, etc.   

Submit your responses and creations illustrating how technology and innovation can enhance gender equality in SIDS online to the Gender Equality Community stream. 

Share submissions by 26 March 2023 

From the submissions, we will choose 5 of the most inspiring, interesting, and innovative submissions to highlight in our upcoming ISLANDS Voices video series. Submissions will be judged by a panel of ISLANDS colleagues. 

• Submissions chosen to be featured will be notified by 31 March 2023  

• ISLANDS Voices video shared April 2023 

Submission requirements 

• If the video or image shared includes an individual(s) other than the owner of the submission, whether inadvertently or deliberately and it is possible to identify the person whose image is captured, you must ensure that the person concerned gives written consent for the capturing of their image, and understands their image is being shared as part of your submission.  

• Additionally, the person submitting should clearly understand that the content of the submission (video, art, image, written response, etc.) can be shared more widely than with the Call to Action and Gender Equality Community, once submitted.  

• You are free to share more than one submission, up to a maximum of 5 submissions per person.   

We are looking forward to seeing and reading your stories on the Green Forum. Please share with your networks, and reach out to clara [at] ggkp.org (clara[at]ggkp[dot]org) should you have any questions regarding a submission or the platform!   

Would you like to find out more about the gender and technology nexus? Please check out these resources:  

• Enhancing Gender Equality in SIDS’ Technology & Innovation Blog 

• Gendered patterns in use of new technologies Article 

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ISLANDS Programme 

The Implementing Sustainable Low and Non-Chemical Development in Small Island Developing States (ISLANDS) Programme is a $515-million, five-year initiative backed by the Global Environment Facility (providing $61 million), supporting 33 Small Island Developing States in four regions - the Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Ocean to reduce and manage toxic waste in their territories. ISLANDS is led by the United Nations Environment Programme, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Inter-American Development Bank. ISLANDS connects and engage people in SIDS around the world though its community of practice on Plastics, E-waste, Used-Oil, End of Life Vehicles, Mercury  and ISLANDS.   

Terms and Conditions 

Individuals submitting videos, images, or craeative content will retain the copyright (intellectual property rights) over their submissions and will be credited when the content is/are used in wider public communications by the ISLANDS Programme. However, a condition of submitting online is that the ISLANDS Call to Action organizers retain the right to publish the submissions in any format, with appropriate attribution to the creator (individual submitting the content). The individual submitting also gives permission for the content shared to be reproduced in any capacity building and educational curricula being developed by the organisers. Your intellectual property as the content creator will always be acknowledged and content will not be used for commercial purposes. Organizers of the ISLANDS Call to Action may liaise via email with individuals whose submission is chosen to be featured in the ISLANDS Voices video, based on the provided email in the submitter’s Green Forum member profile. This can include for notification, as well as clarification of content, submitter name, organization, country, etc. This will be used solely for the purpose of managing the nomination to be featured in the video, and will not be shared publicly.