Seoul Gender Summit aims to support U.N.'s sustainable growth goals

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Yonhap) -- The Gender Summit 2020 being hosted by Seoul aims to support U.N. sustainable development goals that can benefit all of humankind, South Korean organizers for the event said Wednesday.

The two-day international meeting, which runs through Thursday and is being held partly online due to coronavirus concerns, is focused on expanding the participation of women in the field of science and technology, the Ministry of Science and ICT said.

The ministry, one of the key organizers for the summit, said the "gendered innovation" goals of the summit can help remove gender-related bias and promote new knowledge vital for sustainable growth in various cutting-edge fields.

"Gendered innovations help identify and prevent gender bias by introducing gender analysis in every R&D stage and enhance the level of knowledge and technology, thus increasing the social and economic contribution of science and technology," South Korea's Science Minister Choi Ki-young said in a welcoming address.

He added that the U.N.'s sustainable development goal is to "leave no one behind" and to resolve universal social, environmental and economic problems by 2030, which can be better achieved through gender equality.

The Gender Summit was started by the European Union in 2011 and expanded to all regions, with South Korea hosting the summit for the first time in the Asia-Pacific region in 2015.

Participants of this year's meeting, which is being broadcast live on YouTube, include Papa Seck, the chief statistician at UN Women, World Bank economist Muneeza Mehmood Alam, and World Meteorological Organization's chief researcher Jurg Luterbacher, along with some 50 experts in the global science and technology sectors.

yonngong@yna.co.kr
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