On International Women’s Day 2023, meet 25-year-old Motunrayo Fatoke from Nigeria. She is attending the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) which is taking place in New York from 6 to 17 March 2023.
The CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The priority theme for this year is Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
Motunrayo, a member of the SDG4Youth Network, shares why she advocates for education : “I am generally outspoken about injustice. Experiencing first-hand the teeming number of out-of-school children on the street while studying as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan launched my youth activism journey. Since then, I have leveraged platforms like GPE, TheirWorld and SDG4Youth to speak truth to power targeting the right audience to take affirmative actions in solving these problems”.
At CSW67, she was a panelist at the Rewiring the network: Digital education and skills for girls’ and women’s empowerment session: “I discussed the importance of tackling the problems from the root which is first ensuring women and girls have access to quality education to acquire foundational skills, a requisite for progressing into taking Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) related subjects and acquiring other composite skills”.
It was important for her to raise her voice at this international event attended by Representatives of Member States, UN organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Montunrayo is focused on closing the gender digital divide, which is part of the call for action in the Youth Declaration on Transforming Education. She states: "This year’s theme is spot on as digital technology has become critical to our lives. It’s unacceptable for girls and women to be left behind in accessing the internet and owning digital tools and devices that has the potential to improve their lives and create opportunities to acquire relevant knowledge for economic and social advancement”.
On #IWD2023, learn about the story of youth activist @Motunbee_ from 🇳🇬 attending the #CSW67 📍🇺🇳
— Education 2030 (@Education2030UN) March 8, 2023
➡️ She advocates for quality education to tackle the gender digital divide
Let's empower girls and women in the digital age! https://t.co/2DWcx14Aox