For information only - not an official document

UNIS/MA/183
3 October 2017

MEDIA ADVISORY

Media representatives are invited to a

High-level panel on Space for Women

on Friday 6 October 2017, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Conference Room 11, United Nations Secretariat Building, New York

VIENNA/NEW YORK, 3 October (United Nations Information Service) - The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and UN Women will host a high-level panel on "Space for Women" on Friday 6 October 2017, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Conference Room 11 at the United Nations Secretariat Building in New York

The high-level panel is the final event in the three-day Space for Women Expert Meeting, jointly organized by UNOOSA and UN Women. The Expert Meeting brings together decision makers and experts from around the world to discuss how to increase the number of women and girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), especially in developing countries, and how to improve women's involvement in the space sector. The role of space technology, applications and science in the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goal 5 on "gender equality" will also be considered. The meeting will result in recommendations for the development of UNOOSA's Space for Women project around the following three concepts:

•  Let's make space work for the empowerment of women

•  Let's make space in the aerospace industry and STEM fields for women

•  Let's make the Space for Women project together

The following speakers will address these topics at the high-level panel on 6 October:

•  Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations

•  Simonetta Di Pippo, Director, UNOOSA

•  Laskhmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women

•  Carolina Vasquez, Minister for Science and Technology, Costa Rica

•  Jan Kickert, Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations

•  Scott Kelly, United Nations Champion for Space and former US astronaut

•  Sandy Magnus, Executive Director, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and former US astronaut

•  Gabriela Ramos, Chief of Staff, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (video message)

•  Jan Woerner, Director General, European Space Agency

•  Luisella Guilicchi, President, Women in Aerospace Europe

The Space for Women Expert Meeting and high-level panel are part of UNOOSA's preparations for UNISPACE+50, a special segment of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in June 2018 for the international community to set the future course of global space cooperation for the benefit of humankind.

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Media representatives who wish to attend the event, and who are not accredited to the UN Secretariat, should write to malu[at]un.org.

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For more information, please contact:

Daria  Brankin 
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) 
Telephone: (+43 699) 1459 8718 
Email: daria.brankin[at]unoosa.org