19.02.21
UN New York, CSocD59 – MMM's oral statement at the general debate closed our series of contributions to the 59th UN Commission on Social Development
Digital technology has already transformed societies and economies in many parts of the world, introducing novel ways to communicate, changing lifestyles and creating new types of employment.
However, parents, mothers especially, face specific challenges, which were made even more acute and visible due to the Covid-19 crisis and its subsequent lockdowns:
In families with children, mothers, much more than fathers, have seen the time they devote to childcare and unpaid family care work increase during the lockdowns. They have been struggling to balance telework and support for online schooling, with major impacts on their health and their ability to keep their job – a situation that also threatens to reverse years of hard-won progress on Gender Equality.
All These challenges must be recognized and addressed, by both governments and the private sector.
In particular, all forms of care and education work, whether paid or unpaid, must be recognised and properly valued. They must also be seen as an investment in human capital, not as expenses to be minimised.
The current crisis gives us the opportunity to bring about systemic changes. We are therefore calling on member states to ‘build back transformatively’ and repurpose our economic system to prioritize the wellbeing of people, and place care and education at its heart.
This statement was delivered by Jacqueline Leduc, MMM’s main representative at the United Nations in New York during the general debate which took place on 16 February on the priority theme of the 59th Session of the UN Commission on Social Development ‘Socially just transition towards sustainable development: the role of digital technologies on social development and well-being of all’. (MMM intervention starts at 3230)
This oral statement concludes our series of advocacy activities to raise awareness of the many potential benefits of digital technologies for the wellbeing of families, but also the multiple challenges that parents, especially mothers face in this new digital era brought about by the pandemic:
The resolution that was adopted at the end of the Commission on the priority theme acknowledges that digital technologies have profoundly transformed global societies. It also recognizes the digital divide within and among countries, urban/rural and between generations and genders. It fails however to recognize the multiple challenges that parents face with the use of digital technologies within families.
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