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1. Gender Empowerment and Fate Control

   Rozanova Smith, M. ; Petrov, A. ; Korkina Williams, V. ( April 2021 , Pan-Arctic Report "Gender Equality in the Arctic")

   Oddsdóttir, Embla Eir ; Ágústsson, Hjalti Ómar (Ed.)

   Enabling gender equality by empowering all genders to effectively participate in modern society is one of the most important advances towards sustainable development, encompassing equal representation in the political office, labor market, and civil society (Sustainable Development Goal 5, or SDG5). The goal of this chapter is to improve understanding of gender empowerment issues in the Arctic at the national, regional, and local levels, and to identify concrete strategies for political, economic, and civic gender empowerment, and thereby facilitate sustainable policy making for the Arctic. 

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2. Gender Empowerment in the Arctic (2016-2020)

   https://doi.org/10.18739/A2000019Z  

   Rozanova-Smith, Marya ; Petrov, Andrey ; Absalonsen, Joanna ; Arnfjord, Steven ; Heleniak, Timothy ; Gaini, Firouz ; Mills, Suzanne ; Poturaeva, Aleksandra ; Ramage, Justine ; Þrastardóttir, Bergljót ( January 2022 , NSF Arctic Data Center)

   The collaborative study on gender equality and empowerment in the Arctic (UGEEA) aims to improve understanding of gender equality issues in the New Arctic at the national, regional, and local levels, identify concrete strategies for gender political, economic, and civic empowerment, and thereby facilitate sustainable policymaking for the New Arctic. This study employs an inclusive, collaborative approach to collect and analyze datasets, documents, and case studies to understand to what extent political, economic, and civic empowerment is distributed by gender. Broader impacts of the UGEEA Project include recommendations for the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, raising public awareness of gender issues in the Arctic, and the development of a publicly available data compendium on gender empowerment. The study also aims to narrow the existing knowledge gaps on gender empowerment across Circumpolar regions by including an assessment of gender empowerment at different levels relevant to the Arctic countries — national/quasi-national (for Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland), subnational (regional), municipal, and local (community) levels. The dataset examines gender earnings gap, gender disparity in tertiary education, and women's political leadership in the Arctic at the regional/(sub)national levels. 

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3. Gender Equality for a Thriving, Sustainable Arctic

   https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910825  

   Oddsdóttir, Embla Eir ; Ágústsson, Hjalti Ómar ; Svensson, Eva-Maria ; Hoogensen Gjørv, Gunhild ; Kendall, Sarah Seabrook ; Smieszek, Malgorzata ; Prior, Tahnee ; Hayfield, Erika ; Williamson, Karla Jessen ; Rozanova-Smith, Marya ; et al ( October 2021 , Sustainability)

   On 21 May 2021, a milestone Pan-Arctic Report: Gender Equality in the Arctic was published in tandem with the Arctic Council’s Ministerial Meeting held in Reykjavík, 19–20 May 2021. This article provides a brief review of the report and its major findings across six chapters that address key themes concerning gender equality in the Arctic: Law and Governance, Security, Gender and Environment, Migration and Mobility, Indigeneity, Gender, Violence, Reconciliation and Empowerment and Fate Control. A major conclusion of the report is that accessible, comparable, gender-disaggregated, and Arctic -specific data is severely lacking. Further, all chapters highlight the importance of gender-based analysis and gender mainstreaming in all decision-making processes at national and regional levels. The varying roles that gender—and its intersections with existing inequalities—plays in mediating the impacts of climate change and other socioeconomic transformations are also discussed throughout the report. The Arctic Council is identified as the main driver for implementing recommendations that were provided and discussed at the Council’s Ministerial Meeting and in the Reykjavík Declaration 2021, where the eight ministers of Arctic states “Emphasize[s] the importance of gender equality and respect for diversity for sustainable development in the Arctic… encourage[s] the mainstreaming of gender-based analysis in the work of the Arctic Council and call[s] for further action to advance gender equality in the Arctic”. This report and its policy relevant highlights, address these priorities and serve as a knowledge base for promoting gender equality and non-discrimination in the Arctic. 

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4. Leveraging mobile phones to attain sustainable development

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909326117  

   Rotondi, Valentina ; Kashyap, Ridhi ; Pesando, Luca Maria ; Spinelli, Simone ; Billari, Francesco C. ( June 2020 , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   null (Ed.)

   For billions of people across the globe, mobile phones enable relatively cheap and effective communication, as well as access to information and vital services on health, education, society, and the economy. Drawing on context-specific evidence on the effects of the digital revolution, this study provides empirical support for the idea that mobile phones are a vehicle for sustainable development at the global scale. It does so by assembling a wealth of publicly available macro- and individual-level data, exploring a wide range of demographic and social development outcomes, and leveraging a combination of methodological approaches. Macro-level analyses covering 200+ countries reveal that mobile-phone access is associated with lower gender inequality, higher contraceptive uptake, and lower maternal and child mortality. Individual-level analyses of survey data from sub-Saharan Africa, linked with detailed geospatial information, further show that women who own a mobile phone are better informed about sexual and reproductive health services and empowered to make independent decisions. Payoffs are larger among the least-developed countries and among the most disadvantaged micro-level clusters. Overall, our findings suggest that boosting mobile-phone access and coverage and closing digital divides, particularly among women, can be powerful tools to attain empowerment-related sustainable development goals, in an ultimate effort to enhance population health and well-being and reduce poverty. 

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5. Developing Humanitarian Engineering Perspectives Among Underrepresented Scholars Through Engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals in Global Contexts

   Tull, R. G. ; Hester, S. ; Medina, Y. ; Williams, D. N. ; Medina, H. ; Aparaka, E. T. ( June 2018 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Opportunities to participate in international engagement experiences broaden students’ perspectives and perceptions of real world problems. A strong sense of “global engineering identity” can emerge when students are part of international teams that consider solutions to humanitarian challenges. To encourage retention in engineering among undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups, a multi-campus team of faculty and administrators developed a plan expose students to humanitarian engineering perspectives within global contexts. Through a federally-funded program, the leaders took students to international conferences that fostered global team-based approaches to the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 14 Grand Challenges, and the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Students attended international conferences on three continents in 2016 and 2017. The conferences introduced students to the NAE’s Grand Challenges in plenary sessions, and the SDGs in smaller group sessions, with a charge to transform the world. Students from across the globe developed action plans to potentially address problems within their communities. Students were encouraged to consider real-life scenarios of their choice that could be further refined and potentially implemented upon return to their home countries. The structure of the small group sessions allowed students to be members of an international team, agree upon a problem to tackle, conduct early research, and propose a concrete path toward addressing one of the SDGs. Data for this project was collected through crowd-sourcing, using online student reflections. Students blogged throughout a one-week period for each of three conferences. There were 28 respondents, across the three events. Content analysis was used to disaggregate data and group similarities. Data showed that the students from the federally-funded delegation demonstrated a clear need to assist the global community. They were particularly interested in working on problems related to industry innovation, infrastructure, gender equality, sustainable cities, and communities. Students realized that approaches to solutions could not be centralized to their own country, and that their proposals had to be feasible and logical for other parts of the world. As an example, challenges with bringing clean water to remote regions and approaches to sanitation required a need to take time to learn from peers from other countries. Students were asked to provide ubiquitous solutions to the problems. They were asked to consider themselves as part of the respective communities as a means of assessing the practicality of potential approaches. Students’ perspectives changed throughout the course of the conference, as they reflected on their ability to bring global contexts to their research. After participating in these conferences, students experienced a greater awareness of sustainability. They were also inspired to experience different cultures, cultivating greater appreciation for the need to engage with the international community when sharing research. The exposure to humanitarian engineering perspectives influenced global STEM identity, while appreciating disciplines outside of engineering, e.g, psychology, social behaviors. Further, students learned that strides can be made toward solving global problems when collaborations and relationships are formed and fostered. 

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