Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to welcome you all to this celebration of International Women's Day.
I thank our very distinguished panel for being willing to share their experiences with us.
The panellists all come from very different backgrounds. What they have in common is that they have succeeded in scientific domains that were long dominated by men.
As the careers of our panellists demonstrate, the situation for women in science has improved a lot over the years. But science and engineering generally are still male-dominated.
I have made the point in the past that the IAEA needs to pay close attention to women's concerns in our work in Member States, especially through our technical cooperation programme.
I believe our technical cooperation projects are much more likely to succeed if the perspectives and needs of all stakeholders – male and female – are taken into account. I want our programmes to have a positive impact on women's lives.
Women in countries which receive technical cooperation need to be actively involved in the planning and implementation of projects if they are to have maximum impact.
We need a special focus on the provision of training for female technicians and scientists.
As an international scientific organization, the IAEA is also aware of the need to strive for gender balance on its own staff.
I have made an effort to redress the imbalance since I became Director General in 2009. The proportion of women in senior positions has increased, although the number does fluctuate due to our rotation policy.
We now have 10 female Directors and one female DDG. I would like to stress that this was not the result of positive discrimination.
The IAEA Statute states that "The paramount consideration in the recruitment and employment of the staff... shall be to secure employees of the highest standards of efficiency, technical competence, and integrity."
I ask Member States to play their part by ensuring that well qualified women candidates are made aware of vacancies in the Agency and encouraged to apply.
Active participation by women in Agency meetings and conferences also needs to be encouraged.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In closing, let me underscore that I greatly value the contribution of women at all levels of the Agency – General Service, Professional and senior management.
I will continue to work so that we steadily increase the proportion of qualified women at all levels, and in particular in senior positions in the IAEA, while also trying to have as wide geographical representation as possible.
Thank you.