EQUALS at 10: Celebrating the Past, Shaping the Future of Digital Gender Equality
On 21 September 2026, the EQUALS Global Partnership celebrated its 10th anniversary in the framework of Digital@UNGA 2026 at UN Women Headquarters in New York, bringing together the Partnership’s co-founders, partners and changemakers to celebrate a decade of collective action for digital gender equality — and set the stage for the decade ahead.
UN Women/Ryan Brown
Launched in Geneva in September 2016, EQUALS began with a powerful idea: closing the digital gender divide requires more than individual efforts. It requires partnership.
A decade later, that conviction remains at the heart of EQUALS.
Five Voices. One Partnership. Ten Years of Action.
The anniversary reunited leaders from the five EQUALS co-founding organizations — UN Women, ITU, ITC, GSMA and UNU — for a special conversation on Why EQUALS Still Matters today.
Rather than traditional speeches, EQUALS Principals reflected on the moments that defined the Partnership, what a decade of collaboration has made possible, why the mission remains urgent, and their hopes and commitments for the years ahead.
Together, their reflections underscored the idea on which EQUALS was built: the digital gender divide is too complex for any one organization or sector to tackle alone.
A Decade in Action: Launch of the EQUALS 10th Anniversary Report
The celebration marked the official launch EQUALS at 10 Anniversary Report, capturing the story of the Partnership’s first decade. From digital skills and research to leadership, innovation and global advocacy, the report looks backat the initiatives, milestones and people that have shaped EQUALS since 2016 — while drawing lessons from ten years of collective action. More than a retrospective, it is also a bridge to what comes next.
Behind every milestone is a story
The anniversary put those stories centre stage through The Faces of EQUALS: Stories of Leadership, Skills and Change.
Tania Soerianto, EQUALS in Tech Awards winner; Daisy Wachira, Her Digital Skills alumna; Fatima Nisar, ITU160 Gender Champion; and Yolanda Rueda Fernández, Founder and President of Cybervoluntarios, shared perspectives from different parts of the EQUALS community. Their experiences brought the story of EQUALS to life: skills opening new possibilities, recognition amplifying women-led solutions, young leaders turning ideas into action, and partners taking that impact further. They also brought the conversation back to the question at the heart of the next decade: what will it take to scale what works and reach many more women and girls?
The next chapter starts now
The 10th anniversary was as much about the future as the past.
As digital transformation accelerates and technologies such as AI reshape economies, workplaces and societies, ensuring women and girls can help shape that future is more important than ever.
The celebration therefore closed not simply by looking back, but by inviting participants to contribute a wish, commitment or idea for the next decade of EQUALS — turning an anniversary into a renewed call for collective action.
EQUALS now looks towards 2035, with the ambition to empower 100 million women and girls to become active contributors to the digital economy.
The first decade showed what partnership can make possible. Now, it is time to write the next one — together.
