Hallo! Ich komme aus Thailand. Ich lerne gern etwas Neues. Ich interessiere mich für die europäische Kultur!
08/02/2025
Nominated for "SDGHero, United Nations ESCAP" by YaiSiRi
Ms. Witchayanee Ocha, Thailand, “Space4Women” Project
Witchayanee Ocha, a Thai Gender Specialist who has been contributing to “Space4Women” project since 2017. The project has empowered hundreds of women and girls worldwide to pursue studies and careers in the space sector and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) including encourage gender equality efforts for change at institutional/organizational level. Discuss further action to achieve the targets set out in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, including removing barriers and bias to gender equality and the objective of a gender-balanced workforce by 2030. The project has initiated by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) by bringing together experts to contribute to the event through presentations, sharing of expertise and experience. Witchayanee is the first Asian woman who share her expertise to the project since its origin with emphasize to bring women in Asia and the Pacific to join the space sector and STEM. In 2023, she contributed to develop the 1st gender mainstreaming toolkit for the space sector.
From 4-6 October 2017, UNOOSA and UN Women co-hosted an inaugural “Space for Women” Expert Meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, U.S.A. with the goal of creating and prioritizing specifics for an envisioned “Space for Women” project. Attendees, including approximately 60 women from around the world, heard from government and private enterprise administrators and policy makers, scientists, aerospace professionals, engineers, educators, and arts/media professionals.
Witchayanee raised up her voices through her presentation entitled "Gendered Space: Technology Education for Women in Developing Countries". Her presentation brought the discussion how to inspire young females in developing countries to make an impact around STEM. Her presentation suggested that the education could enable to change the conception that technology is a man’s world in developing countries. She proposed female role models to inspire young females in developing countries to make an impact around STEM. She emphasized the importance in expanding more opportunities and inspiring young girls, women as well as marginalized communities from developing countries to see opportunities in this fascinating sector. On the final day of the event, recommendations from the assembled group were considered at a high-level panel at UN Headquarters, including a proposal to establish a global network of role models and mentors working to further the advancement of girls and women in space sectors worldwide. The high-level panel adopted the following recommendations emerging from the Expert Meeting.
In 2020, “Space4Women Mentorship Program” for Women and Girls in Space and STEM was established to support capacity building for women and girls all over the world for funding opportunities, including scholarships and mentorship programs. In 2023 alone, “Mentorship Programme” ran the 3rd edition included 94 mentors and 152 mentees from 67 countries. In 2022, jointly organised a “Space4Women” Expert Meeting with Republic of Korea to promote gender equality and women empowerment in the space area in accordance with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 (Quality Education) and 5 (Gender Equality). In 2023, Jointly organised a “Space4Women” Expert Meeting with the Canadian Space Agency to produce “the 1st Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit” for the space sector to support space organizations to improve the representation and retention of women in the space sector.
In 2024, Jointly organised a “Space4Women” Expert Meeting with the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) with the theme “Integrating Women in Space Activities and Solutions” which focus on developing a toolkit to enhance STEM education accessibility for women and girls in marginalised communities. The meeting convened over 80 space sector experts, focusing on gender inclusion and women’s potential to address global challenges in agriculture, food security, and space technology integration.
In Conclusion: Witchayanee is looking for inspiring the future generation of girls, women and marginalized communities in her country Thailand to pursue careers in STEM and space related field. She is conducting the research entitled “Advancing Gender Equality: Doing ‘Gender Diversity’ in the Space Sector” to drive “Change” as well as supporting “The Space4Women Network” to expand in national initiatives and in Asia and the Pacific.
