The celebration of World Engineering Day is about promoting engineering as a career and how it is an opportunity to ensure that our people and planet are safe, especially achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in countries where support is most needed and to ensure that everyone has access to clean water, sanitation, reliable energy, and other basic human needs.
The celebration of the day also creates the opportunity for engineers to inform the world, particularly the youth who aspire to be engineers, the impact of engineering on our society.
The celebration is backed by a different theme every year. This year, the theme is ‘Engineering innovation for a more resilient world’.
Engineering has always had an essential role in development and human welfare. Ensuring that future generations of engineers and scientists will be able to design solutions for local and global challenges is critical.
UNESCO’s General Conference proclaimed the 4 March World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development during its 40th session in November 2019 to raise awareness of the role of engineering in modern life, which is essential to mitigate the impact of climate change and advance sustainable development, especially in Africa and the small island developing states (SIDS).
In spite of the importance of engineering for our life and future, women have been historically underrepresented in engineering fields, typically making up only 10 – 20% of the engineering workforce. Even in countries where the numbers of women studying STI have increased, this trend has not translated into more women entering the workplace. Too many female students who graduate do not go into the engineering profession. The barriers are often connected to persistent gender stereotypes in this field, inadequate policies or educational environments that do not meet their needs and aspirations.
UNESCO is placing a high priority on activities that promote awareness of engineering as a career, as well as on those that demonstrate the importance of youth studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
