The panel “Healing Justice in the Climate Crisis: Restoring Mind, Body, and Spirit” was held on Wednesday, June 25th, during the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path

The panel “Healing Justice in the Climate Crisis: Restoring Mind, Body, and Spirit” was held on Wednesday, June 25th, during the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond hosted by Women’s Earth and Climate Network (WECAN), June 23-28, 2025.

PANELISTS:
Cara Page, Founder of Changing Frequencies and Co-founder of the Healing Histories Project, Turtle Island/USA
Zainab Salbi, Co-founder, Daughters for Earth, Turtle Island/USA
Dr. Vivian Tatiana Camacho Hinojosa (Quechua), Director of Ancestral Traditional Medicine within the Vice Ministry of Ancestral Traditional Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Bolivia Nina Simons, Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, Turtle Island/USA
Daiara Tukano (Tukano de Alto Rio Negro), Indigenous activist and artist, Brazil

Find resources shared during this panel and across the entire Assembly here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yoRH8m0kMi9hTQywnoTCHA77BmrMtFf_cvNiR6QdH4A/edit?usp=sharing

Organized by the Women’s Earth and Climate Network (WECAN), the Global Women’s Assembly for Climate Justice: Path to COP30 and Beyond brought together over 125 grassroots and frontline women leaders in all their diversity, global advocates, thought leaders, and policymakers representing 50 countries from around the world. During 25 unique panels, speakers showcased a diverse array of visions, projects, policy frameworks, campaigns, and movement strategies with which we can accelerate a bold and transformative path to a healthy and just world.

This global public forum was held virtually from Monday, June 23 to Saturday, June 28, 2025, with interpretation in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

AI is getting bigger, but does bigger always mean better? As Large Language Models (LLMs) dominate the scene, their staggering resource consumption raises urgent questions about sustainability and

AI is getting bigger, but does bigger always mean better? As Large Language Models (LLMs) dominate the scene, their staggering resource consumption raises urgent questions about sustainability and efficiency. In this webinar, we challenge the notion that AI must be massive to be powerful. We introduce the Expressive Neural Network (ENN), a novel architecture that rethinks activation functions through the lens of classical signal processing, specifically, the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). This innovative approach not only enhances a network's flexibility and expressiveness but also leads to faster convergence and significantly smaller models, reducing both energy consumption and computational costs. ​

Our discussion bridged the gap between traditional signal processing techniques and modern AI, demonstrating how established mathematical tools can inspire next-generation machine learning. We explored how ENNs can revolutionize edge computing, enabling efficient AI in resource-constrained environments, and why expressiveness – not just size – is the key to the future of neural networks. If LLMs are the brute force of AI, could ENNs be its precision tool?

Speaker:
Ana Pérez-Neira, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain​​

Moderators:
Ian F. Akyildiz, Editor-in-Chief, ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies (ITU-J FET)​​

Alessia Magliarditi, ITU Journal and ITU-T Academia Coordinator, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

This webinar is organized by the ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies (ITU J-FET), an international journal providing complete coverage of all communications and networking paradigms, free of charge for both readers and authors. The ITU Journal considers yet-to-be-published papers addressing fundamental and applied research. Open topics for future research will be discussed. See more information on the ITU Journal webinar series and the open Calls for Papers for the upcoming ITU Journal’s issues here.

466 views  Premiered Nov 29, 2022  #DigitalTransformation #AIforGoodWebinars #AIforGood

To strengthen the technical and institutional capacities of stakeholders in

466 views  Premiered Nov 29, 2022  #DigitalTransformation #AIforGoodWebinars #AIforGood

To strengthen the technical and institutional capacities of stakeholders in driving digital transformation in the urban domain, the “Toolkit on Digital Transformation for People-Oriented Cities and Communities” was developed by ITU and 12 other partners. This Toolkit draws a connection between the technological and interoperable solutions for urban operations while supporting the enhancement of the ability of authorities to envision and adopt cutting-edge technologies to make society more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. 

This Toolkit includes insights on international standards and provides guidance, and use-cases on the application of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), along with the latest reports on the ever-evolving topic of digital transformation. The Toolkit can universally benefit cities and communities, as well as regions and countries regardless of their level of smart or digital development, or their geographical or economic status. This AI for Good Webinar will be a unique opportunity to understand the benefits of leveraging this Toolkit across the smart city ecosystem while keeping digital transformation as the fulcrum. 

Welcome Remarks: Bilel Jamoussi, Chief of the Study Groups Department, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Panel Discussion:

Mythili Menon, Project Officer | Advisor, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Deniz Susar, Governance and Public Administration Officer, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)

Judy Backhouse, Senior Academic Fellow, United Nations University - Centre for Policy Research

Moderator: Cristina Bueti, Counsellor, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)