An 18-year-old science student has made an astonishing breakthrough that will enable mobile phones and other batteries to be charged within seconds rather than the hours it takes today’s devices to power back up.

Saratoga, Calif. resident Eesha Khare made the breakthrough by creating a small super capacitor that can fit inside a cell phone battery and enable ultra-fast electricity transfer and storage, delivering a full charge in 20-30 seconds instead of several hours.

The nano-tech device Khare created can supposedly withstand up to 100,000 charges, a 100-fold increase over current technology, and it’s flexible enough to be used in clothing or displays on any non-flat surface.

It could also one day be used in car batteries and charging stations not unlike those used by the Tesla Model S, which includes “supercharger” technology that promises to charge vehicles in 30 minutes or less.

“I’m in a daze,” Khare told CBS San Francisco after being honored among the three finalists at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix over the weekend. “I can’t believe this happened”.

Over 1,600 finalists from around the world competed in the science fair for a $75,000 scholarship grand prize awarded by Intel. Runners-up received $50,000 scholarships.
Khare was the runner-up to 19-year-old Romanian student Gorden E. Moore, who created a low-cost artificial intelligence that can drive vehicles. She tied with Louisiana 17-year-old Henry Wanjune, who figured out new ways to measure dark matter and energy in space.

Further details

As part of its efforts to improve the quality of lives through extensive use of digital technology, global technology company, Intel Corporation Nigeria, has entered into a partnership with the African Women Entrepreneurship programme AWEP for the delivery of digital literacy training women entrepreneurs. Intel will conduct the training on a train-the-trainer basis.

Corporate Affairs Manager of Intel West Africa, Osagie Ogunbor said that the initiative would enhance the ability of the women to run more efficient businesses.
The training known, as Intel EASY STEPS is part of the corporation’s educational content for which the chip-making company has become reputable across the world.
Ogunbor noted that the training, which would be provided free of charge was also part of Intel’s “women friendly” corporate social responsibility initiatives.

He explained that digital literacy was pivotal to the improvement of the quality of lives of any individual in today’s contemporary world and that Intel was committed to partnering with like-minded organizations to improve digital literacy the world over.

According to Ogunbor, “you cannot be effective and efficient in the running of any enterprise without digital literacy. This has become a necessity in this digital age, and we are proud to lead in global efforts at digital literacy”.

On her part, the President of AWEP Nigeria Yemisi Iranloye stated that the organization was delighted that Intel was providing the free training for its members and promised that those who receive the training would in turn ensure that they train others.

Iranloye said, “despite the large number of women running very small informal businesses, a number of them are unable to expand the scope and profile of their businesses, because they are unable to take advantage of the opportunities that abound in the digital world”, she said and urged women to embrace online marketing which was a cost effective way of reaching the entire world via the Internet.

The AWEP boss in Nigeria also called on other organizations to emulate Intel’s consistent efforts to address issues of women and girls’ empowerment as well as its trademark education programmes across the world. AWEP representatives from Ghana, Zambia and Cameroun attended the training.

AWEP is an initiative launched by the U.S. Department of State in July 2010. It identifies and builds networks of women entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa who are poised to transform their societies by owning, running, and operating small and medium scale businesses, and by becoming voices for social advocacy in their communities.

(Source: The Guardian Newspaper)

Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a tremendous pleasure to be with you this afternoon for this very important High Level Dialogue on Women’s Empowerment in the Information Society.
In the second decade of the 21st century, we are all very much aware of the power and importance of ICTs in every aspect of our lives – and ICTs increasingly play a vital role in all societies, in all countries.

ICTs are also a huge enabler for women in all communities – and especially in the developing world.

Even a simple mobile phone enables women to stay in touch with family and friends; can provide women with access to all kinds of valuable information, such as healthcare and reproductive information; and can be a valuable tool for marketing skills and selling products and services.

With ICTs we can deliver basic education in areas such as literacy, entrepreneurship and e-agriculture in ways never before imagined – and given that women do most of the world’s work, this offers enormous potential for improving the lives not just of women but of all the world’s people.

I am proud to be able to report that ITU – the UN specialized agency for ICTs – has partnered with the Telecentre.org Foundation on a Women’s Digital Literacy Campaign.
This campaign, launched in 2011, is on track to train one million women in basic ICT skills – and indeed by March this year we were already past the two-thirds mark, with 680,000 women from 147 organizations trained in 85 countries.

For its part, the UN Broadband Commission – which was created three years ago by ITU and UNESCO – set up a Working Group on Broadband and Gender in September last year, in answer to a direct appeal from Geena Davis, to harness the power of broadband to empower women and girls.

The working group had its first formal meeting in Mexico just over a month ago, chaired by Helen Clark, the UNDP Administrator, and I was very pleased to have been able to take part myself, along with the co-Chair of the Broadband Commission, Carlos Slim.

The Commission has also endorsed a new advocacy target, to achieve gender equality in access to broadband by 2020.

Ladies and gentlemen,
In a world where there is a large and growing skills shortage in the ICT sector, we need to get more girls involved in science, technology, engineering and maths – the STEM subjects – and we need to get more girls taking an interest in ICT careers.

ITU has adopted a three-pronged approach to increasing the number of women in ICT careers:

Firstly, to create demand among girls and women for careers in ICT, especially through our annual Girls in ICT Day initiative, which takes place on the fourth Thursday in April;
Secondly, to ensure a better supply of STEM education to girls and women; and
Thirdly, to achieve long-term sustainability by encouraging ICT businesses to attract, recruit, retain and – last, but very much not least – promote women. This involves issues such as pay gaps, recruitment strategies, making the work environment more attractive to women, and of course the work-life balance.

How can we move this strategy forward?

As you may know, UN Women and the UN Global Compact developed a core set of principles for all kinds of businesses offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community.

These principles are known as the Women’s Empowerment Principles. The WEPs were developed following an international multi-stakeholder consultation process, which began in March 2009 and culminated in their launch on International Women’s Day in March 2010.

Nearly 600 companies around the world have now signed on to these principles.

One of the recommendations made by ITU during the discussions on Women’s ICT Careers, at the Women, ICT and Development meeting in Washington DC in January, was to develop a Roadmap for the Tech Sector.

This roadmap would address the challenges and barriers to engaging more girls in STEM studies, as well as those that prevent women from fully-engaging in ICT careers and advancing to the highest levels.

I am therefore delighted to be able to announce that ITU, UN Women and the UN Global Compact have agreed to launch an international multi-stakeholder consultation process to develop a Tech Sector Roadmap designed to tackle just these challenges.

We will look forward to working with a wide range of stakeholders – including WICTAD and the Broadband Commission Working Group on Gender – as we develop this roadmap.

ITU looks forward to bringing its experience in promoting girls into the ICT pipeline and women into ICT careers.
In addition, ITU can promote the Tech Sector Roadmap among its 700+ Sector Members, which include many of the world’s leading ICT companies and top academic institutions.

I am sure that my colleague here from UN Women will also wish to share her thoughts on the Tech Sector Roadmap.
Distinguished guests,

This high level panel has been convened to identify systemic, scalable strategies for empowering women in the Information Society – and I believe that the Tech Sector Roadmap is a perfect example of this, and will make real progress in enabling girls and women to step up to technology and seize the amazing career opportunities ahead.
We have much to look forward to – and I wish you a very constructive dialogue!

Thank you.

(Source: ITU)

In cooperation with the Jordan National Commission for UNESCO and Arab Women Media Center, UNESCO has been working to incorporate media and information literacy (MIL) into the Jordanian school curriculum by providing high school teachers and students the training to gather, analyze and utilize information through new and traditional media, and to develop debating skills so that they are able to express themselves in a professional manner.

A closing event was held under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Education, Dr. Mohammed Al-Wahsh, at Al Hussein Cultural Center to mark the achievements of this pilot project. The students practiced their newly developed debating skills and took part in a debating competition on the topic of “Freedom of Expression via Modern Tools”. Electronic newsletters produced as a part of the project that highlighted vital issues in their communities – with a special focus on youth and gender – were displayed at the event, while students gave testimonies of their experience and learning from the MIL training.

“MIL is one of the essential capacities that enable people to interpret and make informed decisions as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right”, said Dr. Anna Paolini, Head of UNESCO Amman Office and Representative of UNESCO in Jordan.
Implemented throughout the second scholastic semester of 2012-2013, the project targeted 40 male and female students aged 16 and 17 from four UNESCO Associated Schools in Amman, Ajloun and Aqaba. The schools – Princess Taghreed School and Modern Systems Schools in Amman; Prince Faisal the First School in Aqaba; and Kufranja Secondary School in Ajloun – represented the southern, northern, and central areas of Jordan.

Officially titled “Integrating Media and Information Literacy into Jordanian Schools”, the project consisted of two phases. The first was training the teachers that would be involved in the project, followed by the second phase where specialists and teachers provided hands-on training to the students on journalistic writing skills, debating techniques, web search, website development, and management and dissemination of information through modern media tools. By introducing MIL and demonstrating its importance in education, the project aims for MIL to be adopted into the Jordanian curriculum so that it can be taught on a sustainable and impactful basis.

(Source: UNESCO)

The annual meeting to review and measure progress towards targets set in Tunis in 2005 at the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) opened on 13th May. This meeting of the WSIS Forum also marks ten years since the first phase of the Summit was held in Geneva in 2003.

In the coming week, the WSIS Forum will focus on the future of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly as an engine of growth in a post-2015 development environment. Participants will engage in discussions on a number of diverse topics, such as ICT infrastructure, cybersecurity, enabling environment, e-learning, e-health, e-agriculture, media, accessibility, and ethics. High level dialogues with government ministers and representatives from business and civil society will examine:

- Women's empowerment in the information Society: systematic, scalable strategies
- Smart climate change monitoring: Expanding access to information on weather, climate and water
- ICT innovations and standards: Creating technology for the next three billion
- Securing cyberspace in a borderless world: Vision 2015 and beyond
- ICTs and post 2015 goals
- Youth and ICTs

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré said, “This year’s WSIS Forum is a unique opportunity to develop multi-stakeholder consensus on what is needed for the WSIS process in the future, to ensure that the bottom-up approach of the WSIS process is preserved and that the decisions concerning modalities also respect the real requirements of the use of ICTs for socio-economic development, while ensuring growth in the ICT ecosystem itself”.

More than 1500 participants from government, private sector, civil society and international organizations are expected to attend the WSIS Forum during the week.
Former UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan will address the WSIS Process beyond 2015 as well as his engagement with young people in a webinar to inspire them to contribute to the post-2015 development frameworks currently under negotiation.

Approaching ten years since the Summit in 2005, the WSIS+10 Visioning Track will bring all emerging challenges related to the information society into perspective, ensuring that the new vision for WSIS beyond 2015 builds upon real needs of people at the bottom of the pyramid.

The United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS), consisting of 30 members, will issue a joint statement on the Post-2015 Development Agenda to harness inter-agency expertise and experience in addressing development challenges of the 21st century.

Following the opening ceremony, a high-level session kicked off on Emerging Trends and Innovation in the Ecosystem, attended by over fifty government ministers from around the world as well as industry executives.

An exhibition will showcase global initiatives for a more efficient Information Society.
WSIS Forum 2013 Partners

This year’s WSIS Forum programme has been greatly enhanced through the strategic partnership and contribution of the Sultanate of Oman (government) and Intel Corporation (private sector). Contributions for specific activities have also come in from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mexico, Poland, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and Tanzania as well as from Hewlett-Packard. The United Arab Emirates is the WSIS+10 Visioning Partner.
For more information, please see www.itu.int/wsis/implementation/2013/forum/

(Source: ITU Newsroom)

On April 25, 2013 we celebrate the "International Day of Girls in ICT", globally. The initiative, promoted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), seeks to promote the participation of girls and young women in careers related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This celebration is an effort of great importance in a global context that fosters a growing expansion of employment in an industry predominantly male.

In accession to the celebration of "International Day of Girls in ICT", DINATEL has released the current status of the participation of girls and young women in the educational system and the labor market in Uruguay.

The study by DINATEL evidence the present challenges in the national reality regarding the participation of girls and young women in ICT careers.

Download the full report here.

(Source: DINATEL – Uruguay)

The latest in Startup Weekend's new women-focused events, Startup Weekend Algeria was the first event of its kind to feature a 54-hour weekend intensive composed only of women.

The event Thursday, April 18th “was the first ever Startup Weekend Women edition with no men involved in the organization at all,” pointed out Marion Desmazières, a Startup Weekend organizer originally from Paris, who flew in from Seattle to help organize the event. “True, we had Startup Weekend Women editions in San Francisco, Seattle, London and Singapore in the past, but their organizers accepted male coaches and male attendees who signed up with women”.

True to the style of all Startup Weekends, the three-day event began at Cyberparc of Sidi Abdallah in Rahmania with an icebreaker and then a “pitchfire”, in which 24 ideas were pitched and 10 projects were formed. Topics ranged from e-commerce for antiques to e-learning platforms, babysitting websites to car repair business, says Desmazières.

Throughout the weekend, “working with other women judges and coaches boosted their confidence”, says Berrayah. “Many of the women arrived not being sure of their ability to build a technology product, but by the end, we helped them understand how far they could go”.

“They felt really confident and able to go out of their comfort zones”, says Desmazières. “Many girls removed their hijab because they were only with women, and the first night, they spent a sleepness night together, building their projects. She thinks everyone left the event with 54 other friends”, she illustrates.

The top three teams, awarded on Saturday, April 20th, spanned typical topics presented at Startup Weekends:

First place: Dalil Med: an online repository for professionals in the health industry.
Second place: Teach me: a virtual platform for connecting students and teachers.
Third place: Covoiturage DZ: a car-sharing service

While Startup Weekend’s motto is that it’s about creating entrepreneurs, not startups necessarily, this Startup Weekend was about creating startups, insists Berrayah. All of the winning teams have contacted her since the event to sign up for the incubation they won from Cyberparc and take their business to the next level, she says. Companies incubated at Cyberpark can stay for six to 30 months.

Further details

Girls in Tech Egypt is a new branch of global organization Girls in Tech (GIT), which focuses on women’s    innovative and entrepreneurial achievements in the world of technology through global mentorship programmes.



The mission of GIT’s new branch in Egypt is to empower Egyptian women “to embrace risk and build on their entrepreneurial aspirations”.
The organization hosts mini tech conferences and professional meet-ups where the majority of speakers are women who aspire to share their entrepreneurial and technological aspirations with the public.

Explaining the concept behind the project, GIT’s main website says that Girls in Tech “was born out of a need to provide a place for women to cultivate ideas around their careers and business concepts involving technology”.

The organization was originally founded in San Francisco in 2007 by Adriana Gascoigne.

Since 2007, the network has grown to include over 8,500 members from different parts of the world including China, Greece, France, the United States, and Chile.
The new branch in Egypt seeks to “empower women in technology by simply providing them with more visibility”, the website says.
On its Facebook page, GIT Egypt states that its activities mainly focus on “the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology”.

The new branch in Egypt aims to focus on the promotion, growth and success of women in the field of technology through using the GIT network.
The network offers a variety of resources and tools for women to supplement and enhance their professional careers, skills and aspirations in the creative field.
Some of these resources include educational workshops and lectures, networking functions, round table discussions, conferences, social engagements, and recruitment events.

Further details

World Pulse and Telecentre.org Foundation (TCF) have recently entered into a partnership agreement that intends to support the digital empowerment of grassroots women worldwide. The agreement, which was finalized last April 22, 2013, aims to equip women with digital literacy skills and enable their participation and leadership at local and global levels.



Specifically, the agreement will focus on introducing World Pulse as a resource to women participating in telecentres via activity cards in Eastern Africa and Central Asia. World Pulse will work with TCF representatives and network coordinators to identify the needs of telecentre women, and hopes to strategize with TCF to scale the pilot and bring digital empowerment to all women participating in telecentres around the world.

Jensine Larsen, CEO of World Pulse says, “TCF is on the cutting edge of empowering women through ICTs, and World Pulse is honored to partner with them to magnify the power of women’s voices worldwide”.

Tess Camba, Director of Operations for TCF also expressed support for the partnership saying, “WorldPulse is one of the foremost action media networks for women globally and TCF is very excited to have them join us as a partner for our Telecentre Women program”.

The agreement between the two organizations will be formally announced at TCF’s Spark13 conference, which takes place this coming May 28-29 in Granada, Spain.

Further information

On the International Day of Girls in ICT held by the International Telecommunication Union, the ICT Ministry joined with the completion of a forum called "Women with Digital talent", which was virtually carried out through a hangout.

The forum was held on Thursday, April 25 at 11 am and was attended by distinguished Colombian women in the ICT sector, as the Deputy Minister of Technologies and Information Systems, Maria Isabel Mejia, who spoke about the opportunities of Colombian girls to study ICT-related careers.

Also participated Maria Fernanda Ardila, Digital Culture Deputy of MinTIC (@ mafeardilalopez), who presented the offer of the State for the use and appropriation of ICT in women. It also included the presence of a representative of the ITU, who shared with the public via online, international action that advances the organization for girls and women trained in ICT professions. During the space participated recognized women entrepreneurs, activists and users of community access points of Vive Digital Internet.

The topics discussed were:
• Study opportunities for women in ICT careers
• Offer of ICT Ministry in the use and appropriation of ICT
• Labor Opportunities in the ICT sector for women
• Access to ICT for rural women
• Active in social media software development by women

All activities could be follow hangout. Likewise, people who want to follow this celebration can do so via Twitter with the hashtag # GirlsinICT

(Source: MINTIC)

Last month, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ford Foundation, Show of Force, and Games for Change launched the Half the Sky Movement Media and Technology Engagement Initiative. Over the next two years, this initiative will work to create behavior change toward gender issues in India and Kenya through an integrated media campaign. It will use a combination of traditional and social media, which has been demonstrated to be a powerful approach for shifting gender-related norms and behavior.

This new alliance builds on an initiative developed in collaboration with authors of the best-selling book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

The initiative is focused on advancing gender equality, which is increasingly being recognized as a key factor in improving development outcomes. Each additional year of education for women reduces child mortality by 18 per thousand births. When women cannot fully engage in the labor force, either by law or custom, GDP growth can suffer by as much as two percent.

Gender equality makes sense not just for the woman herself, but for her family, community and the economy of her country. Yet in many low- and moderate-income countries, women and girls struggle for equal access to healthcare, education, and professional opportunities.

"Educate girls and you change the future for a nation”, said Maura O'Neill, USAID's Chief Innovation Officer. “Give women all the economic opportunities that men have and within a generation a strong middle class will emerge. It is just that simple".

(Source: USAID)

The Vice President of Dominican Republic, Dr. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, said that technology is a tool of empowerment training and essential for development of girls, because it facilitates active and equal participation in the labor market, in making decision, culture and society.

Dr. Cedeño de Fernández spoke in those terms, during the opening of the forum "Technology needs  girls: A promising future for a new generation of women", organized by the Vice President, the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (lNDOTEL) and National Commission on Information Society and Knowledge (CNSIC), as part of activities in the International Day of the Girls in ICT.

"So today we stress the importance of bringing and empower women, girls, young women to the world of technology, in order to promote gender equality and promote social inclusion", said the Vice President.

In that regard, she said that the era of knowledge demands high skilled, creative and innovative persons, so that technology is a powerful tool to promote and enhance human development, transform the lives of people, develop their capacity and enable insertion into the labor market.

She said that since the Vice President, through the 93 Community Technology Centers operating nationwide and the implementation of initiatives – such as Women in Network and TecnoChicas-, they have managed to make the Information and Communication Technology a development tool, of equity and social inclusion for adolescents and Dominican women living in vulnerable conditions and extreme poverty.

"For that reason, from the vice presidency, we continue our work to promote access to ICTs in every corner of the country and we fully intend to build strategic alliances and develop initiatives to further reduce the digital divide and social that separates rural and urban areas and those who have access to ICTs from those who do not have", said Dr. Cedeño de Fernández.



Further details

In Nigeria, it was about empowering young women. Talk about girl power, talk about Girls in ICT Day. With women in the IT field coming out in impressive numbers to impart on tomorrow’s leaders discussing topics like Blogging as a means of Livelihood by Tolu Agunbiade, Why Leave ICT to Boys by Dr. Bolanle Oladejo, Careers in ICT by Dr. Florence Oladeji and Surfing the Net To My Advantage by Dr. Olukemi Adebimpe Fadehan (Librarian, University of Lagos).

Girls in ICT Day is an event run all over the world simultaneously to honour women who are into ICT and to extend a warm embrace to the younger generation so that they can see that there is beauty in the field of ICT and equal opportunities as well as benefits, compared to their male counterparts. This year’s edition is the maiden edition, hosted by Eko-Konnect Research and Education Initiative in conjunction with the University of Lagos and Women in Technology Education (YabaTech) tagged Empowering Young Women Through ICT.

It was an exciting and educative symposium as attendees learned the basics of blogging as well as its prerequisites, dug into the track records of exceptional women in the field of ICT and were also sensitized towards discovering the boundless prosperity awaiting ICT. According to Dr. Bolanle Oladejo:

“We are in an age where the internet is the tool to do virtually everything – learn, buy, socialize, read the news, get public services, apply for jobs and do so much more”.
This means that the internet has become an integral part of human living as it rears its pretty head in every human endeavor. It will also do girls a whole lot of good to put behind the negative sensations they have had about ICT in times past and look upon the hopeful part of it all. To drive home this opinion, Dr. Florence Oladeji broke down the exigencies of a career woman, career opportunities in ICT and requirements to become an ICT practitioner which include a bit of programming solving skills, problem solving skills, inter-personal communication skills, flexibility and adaptability, characters and ethics and being legally minded; in a nutshell, anybody can be an ICT practitioner.

Students of the Methodist Girls’ High School, Fazi – L – Omar Senior High School, International School Lagos (ISL), Reagan Secondary School, and Yabatech Secondary School – all in Yaba environs were also present. Being young minds budding to the outside world just yet, the benefits of the event would have been greatly marred if caution was not thrown in the air for the attendees to grab. The internet is here to stay with its advantages and disadvantages which can not be over-emphasized. The Librarian of the University of Lagos, Dr. Olukemi Adebimpe Fadehan, explained explicitly the definition of internet terms, who surfs the net, general advantage of surfing, disadvantages of surfing the internet, how to carry out a purposeful search on the internet, how to evaluate internet resources as well as a list of organizations who offer scholarship to girls who are interested in the field of ICT.

Further details

Girls In ICT Rwanda was born out of the ITU’s Girls in ICT Day which was celebrated for the first time in Rwanda in 2011. During the planning period for that event, the women entrepreneurs involved formed a group – Girls in ICT Rwanda – which the Ministry of Youth & ICT pledged to support.

The group’s goal is to improve the current statistics regarding the numbers of women in the ICT sector as well as to alter the stereotype held by many young girls that ICT is a man’s field.

Girls in ICT Rwanda consists of women of all ages working in the field ICT including entrepreneurs, professionals and university students. The group has visited a number of schools in Rwanda including Lycee de Kigali and Gashora Girls School. During these visits, the group’s members speak to teenage girls to encourage them to consider ICT as a career option as well help them to understand and appreciate the importance of developing ICT skills in any career.

Recently they organized a Networking Night for female ICT entrepreneurs, professionals and students to network with ICT government institutions, private sector and civil society as well as a host of invited guests from the national and international community. The Guest of Honour was Ann Mei Chang, the Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the US Department of State.

Session with Ann Mei

Ann Mei began by telling the group about her background in technology including a story of how, at the age of 24, she became the youngest manager at a tech company. She later worked at a number of companies including Google for 8 years where she managed engineers from all over the world.

Ann Mei highlighted several studies addressing the gender gap when it comes to women’s access to technology, particularly access to internet. She pointed out that ICT is one of the fastest growing sectors and that US Department of Labor projections indicate half of the jobs being created in the next 5 years will go unfilled given current talent growth. She said that women could help fill that gap.

A young lady asked Ann Mei if women have to have an interest in computer programming – specifically coding – and if they have to be a tomboy to work in the tech industry. Ann Mei said that women should study and work at what they are passionate about – not simply what they expect will bring in the most money. She also pointed out that women in tech fields sometimes feel pressured to fit in – to be one of the boys. She advised women to be true to themselves: if you’re a tomboy, great and if you’re a fashionista, that’s great, too – just be who you are.

Another participant asked for recommendations for people who have an interest in ICT but who don’t have time to take long term courses. Ann Mei suggested taking short courses in mobile app development.

One woman asked what needs to be done to improve the education system in order to attract more teenage girls to ICT. Ann Mei said that many universities have outdated course requirements – e.g. an A level in Physics – and that this needs to change. She also discussed the cultural barriers: because the field remains male dominated, the culture in ICT academic and professional environments has naturally evolved to be more attractive to men and boys.


 

More details

On the 25 April the European Commission, ITU and key European stakeholders held a joint celebration of International Girls Day 2013 culminating in the European Parliamentary Hearing on Women in ICT hosted by ITRE – The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and the FEMM Committee (Women’ Rights and Gender Equality).

The Hearing attracted full house of key players of the public and private sector, academia and NGOs and many students from secondary and tertiary education also attended the event.

The hearing focused around the topics of professional women in ICT careers and developing ICT skills for ICT jobs.

Dr.Hamadoun Toure, Secretary-General of the ITU opened the session by giving an overview of ITU's different initiatives to support the Girls in ICT agenda all around the world.

The key message of Vice President Neelie Kroes, Commissioner of the Digital Agenda was that ‘Today not diamonds but ICT skills are girls’ best friends (reminding of Marilyn Monroes ‘Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend’ song introduced in the original Broadway production of ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ sixty years ago) and Digital Women are worth more than diamonds for the industry!

Getting more women in ICT will enhance equality and competitiveness in an increasingly digital world’.
Please check out the summary of the day and the inspirational speaches of Vice President Neelie Kroes, Commissioner of the Digital Agenda and Dr.Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of ITU.

ECWT has played a key role in the preparations of the Heaing through presenting a Postition Paper and organizing an on-line consultation on the Hearing in year 2011-2012.
In the Hearing MEP Edit Herczog pointed out that industries need intermediators for their collaboration with girls and stressed that the European Centre for Women and Technology has since 2009 become the key intermediator for the women in ICT agenda.

Ruthe Farmer, Director of Strategic Initiatives, National Centre for Women in Technology (NCWIT) raised also the importance of a regional platform and welcomed cooperation between NCWIT and ECWT in the future.

In connection with the Parliamentary Hearing the European Centre for Women and Technology published a special edition of the Parliamentary Magazine the 22nd of April.



Download the full document, here.

Further details

April 25 2013 is a super day for girls and women in technology and Cisco was very present!  The day commenced with a breakfast session Women2020 platform hosted by DIGITALEUROPE with the topic of Women In Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for Smart Growth of the pillars of the European 2020 Strategy.

The morning session included a panel chaired by Ms. Cheryl Miller, Founder of Women2020, and Dr.Hamadoun Toure’, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union; Ms. Eva Fabry, Director European Centre for Women and Technology; Ms. Marietje Schaake, member of the  European Parliament for the Dutch Democratic Party; Dr. John Higgins, Director-General Digital Europe; Ms. Patricia Reilly Member of the Cabinet-Research, Innovation and Science; Ms. Linda Corugedo Steneberg, Director for Cooperation-DG Connect; Ms. Sabiine Everaet, CIO Europe Group at Coca Cola and a packed room of participants including myself.

Dr.Toure’ appealed to private-public sectors for a 50-50 aspirational target to include women in ICT. There was so much to say in such a short period of time from sustainable STEM education; to pipelining and retaining technical talent most notably women to values from the family that encourage young girls to pursue a technology career track. The group then moved to a location featuring a Brussels youth tech agora with robotics; using technology to create music and so on. European Union Vice President Neeli Kroes along with ITU’s Dr. Hamadoun Toure’ greeted the youth technologists.

Lunch featured the Tech for Girls winners where Cisco and Intel were sponsors. Cisco Belgium and Luxembourg Manager Pol Vanbiervliet presented the awards along with ITU’s Secretary General Hamadoun Toure’.

It should be stated that Cisco is a staunch supporter of Girls in ICT, an initiative of ITU (International Telecommunication Union). In 2010, ITU members agreed to organize Girls in ICT Days on the 4th Thursday of every April. Cisco wants to encourage girls to consider ICT as a valuable career option.

Almost 80 Cisco offices in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas joined initiative this year to run local programs under the global ITU umbrella.
Additionally, Cisco’s Network Academy is doing a fantastic job with its flagship program in training young men and women globally. Cisco Networking Academy is the world’s largest classroom: with more than 1 million students participating in the program at present.

The afternoon session at the EU Parliament included members from the parliament along with EU Vice President Neelie Kroes, ITU’s Dr. Hamadoun Toure’ and participants from private industry.

The first panel was entitled “Women in ICT Careers: How to Explore Female Talent?”  
Other panel members included Ms. Gianna Martinengo, President of DidaelKTS and President of Women and Technology and Ms. Sakia Van Uffelen, CEO at Bull and CSB Consulting, and Digital Champion for Belgium. The emphasis indeed is that we do have a way to go in order to not only attract BUT to retain women in technology.

Why is this topic so important?
The top jobs of the future: What will be the hottest jobs of the 21st century; which jobs will be most in demand in 10, or 15 years time?
Hybrid jobs: combine ICT with business in every imaginable field. Examples for hybrid jobs: bioengineering, power grid informatics, digital media, social and mobile application development, telemedicine, remote learning systems, developing smart applications for buildings, transport, energy or production.
New job profiles: business analyst, data scientist and so on…

The second panel entitled, “Nourishing the Pipeline: ICT Skills for ICT Jobs” included Ms Kicki Stridh, Board Member, the European Association for Women In Science, Engineering and Technology Sweden; Ms Ruthe Farmer, Director of Strategic Initiatives, National Centre for Women and IT; Ms. Donna Metzlar, Community Advocate, The Genderchangers, and Ms, Nidhi Tandon, Principal Consultant and Trainer, Networked intelligence. The message was clear: Girls when given the confidence to do so can and do pursue technical careers.

The afternoon ended with a live video exchange with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook and a few members from the Parliament.

(Source: CISCO Blogs)

On Thursday, April 25, 2013; Rwanda celebrates Girls in ICT day where hundreds of girls participated in this event held at Lycée Notre Dame de Citeaux; where young girls learn more from their elders.

This event has been dubbed ’Girls in ICT Career Fair’ to celebrate the International Girls in ICT day and to encourage girls and young women to consider careers in ICT. The occasion aims to inspire girls to consider a future in technology. This year’s theme is “expanding horizons and changing attitudes”.

Girls in ICT Rwanda was born out of the ITUs Girls in ICT day, today, the group consists of girls in ICT including entrepreneurs, professionals and university students whose mission is to inspire girls to consider ICT as a career option as well help them to understand and appreciate the importance of developing ICT skills in any career. Clarisse Ilibagiza from HeHe mobile speaking to the press said that Rwandan girls are able to use ICT tools effectively.

In his remarks The Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana advises young girls to embrace the culture of hard working and aim higher; “When you are confident, determined, you’re passionate about what you want, if you have a purpose, if you have a goal, if you have integrity and courage you can be very successful”.

Oda Gasinzigwa, the Minister of Family and Gender Promotion noted that “As you are aware, the government is highly committed to promoting ICT as a key driver for rapid socio-economic development. We have put in place an enabling environment for girls to participate and benefit in ICT along with their brothers”.

International Girls in ICT Day in fact, has the aim to make everyone realize that girls are also able to use the new technologies, and that, due to the fact that girls are good at Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Informatics, they have new technologies which change the world on a daily basis.

Moreover, ICT is the fastest growing industry today and more jobs are created in this industry than any other. The same prospects are for the future. ICT has been identified as the industry that will lead forward world economies, improve lives of families across the globe and make the planet a smaller, more accessible place. Therefore, Women and Girls should take a more prominent role in this process.

Further details

Nigeria’s communication technology minister, Omobola Johnson, has encouraged Nigerian women to pursue careers in ICT and bridge the gap between males and females in ICT.

Speaking in Abuja on Girls in ICT Day, Johnson blamed the perception that ICT is only for geeks and men as the reason why, in spite of the advances recorded in ICT across the world, there are not enough women in the sector.

She expressed the commitment of her ministry towards the encouragement of more girls to develop interest in ICT and to erase the perception. ‘’When I was studying engineering, I was one of five girls in a class of about 80. My daughter has just graduated in an engineering degree and she was also one of about five or six girls, so nothing has really changed in 30 years’’, Johnson said.

“We need to ask ourselves why and help remove all the barriers militating against girls and women embracing technology. Some of the barriers limiting women has to do with lack of support and encouragement and the ministry will provide the necessary support by encouraging women to embrace careers in ICTs”.

The highest achieving girls in the sciences from various schools have been invited to a one-week event organised by the ministry to encourage and expose them to sciences with the goal of increasing the number of women and girls in ICT.

Johnson said the ICT sector in Nigeria has tremendous opportunities for women in areas such as software development, telecommunications, IT, space development and electronic engineering.

Addressing girls in Abuja, Johnson said: “You just need to work hard and don’t be retiring. Women tend to think that our work will speak for us – sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. Speak out, work hard and don’t be afraid! Women can do it if they try”.

At the event, 35 girls who had excelled in sciences received Vantium Computer Tablets to empower and encourage them to strive for excellence in ICTs.

Further details

As the ITU Special Envoy for Women and Girls in ICT, I am thrilled to be greeting all the girls around the world, as we celebrate International Girls in ICT Day on 25 April 2013.

Technology is offering large-scale opportunities to empower women and girls, creating a systemic cultural shift by improving how they’re portrayed and represented. These are the tools that will ultimately allow women and girls to reach their full potential.

My awareness of gender imbalance in the media came when I started watching children’s television, videos and movies with my then two-year old daughter, Alizeh. I was stunned to see that there seemed to be far more male characters than female characters in these entertainments that were aimed at the youngest of children.
As a result, I launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and its programming arm called See Jane. We sponsored the largest body of research ever done on gender images in media. The results are stunning: in American family films there is only one female for every three male characters. In group scenes, only 17 per cent of the characters are female. There was no improvement in those numbers over the last 20 years we studied.

Our research also shows that females are missing from critical occupational sectors in entertainment media.

We recently completed a study on the careers of female characters in popular United States television and film, and found that with regard to STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers, in family films, males hold 84 per cent of all STEM jobs. This calculates into a ratio of 5 male STEM characters to every one female STEM character.

No female leads or co-leads are shown with STEM careers.

Looking across the categories of computer science and engineering, the ratio of males to females in these arenas is 14.25 to one! And in television, characters with STEM jobs are 79 per cent male and 21 per cent female.

I am happy to say that positive role models exist off-screen. Some tech companies, including Hewlett Packard, IBM, Xerox and Yahoo, are headed by women. But there are just 21 female CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies. It is time to change this imbalance.

New and future technologies, especially broadband will be key to providing women with the means to educate themselves and their children, improve their own health and the health of their families and communities, start their own businesses, keep themselves safe, and innovate to build and shape the future they want.
ITU is focusing on increasing the number of girls and women who want an ICT career; increasing the number of girls and women who receive an education in science, technology, engineering or mathematics; and encouraging ICT businesses to attract, recruit, retain and promote women to achieve long-term sustainability.
Last September, I participated in the Broadband Commission for Digital Development and was very pleased that these leaders are committed to empowering women and girls as part of the digital revolution and agreed to set up a working group on gender.

A major outcome from a meeting on 17 March 2013 in Mexico City is that the Broadband Commission agreed on an ambitious new target designed to spur female access to the power of ICT. The target mandates no less than “gender equality in broadband access by the year 2020”.

Last October, as Special Envoy, I attended the Women with the Wave: High-Level Forum on Digital Inclusion of Women and Girls, in Seoul in the Republic of Korea. The Asian broadcasters, filmmakers, Internet stakeholders, academics and others demonstrated their commitment to lead the change in the images of women and girls in ICT. From Korea’s famous K-dramas to Bollywood musicals, they are looking for the characters that will inspire tomorrow’s technology-centred professionals.
We have the opportunity to ensure that women and girls are fully included in the expansion of the digital world, and that their voice and presence are shaping the United Nations development agenda and strategies beyond the 2015 Millennium Development Goals.

Let us all join hands to achieve the new gender target from the Broadband Commission. I urge all Member States and global CEOs to fully implement the principles in Resolution 70 (Rev. Guadalajara 2010) on “gender mainstreaming in ITU and promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women through information and communication technologies”.

Everyone participating today is a change agent, and the media and technology sectors will come together and take a leadership role to promote more positive portrayal of women and girls in the media — starting, if I may, with some inspiring tech-savvy role models in film and television. Because changing perceptions will be the real game changer in achieving greater empowerment and participation of girls and women in the technology sector.

(Source: ITU Newsroom)

With the number of school girls opting to study technology-related disciplines on the decline in most countries worldwide, ITU is committed to championing the catalytic role a tech career can play in creating exciting, far-reaching opportunities for women and girls.

To help inspire girls to consider a future in technology, ITU established ‘Girls in ICT Day’ back in 2010 and supports the global organization of activities every year on the fourth Thursday in April. In only its third year, global momentum around Girls in ICT Day continues to grow with over 100 countries expected to hold events hosted by governments, private sector and NGOs in 2013.

Events in Brussels
- ITU has joined the European Commission and European Parliament who are hosting a full-day session in Brussels including a Parliamentary Hearing to debate women in ICT careers and nourishing the pipeline. The European Parliament event can be followed live via webstreaming.

 The ITU Secretary-General will also be addressing the Women2020 panel session on Women in STEM for Smart Growth. The Women2020 event can be followed live via webstreaming.

Speeches :
Women2020 Breakfast: Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General

Events at ITU Premises
Back at ITU Headquarters, in ICT Discovery museum, ITU and the Mission of the United States in Geneva have co-organized workshops for local school girls on satellites, coding, mobile apps, + video, together with the chance to meet expert role models.

Speeches:
- Ambassador Betty E. King
- Mr Philippe Metzger, BDT Deputy Director

- The ITU Regional Offices of Cairo and Moscow are also hosting Girls in ICT Day activities.

Girls in ICT Days around the world


(Source: ITU)

When carrying out school visits, Girls in ICT members speak to teenage girls and encourage them to consider ICT as a career option and also help them to understand and appreciate the importance of developing ICT skills in any career, writes Doreen Umutesi.

About fifteen girls formed a group which they named Girls in ICT Rwanda. Its main objective is to tour schools and encourage more girls to take on courses in Information Communication technology (ICT).

The Girls in ICT Rwanda launched their annual activity calendar on March 22nd, 2013 at a Networking Night with their guest speaker, Ann Mei Chang, the Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the US Department of State.

The activities stipulated in their calendar involve encouraging women entrepreneurs in ICT, visiting schools to talk to girls and encouraging them to take on courses in ICT.
When carrying out school visits, Girls in ICT members speak to teenage girls and encourage them to consider ICT as a career option and also help them to understand and appreciate the importance of developing ICT skills in any career.

In an interview with Akaliza Keza Gara a member of Girls in ICT and Founder of Shaking Sun a multimedia company, she said that the government supports initiatives that empower women in ICT.

"One of our main goals is to encourage more girls offering ICT courses to join Girls in ICT Rwanda. When I talk to young girls, a lot of them say that they see it as a man's subject because people we see in the media doing ICT initiatives are often men. Even when they go to school they are surrounded by men so the girls tend to lose interest because they feel they are the odd ones", Akaliza explains.

She also said that there are allegations that women feel intimidated when they are surrounded by men hence women work better when they are surrounded by fellow women.

"Girls are just choosing not to take on ICT so as Girls in ICT Rwanda, part of what we do is to encourage and show them that if we took on the ICT course they can do the same. We encourage them to join us as the rallying troupes' idea. Our target after this year is to find out how many schools we visited and how many girls are offering ICT courses to measure our impact", Akaliza Discloses.

(Source: All Africa News)

Intel Corporation and the 10x10 campaign, partners on the new feature film "Girl Rising", today announced they will work with policymakers in low- and middle-income countries to develop transformative education and technology policies that empower women, achieve gender equity in access to quality education and accelerate economic development.

Together, Intel and 10x10 will develop and host gender equity and education policy workshops, and develop regional policy frameworks based on key gender needs. The workshops will help governments think deeply about issues of gender equity as they develop national policy plans for broader education transformation.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations report, "What Works in Girls' Education", each year of secondary schooling increases a girl's future wages by 10 to 20 percent. At the national level, increasing the share of women with secondary education by just 1 percent increases a country's annual GDP by an average of .3 percent. Yet studies from the United Nations and International Labour Organization show that in 2009, girls accounted for 53 percent of all out-of-school children and 87 million women were unemployed in 2010, up from 76 million in 2007.

"We've seen first-hand the transformational change that can occur when girls have access to an education", said Shelly Esque, vice president of Intel's Corporate Affairs Group and president of the Intel Foundation. "By working with 10x10 and policymakers to improve gender equity in education, Intel is taking the vital message of 'Girl Rising' into action. Together, we can empower girls and help them become agents of positive change in their communities".

"By sharing the personal stories of these nine girls, 'Girl Rising' illustrates just how important education is in the movement to empower women and girls", said Holly Gordon, 10x10's executive director. "Our partnership with Intel to provide decision makers in developing countries with scalable policy solutions to expand gender equity in education marks the next step in our commitment to change both minds and policy to positively impact girls' lives".

Through the policy workshops, Intel and 10x10 will help leaders determine how to utilize technology to facilitate gender equity across school policy, curriculum and assessment, teacher development, and research and evaluation. These efforts will build on Intel's existing policy framework, which leverages education policy and information and communications technologies (ICTs) to create mechanisms for empowering girls and achieving gender equity in education at scale.

(Source: Intel)

With the number of schoolgirls opting to study technology-related disciplines on the decline in most countries worldwide, ITU is committed to championing the catalytic role a tech career can play in creating exciting, far-reaching opportunities for women and girls.

ICT jobs are consistently ranked among the top 20 careers with the best pay and best long-term prospects, and the technology industry remains one of the world’s most robust sectors, creating strong ongoing demand for young tech professionals.

To help inspire girls to consider a future in technology, ITU established ‘Girls in ICT Day’ back in 2010, and supports the global organization of activities every year on the fourth Thursday in April. Global momentum around Girls in ICT Day continues to grow, with 1,300 events held by governments, the private sector and NGOs in 87 countries in 2012 reaching over 30,000 school-age girls, and around 100 countries are expected to hold events this year.

To celebrate this important day, journalists are invited to join ITU staff on April 25 for a programme of workshops and inspiring discussion with local schoolgirls aged 13-17.

What: ‘Girls in ICT Day’ at ITU

When: 08:30am - 14:30pm, 25 April, 2013
          8:30-9:00 Registration and coffee (please bring photo ID or UN press badge), + welcoming remarks by Philippe Metzger (ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau)
          9:00-10:00 Guided tour of ICT Discovery
          10:00-11:20 Workshops on mobile app development and web coding
          11:30-13:00 Workshops on Flash video game development and video production
          13:00-14:30 Informal lunch with female ICT professionals, including the chance to chat to students and speakers.
Where: ICT Discovery Museum, 2nd floor, Montbrillant building, ITU headquarters, Place des Nations, Geneva

Who: Around 80 girls from schools in the Geneva area (including France voisine), with ITU technical staff and other experts.

Registration to attend this event is essential. Journalists are requested to confirm their attendance to pressinfo@itu.int by close of business Tuesday 23 April. If you do not have a UN media badge, please ensure you bring photo ID with you in order to obtain a Visitor badge.

Follow the event on Twitter at @ ITU #GirlsinICT. The full story of Girls in ICT Day 2013 is being curated at http://storify.com/ITU/girls-in-ict-day-2013 and through ITU’s campaign Facebook page www.facebook.com/TechNeedsGirls.

Photos from event will be available for download from ITU’s Flickr site at: www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/sets/72157633221090112/

For more information on this event please contact:

Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations & Public Information, ITU
+41 22 730 6135
sarah.parkes@itu.int

Nicolas Jammes
Coordinator, International Girls in ICT Day
+41 22 730 5996
nicolas.jammes@itu.int

(Source: ITU Newsroom)

On April 25th 2013, Women in Technology in Nigeria (WITIN) will join the world to mark the International Girls in ICT day, an initiative of the ITU to advance a universal environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to pick up careers in the growing information and communication technologies (ICTs) sector.

WITIN is organizing a one-day conference themed- Women and Girls in Technology - Expanding Horizons. This inaugural high-level conference will bring together high school students and women in Nigeria to discuss how to foster women’s contributions and empowerment through ICT as well as to celebrate the feats of young girls in the just concluded Technovation challenge.



Keynote speakers include Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman Diaspora Committee of the Nigeria Federal House of Rep. representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency in Lagos State, Prof. Ita Okon Bassey Ewa, Honourable Minister, Fed. Ministry of Science and Technology and Ann Mei Chang, Senior Advisor for Women and Technology at the US Department of State under the chairmanship of Chief Oma Eyewuoma, Exec. Vice-President, Technical Conoil Producing Ltd, Nigeria.

Ann Mei Chang pointed out that “Women and girls continue to be dramatically underrepresented in the ICT field around the world. Not only is this an issue of opportunity for individual women and girls, but as the ICT sector continues its outsized growth it will increasingly contribute to a talent gap which leaves critical jobs unfilled. Girls often lack role models and may be discouraged from pursuing ICT by parents, teachers, or peers. Girls in ICT Day is an important event to raise visibility of the many successful women who have pursued ICT careers”.

Other speakers include Njideka Jack of MTN Nigeria, Folakemi Olawolu of Phase3 Telecoms, Chinyere Edward Azike of Signal Alliance Limited, Adedoyin Jaiyesimi of YNaija, Martha Omoekpen Alade of Women in Technology in Nigeria and Samuel Eyitayo of the U.S. Consulate General, Lagos.

The CEO of Phase3 Telecom Mr. Stanley Jegede states that “women are often unsung heroes in the advancement of Information Technology especially on the African Continent; it is why Phase3 Telecom as an equal opportunities employer is focused on influencing and driving the needed change in this reality. Ensuring women contribute at least 47% to the Phase3 Telecom workforce”. Thus; he commends ITU’s celebration of women in the advancement of Technology around the globe through the Girls in ICT initiative. He emphasizes the need for the IT industry to actively encourage and champion the indelible contribution of women to the development of new technologies and innovation in our world. Also in this vein, the president of ISPON Dr Chris Uwaje Lauds the feat of the young winners of the Mobile App Challenge who will be celebrated also on the Girls in ICT day.

Highlights of the event also include recognition of the winners of Technology Affects Me- TAM; mini-challenge for girls and young women. Short Presentations will be made by teams who took part in the Technovation Challenge, a program of Iridescent. The team facilitators include Esther Ugbodaga of Channels TV, Toyosi Odukoya of MTN Nigeria, Nnenna Ugwu of EDC Pan African University and Ijeoma Abazie of Microsoft Nigeria. The winners will also be announced and awarded; they hopefully will represent Nigeria and travel to Silicon Valley CA to compete globally on May 2nd. The event will be held at Twitter HQ and will be co-hosted by Twitter and LinkedIn. The Secretary General of ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré will be rooting for the Nigerian team in Silicon Valley.

(Source: Women in Technology in Nigeria)

With women projected to comprise a majority of the world’s urban dwellers and head increasing numbers of households, gender equality in employment, housing, health and education is vital to ensure the prosperity of the cities of the future, according to a new United Nations study.

“Women are key drivers of economic growth and that wealth in the hands of women leads to much more equitable outcomes in terms of the quality of life of families and communities”, the study, entitled State of Women in Cities Report 2012/13, said. “Addressing the barriers to women’s participation in cities creates a situation where women’s potential is more fully realized and households, communities and governments also reap rewards”.

“It is imperative that women and men should enjoy equal rights and opportunities in cities on moral/ethical, economic and political grounds. This will not only engender women’s well-being but it will increase their individual and collective prosperity, as well as the prosperity of the cities in which they reside”.

Produced by the Nairobi-based UN Human Settlements Programme, known as UN-HABITAT, which is mandated to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all, the report also stressed the need to address unemployment and other disadvantages that hobble urban youth.
The report called for policies to enhance gender equality, equity and prosperity of women in cities, noting that cities of the future will comprise a majority female component, especially among people older than 60 and even more so among those older than 80 years.

While underscoring the unpaid caring and social activities that women undertake, such as childcare, caring for the sick, disabled and elderly, washing, cleaning and other community services that allow the urban economy to function and prosper, even if this labour is seldom recognized or valued, the report stressed the “crucially important” economic contributions they make through their paid work.

“The ‘feminization’ of the global labour force tends to be associated with urbanization, with the related concentration of women in export-manufacturing, the service sector and Information, Communication and Technology (ICT)”, it said, adding that women, especially the urban poor, are disadvantaged in terms of equal access to employment, housing, health and education, asset ownership, experiences of urban violence, and ability to exercise their rights.

UN-HABITAT’s State of Urban Youth Report 2012/2013 stressed that while the young are “society’s most important and dynamic human resource” – with 1.3 billion between ages 12 and 24, most of them living in urban areas – nearly 45 per cent of them, some 515 million, live on less than $2 a day.

It called for better aligning educational and training systems with the current and future needs of young people, so that they cannot only discern developmental issues but may even be capable of suggesting innovative solutions to deep problems of development and growth.



(Source: UN News Centre)

The Cabinet of Social Policy trained 280 girls from primary school in Nigua, San Cristobal, as part of a series of seminars and workshops conducted in the Technology Community Center (CTC), which dedicated the month of April to promote technology approach in the youth of this location.

The activities are framed in the Forum "ICT learning in 21st Century", through which girls from eighth-grade of Nigua School were trained.
Moisés Esterling de Jesús Cedano, computer center manager, said that in the educational forum girls are taught in various aspects of the use of information technology and the technology available.

"With this continued efforts from the government, through the Community Technology Centers set up by the Cabinet of Social Policy across the country and which is directed by the vice president, Dr. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, we want to reduce the digital divide in the Dominican population", said Esterling de Jesús Cedano.
He added that the workshops of "technological tools" and "Information and Communication Technology" involve groups from different schools, colleges, neighborhood associations, NGOs and other community organizations which receive the necessary knowledge for widely different aspects of technology, communication and best uses. The activities include panels, forums, lectures, practical exercises, presentations and exhibitions of technological tools that are used today, plus other trips to the ITLA and other interesting places.

Alfredina Samboy Beltré, one of the girls in eighth grade of basic education, said that she was interested because she likes the communication and interact through the use of technology.

Also, Archy Yoselín Rijo Nova, 14 years old, from Boca de Nigua school, said that in addition to participating in forums and lectures given on technology, she wants to learn English in the courses taught at the CTCs, which are very important for people who want to travel to other countries. "I'm here in the ICT Education Forum to learn about technology and the use of computers, projector and other technological aspects", said Danilca Brito Germán, 13 years old, who participated in one of the talks.

(Source: Vicepresidencia Dominican Republic)

In order to promote the interest of girls worldwide to study careers related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the specialized agency in Telecommunications of the UN commemorates every year the International Day of Girls in ICT.

The commemoration held annually on the fourth Thursday in April and this year will be held on 25th of this month by an urgent call to the school principals, teachers and guidance counselors to show to their female students the excellent job prospects that open for them in the ICT sector.



Another objective of the commemoration of this day is that companies are aware of the low participation of women in this area and hire, retain and promote women in charges related to the use of technology.

The UN initiative is born because the worrying global figures which shows the lack of interest of women in developing their careers around the use of technologies. For example, the proportion of women who work as computer science professionals in Europe is extremely small: according to a report by Eurostat, in 2006 only 0.7% of ICT professionals were women and this figure remained unchanged since 2001. In Latin America, the scenario is not different, so if you want to review documents related to this topic, we recommend the articles published in regional site of UNESCO Women, Science and Technology.

Activities to do with your students that day:

- Make field trips to government offices, non-governmental agencies (NGOs), businesses, museums,
science, etc.. These will let girls to have first-hand contact with women leaders who use ICT in their daily work.

- Conduct workshops to raise awareness about the importance of ICT in the daily operation of the world today and show how women can take a leadership role every day.

- Make a presentation in the classroom with pictures and posters  what display the path of women with successful careers in organizations in the ICT sector.

- Develop biographies of famous women, leaders in ICT-related areas. Both girls and boys should conduct research on the Internet that will let them to prepare a list of women and write their biographies. The list should include many local women as well.

- Invite to an ICT industry leader to speak to all students. Ask whose words inspire young women to choose careers in this field study.

- Contact a local college or nearby and invite women teachers in ICT-related subjects to conduct workshops with students, professionals picnics, lectures, etc.

Finally, on the site http://girlsinict.org/ you can check how this day was celebrated last year and get ideas of how celebrate this day with your students.  If you need more information you can contact the team of Girls in ICT in girlsinict@itu.int

(Source: Eduteka and Educacion 360)

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and the Vice President of Intel Corporate Affairs Group Shelly Esque signed a five-year Framework agreement on 13 April to build capacity in engineering and science worldwide, and harness information and communication technologies (ICTs) for educational advancement.

“We are longtime partners because there are strong synergies between Intel and UNESCO, combining new ideas and innovation with our policy drive for quality education”, said Mrs Bokova after the signing at UNESCO Headquarters. “This agreement opens new opportunities. There is a crying demand today for knowledge, science, education and new technologies, and we need to help Member States gain the full benefit of this knowledge and innovation for driving their development”. Ms Esque affirmed that UNESCO and Intel share similar goals, highlighting that the Framework agreement would open new doors.

UNESCO and Intel will work on improving and delivering learning tools on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for sustainable development, enhancing STEM capacities of universities, supporting the UNESCO Engineering Initiative through engineering education projects, and using ICTs in education policies and master plans. The agreement foresees a special focus on Africa, one of UNESCO’s global priorities, together with gender.

The agreement also seeks to enhance the participation of girls, disadvantaged students and women in STEM. UNESCO and Intel will cooperate on specific projects targeting girls and women as part of UNESCO’s Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women, which was launched in 2011 and focuses on secondary education and adult literacy, especially in Africa and Asia.

Intel and UNESCO have been cooperating since 2004 when the first Memorandum of Understanding, focusing on developing guidelines to improve the quality of ICT teacher training programmes, was signed.

(Source: UNESCO)

In 2012, many African nations celebrated International Girls In ICT Day. We counted 13 official events in Sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Liberia, Togo, Swaziland, Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, The Gambia, and Tanzania). In less than two weeks, International Girls in ICT Day will again be held the world over. The initiative, launched by the ITU with the purpose of raising awareness of the importance of involving girls in ICT fields, aims to promote the benefits that ICT careers may offer.
 


Once again, a variety of African tech stakeholders will sponsor dedicated events for girls interested in ICT. So far, at least five African countries will hold a gathering during the week of April 25th:

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Rudi International will organize another program in Goma. Expect a training workshop and a cultural event whose themes revolve around Internet security and the Internet as a tool for development.

Senegal: The Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications and Digital Economy intends to make this day a moment of reflection, sharing, and strategic focus on the problem of girls’ digital training. A variety of panels and speeches will take place throughout the day.

Kenya: On April 27th, AkiraChix will be hosting a Girls in ICT day event aiming at exposing young women to career opportunities available in the tech industry.

Nigeria: Event to be held at Digital Peers Intl, Abuja. More events will most likely be held in Lagos.

Rwanda: Carnegie Mellon University – Rwanda may be hosting an event.

Also, a webinar co-presented by Ronda Zelezny-Green will feature Kenyan and Moroccan perspectives on gender and mobile learning.

Check out ITU’s Girls in ICT Day 2013 Storify or follow #GirlsinICT for the latest info!

(Source: Oafrica News)

On March 27, three young women from CERN participated via a video link in the UN Economic and Social Council “Youth Forum”, delivering a series of recommendations to improve the situation for women in science. During this all-day event held in New York, young people were invited to contribute ideas on how to improve our world, no less.

ECOSOC is still seeking input from young people ahead of its 1 July meeting where governments will meet in Geneva to address the important topics of Science, Technology, Innovation and Culture. They will adopt a Ministerial Declaration for scaling up actions in this field.

At the start of the meeting, the United Nations Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon asked the young audience if the UN was doing enough for youth. A resounding “No” came back from the audience but he got the opposite answer when he said “Could the UN do more for the world’s youth?”

This ECOSOC meeting provided CERN with its first opportunity to engage directly with a UN organization since it was granted Observer status at the United Nations General Assembly last December.

Three graduate students currently based at CERN were speaking during the “Women in Science” session on behalf of a larger group of young women scientists who had gathered to draft a series of recommendations aiming at improving the situation of women in science.

Kate Pachal, a young Canadian woman currently enrolled in a PhD program at Oxford, discussed what could be done to attract more women into science. Her three points were:

- Fight gender stereotypes at all levels. Improve the representation of women in textbooks, including in the phrasing of problems; Use gender-neutral language when referring to scientists; Increase the visibility of women scientists in the general culture by providing more female contacts for the media.

- Help young people build a strong “physics identity”: Students who do not feel good at maths or science do not pursue a career in it. Encouragements from peers, teachers and family help young girls believe in their own ability. Classroom activities such as having discussions on cutting-edge physics topics, being encouraged to ask questions or teaching peers all contribute to build a strong  “physics identity”. Having discussions on why fewer women are in science also helps young women see the problem does not come from them but has social roots.

- Provide role models and mentors for young women. Do it at all stages. Hold career fairs to reinforce girls’ self-esteem and provide a context where they can discuss with other girls facing similar challenges. Provide places where young women can talk with peers and find support.

Sarah seif el Nasr, an Egyptian-Canadian doctoral student at CERN, delivered three recommendations to hire more women in physics and science in general:

- Implement anonymous job application processes. The applicant’s gender should be hidden during the job application process to avoid gender bias since a study revealed that both men and women discriminate against women. The number of female musicians tripled at five major orchestras once job applicants performed behind a curtain.

- Implement equitable parental leaves. Both men and women should be given parental leaves and men strongly encouraged to take them. Young women of child-bearing age would then be less likely to be disfavored in hiring if both parents had to share the weight more equally. Shared or split positions would also allow both parents to participate equally in child responsibilities.

- Add spousal considerations to hiring processes. Institutions should recognize the existence of the dual-career situation and choose to deal with it since half the women with a PhD in physics have a spouse with similar education level (as opposed to only 20% for men). Institutions should take action before beginning a search to provide assistance for spouses and consider split/shared positions. This would help young women find positions without taxing their relationships.

Finally, Barbara Millan Mejias, a Venezuelan graduate student at University of Zurich, explained what can be done to retain women in science:

- Provide mentors for young women starting their careers. The mentor should be different from their boss or supervisor and have proper institutional support. The mentor could for example make sure the young woman progresses properly, that she is given adequate funding and support, that she gets to attend meetings and give talks at various conferences. The mentor should be able to advise the young women on academic and professional issues.

- Have broad discussions about gender issues at large scientific meetings. Men are often unaware of the situation faced by women in science and lack opportunities to discuss this situation, even though they are most often open to it. Men often unconsciously discriminate against women. Education would improve the situation.

- Hold scientific meetings for women where young women could see how valuable women’s work is, find positive reinforcement, get to talk with peers and get support. This would also provide a place for discussions on issues facing young women as well as opportunities to share experiences and support each other.

- Implement equitable parental leaves. This point is crucial not only at hiring time but also to retain young women in science.

(Source: Quantum Diaries)

As the International Girls in ICT Day draws near, MainOne Cable Company says it is ready to partner with e-Business Life Communication to ensure the successful hosting of the event in Nigeria.

The International Girls in ICT Day celebration is an initiative of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to bring young girls to the knowledge and active participation in fashioning the ICT landscape of their various countries is billed to hold in Lagos on April 25, 2013 and goes with the theme: “Tech Needs Girls to Invent the Future”.

MainOne Cable Company, the major sponsor at the 2012 edition of the event agreed to partner with eBusiness Life due to the company’s alignment to the vision of the campaign aimed at drawing attention of growing girls to the profession of ICT and how they can contribute their quota to the growth and development of the profession both in their local domain and globally.

CEO of MainOne Cable Company, Ms. Funke Opeke had also called on other companies that have the growth of Nigeria’s ICT industry in mind to join in ensuring that the event is a huge success.

Also joining the growing number of partners, Omatek, a pioneer indigenous integrated IT system builder says the campaign will be a veritable platform to engage young girls and help them actualize their future in a field that was once seen as the exclusive preserve of the male gender.

CEO of Omatek, Mrs Florence Seriki had earlier pointed out the need to have more female IT practitioners to enable the industry grow faster on a balanced scale.
The partnership with MainOne and Omatek is a testimonial to the importance of the campaign in Nigeria, as both companies were also part of the previous edition of the event.

Chief Executive Officer, eBusiness Life Communication, Mrs Ufuoma Emuophedaro, while speaking on preparations for the event further disclosed that special awards will be given to women who have been exceptional in the growth of the ICT industry in Nigeria. She also revealed that prominent Nigerian women, both in the public and private sectors of the industry will grace the occasion.

She applauded the contributions of the CEOs of MainOne and Omatek to the growth and development of the country’s ICT industry, describing the two women as “amazons in the industry”.

Expressing her optimism to the success of the event, Mrs. Emuophedaro noted that corporate organizations are interested in the campaign because they know it is the right thing to do. According to her, “This is the right thing to do, and the right time to do it. If other countries have observed the need to grow this industry through encouraging young girls, then, we should not be left behind. We must make sure that our young girls are given the chance to prove themselves in this all-important field”.
She stated that the Girls in ICT Day workshop and subsequent campaign will further open up opportunities for girls in ICT sector.

(Source: Daily Independent News)

International Girls’ in ICT Day, an initiative that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs), will take place on April 25th.

As part of this global initiative a number of different event and activities will be taking place that give girls the chance to gain a better understanding of the opportunities that the ICT sector holds for their future.

In the lead up to this year’s International Girls’ in ICT Day Intel Ireland will be sharing each week, through their newsroom, profiles of females who are working in ICT related roles at their campus in Leixlip, Ireland.

In addition, Intel is giving people the chance to participate in their ‘Girls in ICT’ competition, which is running each week from now until April 25th on their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

To be in with a chance to win an Intel powered RAZRi smartphone, simply follow the Intel Ireland Twitter feed (@Intel_IRL) and answer the question they post on Monday April 8th and Monday April 22nd, be sure to use the #IRLGirlsinICT hashtag in each answer so that they can track your entry. Or you can enter via Facebook on Monday April 15th by liking the Intel Ireland page and answering (through comment) the question posted as a status update.

For full terms and conditions click here:

(Source: Intel)

The Girls in ICT Essay competition is on again!

Last year the theme was on Girls can do ICT. This year the theme is on creating opportunities and changing attitudes that will encourage more Girls into ICT. Research consistently shows that girls tend to choose carriers where they feel they can make a difference such as healthcare, education and medicine but not ICT. Therefore the challenge for the ICT industry globally is how to change this trend to get more girls choosing careers in ICT. Some work has been done in PNG to empower and educate more girls and women but the challenge remains to create those opportunities that will attract more girls into ICT. Therefore the issue we need to address is:


Competition Eligibility:
- Competition is open to FEMALE Grade 10, 11 & 12 students only.
- Dependents of NICTA staff are not eligible to enter.
- Competition opens on the 26th of March 2013 and closes on the 15th of April 2013 (3 weeks). Any entries received after the closing date will not be considered.

Winners will be announced on the NICTA website on the 25th of April, 2013 to observe the Girls in ICT Day.

Further Information

Ann Mei Chang, the Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the US Department of State wants girls in Rwanda to embrace and effectively use modern telecommunication technologies because they have the potential to enhance business undertakings.
Chang noted that during her 3 days stay in Rwanda where she visited different Ministries but mainly she met the Girls in ICT Rwanda to have talks on how to increase the number of Girls in ICT in Rwanda.

This was revealed during the official launching of Girls in ICT Network last Friday, where Mrs. Chang told them that there’s a path for women to get into ICT. She noted that women are more practical by nature and they can compete in ICT sector.

Speaking to The New Times, Akaliza Keza Gara from Girls in ICT Rwanda, said that “Our aim is to see girls in Rwanda embrace information technology because that is the direction Rwanda is taking”.

Representatives from the Ministry of Youth and ICT, Rwanda Development Board, Nike Girl Hub, Imbuto Foundation and DOT Rwanda participated in the ceremony.
Later that evening, there was a networking event of the Girls in ICT Rwanda at Telecom house boardroom. The girls were able to have one on one conversation with those who have made it as a Girl in ICT and the calendar for the different activities for the year was shared.



(Source: Ministry of Youth and ICT - Rwanda)

 “Our future is shaped by technology and, with over 95% of all jobs now having a digital component, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector is a exciting place to be”, says the official flyer.

More Information

TAM is a mini-challenge for girls and young women "as part of the ITU's Girls in ICT project & Tech Needs Girls campaign" to upload a less than 60 seconds video telling us how technology has amazed and affected them & how far it can take the world at this time.
To participate, visit www.witin.org/wap on your mobile device, or email your video to tam@witin.org

Further information

The Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, was appointed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as a sponsor of an educational project to promote the use of Information and Communication Technologies between children and adolescents through the project "Technology needs girls". In a letter sent by Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General, the body recognizes the work developed by the Vice President of the Republic through the 89 Community Technology Centers located in remote communities of the country, which have changed the lives of thousands of children and adolescents.

The project will allow children and adolescents to participate in local activities that allow them to remove barriers so that girls have the opportunity to explore careers in technology.

This recognition includes the Vice President to continue promoting the celebration on April 25 2013, the Day of  Girls in ICT , date that has been commemorated as the "Day of the Tecnochicas", with the aim of integrating girls from 14 to 19 years old in technology.

The Day of Girls in ICT was established by Resolution 70, which was updated and adopted by the Plenipotentiary Conference of the ITU held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2010. The Resolution "Mainstreaming a gender policy in ITU and promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women through information technologies and communication" provides for the incorporation of a gender policy in all plans and ITU programs.

In May 2007, being the First Lady of the Republic, the Vice president Cedeño de Fernández received the "Award of the ITU World Information Society" for her contribution to ensure that technology services are available to residents of the poorest areas of the Dominican Republic. The ITU Award on Information Society is granted to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the construction of the information society. Personal achievement may take the form of social achievements, mobilizing public opinion or a key technical innovation.

(Source: Newspaper El Nacional)

Coordinated by UNESCO, the Report emphasizes the importance of broadband as a means of accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education and the Education for All goals. Less than three years away from the target date for achieving these goals, 61 million children of primary-school age, and a further 71 million of lower secondary-school age, are not in school. In addition, close to 793 million adults – 64% of them women – lack literacy skills, with the lowest rates in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia.

“Education is a human right that strengthens the dignity and capacities of women and men -- it is also a motor for the sustainable development of societies as a whole” emphasized UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, in presenting the Report to the Commission. “We must make the most of every accelerator towards 2015, and we know broadband technology is one key accelerator, leading a revolution in how we communicate, live and learn”.

At the meeting the Director-General also welcomed the adoption by the Commission of a new advocacy target “to ensure gender equality in broadband access by 2020”. According to data presented at the meeting, the difference in use of Internet between men and women is about 25%. This reaches 45% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Broadband can empower women by connecting them to a wide range of resources -- to learn, to improve health, to engage in income-generating activities and to create content”, the Director General emphasized. “We often speak of the digital divide – this masks also a gender divide”. Gender equality is one of two cross-cutting priorities of UNESCO and the adopted advocacy target will serve a reference on Organization’s work.

The full version of “Technology, Broadband and Education: Advancing the Education for All Agenda” can be downloaded here.

(Source: UNESCO)

Girls In Tech – Egypt (GIT) is a global organization focused on women's innovative and entrepreneurial achievements in technology. Now Broadcasting from EGYPT.
GIT to kickstart 2013 with Mega Tech Event - More details to come!


 
Further details

To mark International Women’s Day, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics released an interactive tool to highlight the progress and pitfalls in girls’ and women’s education.

This tool uses a game approach to engage a general audience of a wide age range (including teachers, students, activists, pupils, etc) concerning gender disparities in enrollment and transition rates from primary to secondary and tertiary education. Users put themselves into the game by creating their own characters and then compare their situation with those of other characters around the world. They can also explore the data further by using a ‘time machine’ to change the settings of their characters.

This tool will be available from 01 to 15 March, in English, French and Spanish to reach a wide audience. The UIS seeks the support of UNESCO Headquarters, field offices, associated school networks and other partners (NGOs, IGOs, etc.) to promote this product, which will be automatically updated with new data in the future. The general appeal of this tool/game offers great potential for UNESCO’S social media channels.

Mind the Gap link: http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/mind-the-gap.aspx?SPSLanguage=EN



(Source: UNESCO)

The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is pleased to announce its first Girls Technology Camp of 2013, which is scheduled to take place from April 8 – 12 in Lagos, Nigeria.

The camp, which is aimed at encouraging girls to learn and use information and communication technology for their social and economic development, will also celebrate International Girls’ in ICT Day. International Girls’ in ICT Day is an initiative backed by the International Telecommunications Union, to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The W.TEC Girls Technology Camp is a technology education and mentoring programme organized by W.TEC, with the objective of helping girls develop an early interest in computers and other information technology. For the camp duration, the girls will participate in technology workshops. The long-term goal is to increase the numbers of Nigerian women using technology productively for learning, professional and leadership activities.

The camp is open to secondary school students and workshops will include Graphic Design, Movie-Making, Web Design and Introduction to Programming.

To find out more about the camp and to register: email info@w-teconline.org or call +234.1.850.9782, 234.818.870.9251.

W.TEC is a Nigerian non-governmental organization working to encourage Nigerian girls and women to use information and communication technology (ICT) to empower themselves socially and economically. This is done through technology literacy training, technology-based projects, mentoring, work placement and research. W.TEC works in partnership with local and international NGOs, educational and research organizations.



Further details
(Source: W.TEC)

On April 2, World Pulse is launching the fourth annual year of Voices of Our Future, their online training program in new media, citizen journalism and empowerment that gives a new generation of emerging leaders the skills and knowledge they need to actualize and vocalize their visions for themselves, their communities and the world.

During the month-long application process, women from around the world receive learning materials via online classroom introducing them to the frontiers of new media and women’s empowerment. They  are asked to complete four short writing assignments, which are evaluated by their volunteer Listeners and staff. Later they invite 30 of those women to join their six month training program starting in June.

Benefits of the full program include:
- New media and citizen journalism training by renowned experts, including program partners The Global Press Institute and The Op-Ed Project
- Personal mentoring sessions and support from a Vision Mentor
- An Editorial Mentor to help hone your unique voice
- Opportunities for publication through World Pulse and partner media organizations
- Opportunities to connect with grassroots women leaders from around the globe
- Increased visibility for issues and challenges faced by you and your community

In the last two years, over 1,700 women from 140 countries have applied. Join the growing wave of empowered voices across the globe!
Visit the "Voices of Our Future" Application Group to apply

Further details

As part of the European Commission and United Nations joint celebration of International Girls in ICT Day this year, a series of activities promoting girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics  (STEM) will be carried out in Brussels on 25 April 2013.

DigitalMuse.org announced that, as part of their activities, DigitalMuse.org has been asked to collaborate on delivering hands on workshops promoting digital skills to girls, and that their parent organization, Zen Digital Europe, will contribute to an EU Parliamentary hearing on the topic of “women in technology” on that day.

Learn more here and here about their activities last year for “Girls in ICT Day”, and be sure to stay tuned for further details about the 2013 “Girls in ICT” events in Brussels and to learn, how you can be involved!

Further details

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with partners Qtel Group and AusAID, announced the winners of the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge, which aims to redefine the smartphone user experience for resource-poor women in emerging markets.

The GSMA mWomen Design Challenge was created to simplify the smartphone user interface to help overcome reading and technical literacy barriers for women. Twenty-two per cent of women surveyed in Egypt, India, Papua New Guinea and Uganda who do not use mobile phones say it is because they do not know how to use them.

Qtel Group CEO Dr. Nasser Marafih presented the Grand Prize of $20,000 USD to Jeremy Canfield, Sarah Fathallah and Angel Kittiyachavalit for their design, ‘Sahel Shake’, at a ceremony today at Mobile World Congress 2013. Second place, with a prize of $10,000 USD, was awarded to Aloke Pillai of the York Sheridan Design Program for ‘mpower’. The Emerging Talent Prize of $10,000 USD, which is reserved for an entry from emerging markets to ensure entrepreneurs are able to compete alongside professional design firms, was awarded to Raphael Mutiso, from Kenya for his entry ‘Simplified Grayscale Power Efficient Interface’. See here for a description of the winning programs and finalists.

“The standard of entries was extremely high, but the winning submissions were outstanding and we heartily congratulate them all”, said Chris Locke, Managing Director, GSMA Mobile for Development and member of the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge selection panel. “Designing for the specific needs of resource-poor consumers is vital to increasing access to mobile’s social benefits, as well as increasing commercial value for the mobile industry”.

Dr. Nasser Marafih, Qtel Group CEO, said on presenting the Grand Prize: “We are delighted to be involved in the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge, as it seeks to address technical literacy issues for under-served communities around the world. The energy, creativity and innovation demonstrated by all the entrants are an inspiration and we believe that the winning entries will play a vital role in enriching the lives of women in the near future. Our congratulations go to the winners, and our thanks go to the GSMA and all the partners for their support for this competition. We are looking forward to exploring the opportunity to bring to market those innovations”.

In emerging markets, feature phones with basic voice and SMS capabilities are currently the standard. However, smartphones are forecasted to proliferate in these markets over the next few years, becoming the main way people in developing countries will access information, the internet and its associated benefits. Yet, there is a mobile phone gender gap in low to middle-income countries, where 21 per cent fewer women than men have access to this potentially life-enhancing tool.

Furhter details
(Source: USAID)

In celebration of information and communication technology (ICT) careers for women, Cisco is holding a prize draw on 25 April 2013 for girls living in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The draw is being held in partnership with the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union as part of their annual "Girls in ICT Day" campaign.
If you are a female Cisco Networking Academy student, a woman considering a Networking Academy course, or if you have been invited to a 2013 Cisco "Girls in ICT Day" and are over 15 years of age, you are eligible to enter the draw. Five lucky winners from different parts of the world will be randomly selected, lottery style, on the 25 April 2013. There will be one winner for each of the following regions: Western Europe; Eastern Europe; Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); Middle East; Africa.

If you are already an ICT student or are considering a career in this agile, innovative sector, this opportunity is for you. The draw aims attract attention to the diverse career avenues available in ICT and the role that the Internet, in particular, is having on the world around us.

If you are a prize winner, you will be awarded an iPad mini to help you surf the net, learn and network wherever you are. Cisco will also facilitate a mentoring session for you with senior Cisco managers and women in your country of origin and take you on a Cisco site visit. You'll have the chance to experience Cisco technology first hand in their offices and learn both about a career in Internet networking and about working life in a big multi-national company. This is your chance to pose your questions to experts and get some clarity on your study and career choices.

If you don't win they will still enjoy your company and hopefully you theirs at a local Cisco office. The "Girls in ICT Day" event is a brilliant opportunity for you to learn about the breadth and depth of opportunities for women in the dynamic ICT sector. And in particular, with Cisco, you will learn about the life-changing role of the Internet.
They also strongly encourage you to stay tuned to the United Nations International Telecommunication Union's "TechNeedsGirls" Facebook page. Join this vibrant group of girls who, like you, are attracted by the dynamism and potential of the tech sector. Follow the action and learn about ICT careers from working women all over the world.
 

(Source: Cisco Networking)

This day was established by resolution 70 of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in order to celebrate the interests and opportunities that new technologies can offer to young women and encourage them to choose an education and a career in Information and Communication Technology Technology (ICT).

In 2012, this day was celebrated by about 90 countries member of the ITU, through events involving between 20 and 500 young people each, and a total of 30,000 young people. There were initiatives in schools, universities, organizations aimed at ICT conferences, interviews, among others (see  more)

Portugal also celebrated this day through two initiatives organized by the Portuguese Communications Foundation | Communications Museum: a school competition for primary and secondary education and a roundtable discussion that featured the testimony of women professionally connected with the ICT sector (see more)

This year, the Portuguese Communications Foundation | Museum of Communications, will again join this initiative through a program to be held at its premises (soon to be released). The celebration will be held, according to their agenda on Thursday, 25-April-2013, From 10:00 to 23:30.

(Source: Fundação Portuguesa das Comunicações)

UNESCO is inviting editors-in-chief of newspapers, radio, television on and offline to join UNESCO’s initiative, and to produce special supplements/programme on these topics and/or to entrust women journalists and reporters with editorial responsibility for the newsroom for a limited period over the duration of the WMN initiative.
Available on the WMN website are downloadable banners and a logo that can be used to promote this initiative in your organization.

Launched annually on the occasion of the International Women’s Day (8 March), Women Make the News is a global initiative aimed at fixing global attention on an issue relating to gender equality in and through the media, driving debate and encouraging action-oriented solutions until global objectives are met. It is to this end that UNESCO has developed resources such as the Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media.

This year’s theme is related to the Global Forum on Media and Gender (GFMG) to be held in November 2013. It is their intention to draw attention to the need for a global means, including media partnerships, to follow-up on the gender and media objectives of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. 

The theme of the United Nations observance of IWD 2013 is “A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women”. This theme will be one of the main topics to be addressed during the Global Forum on Media and Gender. Another key topic will be integrating media in national gender policies and strategies.

Therefore, UNESCO and its partners are also inviting media organizations, professional associations, journalists’ unions, women and men working in the media and civil society to use 8 March to share your thoughts on what could be the possible form of the Global Alliance for Media and Gender, what should it do and priority themes that the GFMG should address.

Further details

The event, which is billed to hold in Lagos on April 25, 2013, is a brainchild of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and was borne out of the need to encourage young girls to delve into the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) profession as a means of contributing their quota to the development of the industry in their local environment and internationally.

This year’s event, with the theme: “Tech Needs Girls to Invent the Future”, has further received the support of the Minister for Communication Technology, Mrs, Omobola Johnson, who noted that her ministry is ready to work in partnership with eBusiness Life to achieve the aims of the event.

In a mail to the organizer, Mrs Johnson said, “congratulations once again and be assured that the Ministry will support this initiative”. The minister had earlier highlighted on the need to encourage young girls to aspire to co-exist with their male counterparts in the field of ICT, noting that the profession also needs the feminine gender in development.

“It is a known fact that girls are more brilliant at very young ages and evidence abound from nursery and primary schools globally to verify this claim. However, as girls reach the ages of menarche, the pressures and pains of becoming a woman slow us down a little. Early marriages and childcare also contribute to the reduction in young women’s academic achievement. Girls must therefore be exposed to ICT education very early in life. So that the culture, orientation and requisite ICT skills would have been acquired”.

She further enjoined that in order to close the digital divide between the female and male gender in terms of education in, ownership of and access to ICTs, girls must pick interest in ICT and related careers as this will not only prepare them for employment, but will also improve their capacity to compete for jobs with fabulous rewards or ability to start their own businesses and be employers from the word go.

As part of this year’s week-long event, activities will include a one-day seminar, facility tours, essay competition, open quiz sessions, mentorship forum, and awards to deserving female ICT professionals, who have made their marks in the industry.

International Girls’ Day is an initiative launched through ITU Resolution 70 with the idea of creating a global environment that will empower and encourage girls and young women to consider careers in the field of information and communication technologies.

The Union declared the fourth Thursday of April every year as a day of encouragement to girls and young women to consider careers in ICT and society is reminded to support them in their choice.
Pilot projects and campaigns have been launched in a number of countries for more than 20 years, with the aim to change girls’ and young women’s behaviour patterns with regard to their choice of career and to expand their spectrum of career options.

(Source: The Guardian Newspaper Nigeria)

As part of the ITU's Girls in ICT project & Tech Needs Girls campaign, Women in Technology in Nigeria, WITIN brings Technovation Challenge to Nigeria. The Mobile App Challenge was opened on Monday for secondary school girls (ages 13-18) who would work in teams of 5s to develop mobile apps, conduct market research, write business plans, and create a “pitch” for funding. Each team works with both a classroom teacher at their school and a female mentor/role model from the technology industry. WITIN will lead mentors in Nigeria who would guide teachers to train teams from now till April on how to build the apps. The training culminates in a global competition where teams compete for funding to launch their company and take their app to market.

The goal of the program is to promote women in technology by inspiring girls to see themselves not just as users of technology, but as inventors, designers, builders, and entrepreneurs in the technology industry.

The girls are taught life skills such as how to identify a problem, design and test a solution, collaborate with a team, and communicate to different audiences. It reinforces the following academic concepts: digital representation of information, algorithmic thinking and programming, and the societal impact of information and information technology.
Over this period girls will be trained 2 hours a week to develop a potential solution to a problem and program a mobile phone application to solve it. The app must solve a problem in their local community. This could be a health problem that affects their community, a social problem, or even a lack of a resource. They will learn how to study their competition, identify ways in which they can gather users and earn revenue. Each team will be guided by a teacher from their school and a female mentor from the high tech industry to support and act as a role model for her team.

The winning team will be celebrated in Nigeria on April 25th(Girls in ICT Day) and will travel to the Silicon Valley California to compete globally on May 1st, 2013. The overall winner will receive $ 10,000 in funding and support to complete their app development and release it on the market.

In the end, Girls learn about collaboration and teamwork, important skills in the technology industry.

To sign up- all you need is a team of 5 girls, a computer, an android phone, and a teacher or adult to support the team.
On February 2nd, Mrs Martha Omoekpen Alade, Chairperson of Women in Technology in Nigeria formally welcomed all teams in Lagos on the “hackday” to brainstorm on starting off.



(Source: WTIN)

"JUMP is a program that complements the innovative use of telecommunications through "Cell Phone Tips" which involves to send 105,000 text messages with advice and tips on business management to microentrepreneurs. The contribution of Telefónica will provide technical facilities for sending these messages to further enhance of beneficiaries entrepreneurship.

"We are pleased to invest in the education of women because it has a multiplier effect, which results in more productive, healthier families, better educated, and ultimately prosperous communities. For Telefonica, be part of this innovative project, which promotes the development, improve competitiveness and strengthens social inclusion, makes us proud", said Eduardo Devoto, Corporate Relations Manager of Telefonica.

This initiative, which provides training sessions on finance, marketing and sales, as well as personal skills, with a simple and dynamic, is also supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) , ACP, Thunderbird University (USA) and the Australian Government through AusAID.

"JUMP is a program that seeks to promote the development of women entrepreneurs through micro, small and medium enterprises. The program focuses on strengthening the business capacity of 100,000 entrepreneurs through a series of interventions. The IDB-MIF is focusing much on women as it has been seen that women entrepreneurs have a more rapid and sustainable impact on their family, and their community. By the way, they spend and invest, when a woman entrepreneur grows, it begins to promote the welfare of children and families by providing better education and health. This eventually results in development. Moreover, empirically, we have observed that a woman has a very important trained multiplier - woman enjoys teaching and sharing - and so, what you teach a woman tends to reach its surroundings", noted Fidel Jaramillo, IDB representative in Peru.

Furthermore, the training of the project has three additional elements: personal support financial analysis and identification of business opportunities granted by MBA students at the University Thunderbird, funding for project participants by Mibanco, and advice to women entrepreneurs through the cell.

Further details

The role of ICTs as development enablers is more widely understood today as access to new technologies, particularly mobile phones, has grown exponentially. Mobile phone subscriptions exceeded six billion by the end of 2012, three-quarters of which were in the developing world.  However, women are at a disadvantage: they are 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than men, according to the latest Broadband Commission Report.

According to Magdy Martinez Soliman, UNDP's Bureau for Development Policy, development presents an opportunity to effectively address this and other gender gaps.  He speaks about sustainable human development, about the ability to make choices and lead a healthy, long and educated life with all that we value, said Let us bear in mind that ICTs are not neutral. Existing gender inequalities, pervasive in many countries, can be exacerbated by ICTs, when unequal access to education for example turns into digital ignorance. Not having female teachers and lack of local security are powerful triggers of girls’ dropout. Women will not be able to access ICT community centers if safety issues are not properly addressed.

We are determined advocates of democratic governance and for us women's access to ICTs is a governance issue. Public policies and the private sector need to address the root causes head-on.  Women who lag behind in ICT skills are less employable, face further disadvantage and will end at the lower echelons of the labour market.   
ICT solutions comprising the Internet and mobile technologies have great potential to bring vital improvements to the lives of the most vulnerable populations.  For example:

• health care delivery through remote consultations
• agricultural development through access to pricing information and extension services;
• education and learning through online resources
• banking services through mobile banking
• participation in decision-making processes  by enhancing access to public information

The UN task team on the post-2015 Development Agenda has issued a first report arguing that “Globalization offers great opportunities, but its benefits are at present very unevenly shared”. Part of the inequality is gender-related. Part of the response must be about women’s empowerment. And part of this empowerment can be fostered through ICTs.

(Source: UNDP)

The purpose of this GSIM tool is to facilitate gender equality and women empowerment in and through media of all forms, irrespective of the technology used. The tool addresses topics related to internal media policy and strategies, as well as to capacity building. It is versatile as with it media organizations can:
 
•    assess their gender sensitivity,
•    formulate necessary policies and strategies to address gaps detected,
•    set measureable goals, and
•    monitor progress towards desired goals.

The GSIM tool also informs training needs as it contains all the salient elements of gender and media.
The GSIM tool is a non-prescriptive set of indicators, designed for adaptation and use particularly by media of all forms. It is also relevant and useful to citizens’ media groups advocating for gender equality, media associations, journalists’ unions and clubs, media self-regulatory bodies, government entities, academic institutions and research centres such as journalism, communication, technology schools and universities.

It is divided into two interrelated, rather than discrete, categories, each addressing the main axes of gender and media:

•    Category A - Actions to foster gender equality within media organizations (divided into five subsections), and
•    Category B - Gender portrayal in media content (two subsections).

Each category is organized according to five dimensions, namely: User group; Critical area of concern; Strategic objective; Indicators; and Means of verification.
Annexed to the GSIM tool is a set of “self-assessment” case studies carried out by partner broadcasting associations/unions. They provide a snapshot of gender mainstreaming efforts within selected media houses representing all regions of the world.     

Further details

Report calls for doubling the number of women and girls in developing countries who are online to 1.2 billion in 3 years.

Intel Corporation released a groundbreaking report on "Women and the Web," unveiling concrete data on the enormous Internet gender gap in the developing world and the social and economic benefits of securing Internet access for women. To better understand the gender gap, Intel commissioned this study and consulted with the U.S. State Department's Office of Global Women's Issues, UN Women and World Pulse, a global network for women. The report issues a call to action to double the number of women and girls online in developing countries from 600 million today to 1.2 billion in 3 years.

 On average, across the developing world nearly 25 percent fewer women than men have access to the Internet, and the gender gap soars to nearly 45 percent in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report. Further, the study found that one in five women in India and Egypt believes the Internet is not appropriate for them.
 "This study demonstrates the enormity of the global Internet gender gap and more importantly, identifies specific ways the public, private and civil society sectors can work together to dramatically increase Internet access for women and girls", said Shelly Esque, vice president of Intel's Corporate Affairs Group and president of the Intel Foundation. "Intel has worked for decades to improve education around the world. If we can empower women and girls with the tools, resources and opportunities they need to succeed, we will transform their lives and the lives of everyone they touch".

 Seeing another 600 million women online would mean that 40 percent of women and girls in developing countries -- nearly double the share today -- would have access to the transformative power of the Internet. This goal, if realized, could potentially contribute an estimated US $13 billion to $18 billion to annual GDP across 144 developing countries.

 "With the powerful capabilities the Internet enables -- to connect, to learn, to engage, to increase productivity, and to find opportunities -- women's lack of access is giving rise to a second digital divide, one where women and girls risk being left further and further behind", said Melanne Verveer, ambassador-at-large for Global Women's Issues at the U.S. Department of State."My hope is that this report will catalyze action to close the Internet gender gap. This will require knowledge, leadership, determination and collaboration among governments, public institutions, corporations, and civil society to tackle the wide range of gender-specific barriers to Internet access".

The full report can be viewed at http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/technology-in-education/women-in-the-web.html.

(Source: Intel)

Further details

How can mobile technologies advance literacy for all, especially in countries that are “book-poor but mobile-rich”? How can they support teachers’ professional development to improve education quality? And how can they further gender equality in education and increase opportunities for women and girls?

These specific Educations for All-related questions will be addressed during the Second Mobile Learning Week (MLW) which will take place in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 18 to 22 February 2013.  

At the end of 2012 there were an estimated six billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world. The unprecedented uptake of mobile phones in particular, in both developed and developing countries open up new possibilities for increasing education access, equity and quality. Mobile learning, a growing field of ICT in education, has the potential to significantly impact the delivery of education.  

MLW 2013 is the UN flagship mobile learning event and will be attended by an international audience of ICT in education specialists, practitioners, policy makers and representatives from relevant NGOs and corporations.  

As with UNESCO’s successful first MLW from 12-16 December 2011, the 2013 edition of MLW will share innovative ways of learning with, and through, mobile technologies, and how they can help achieve the Education for All goals and improve the quality of education.
A two-day symposium, from 18 to 19 February, forms the backbone of the event and features keynote speakers, demonstrations of mobile content and technology, and thematic breakout sessions.  

On 20 February, UNESCO, in partnership with the GSMA, will host an invitation-only meeting of high-level government officials to discuss issues relating to mobile learning and policy. 

A series of webinars will take place on 21 and 22 February. These online events will allow people all over the world to discuss topics related to mobile learning and will be moderated by leading thinkers in the field of ICT in education.  
 As the UN agency tasked with coordinating EFA, UNESCO is committed to investigating how information and communication technology—of which mobile devices are the most widespread—can help further progress towards Education for All.

(Source: UNESCO)

UNESCO’s Gender Equality in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community is looking for groups and initiatives that promote women’s role and representation in FOSS. This will allow building a comprehensive repository of FOSS Groups and Initiatives by and for Women and Girls.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is liberally licensed software that grants users the right to use, study, adapt and distribute its design through the availability of its source code. Such approach to the use and development of software encourages innovation and skills-building.

FOSS has dramatically changed the way software is produced, distributed, supported and used. However, most of the problems pertaining to gender inequalities in the software industry have been duplicated in the FOSS field. According to UNESCO’s Report on Gender Equality and Free and Open Source Software, globally less than 20 per cent of ICT developers and FOSS users are women. Furthermore, women’s entry level wages are only 17 per cent of men’s wages. Figures are especially worrying in FOSS. Only 2 per cent of professionals working in FOSS are women, compared to 28 per cent in proprietary software.

For this reason, UNESCO calls on FOSS communities to build a comprehensive list of FOSS Groups and Initiatives for Women and Girls. UNESCO encourages women’s and girls’ active participation in all aspects of the development and use of FOSS at all levels: cultural, economic, political and technical.

The objectives of the repository are the following:

•    to raise awareness about the gender gaps in FOSS;
•    to give more visibility to women-led FOSS groups and activities, including their important role as models and mentors for women and girls interested in FOSS;
•    to highlight women’s representation and achievements in FOSS, and dedicated activities;
•    to provide a platform where different FOSS groups can create collaborative efforts, exchange information through relevant NGOs, associations, business, academia and   the public sectors, and promote initiatives contributing to women's participation and advancement in FOSS.

Contributions can be send by e-mail to: foss@unesco.org or join the UNESCO FOSS community by providing the following information:
•    for groups: name of the group, national or regional scope, a brief introduction and the link;
•    for initiatives/activities: title and a brief introduction including goals, status and achievements.

Further details

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and leading network operator Millicom International Cellular S.A., launched an innovative project to bring mobile financial services to women entrepreneurs throughout Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana. Over a period of 18 months, this Global Development Alliance will provide over 4,000 women with business skills training and valuable opportunities to increase their income through mobile retail channels.

In launching this new Global Development Alliance, USAID Chief Innovation Officer, Maura O’Neill, remarked: “Our opportunity to economically empower women through powerful, wide-reaching mobile technologies is more realizable now than ever before. But our ability to succeed requires coordinated and collective action. As such, we value our partnership with the private sector and influential foundations, such as Millicom and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. The components of this partnership are ground-breaking, and we are excited to watch them unfold for the benefit of women and their families in Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana”.

Cherie Blair noted, “Women entrepreneurs stand to gain a great deal from selling mobile money products. With the right business training and working capital available, women entrepreneurs can benefit from being part of a mobile operator's value chain. Setting up mobile sales provides additional household income and the opportunity for these women to be financially independent”.

The women involved will have access to 12-month working capital loans for their mobile money businesses, distributed to the women entrepreneurs through Millicom’s mobile financial services platform. The initiative will deliver financial literacy and business development trainings for the women entrepreneurs, to support them in managing their loan repayments and their mobile money agent business.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO for Millicom commented: “I am proud that we at Millicom can be part of financial inclusion in Africa. This public-private initiative with renowned partners such as the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and USAID will foster women’s entrepreneurship to the benefit of all in the local communities. The initiative will deliver financial literacy and business development training for the women entrepreneurs to support them in managing their mobile money agent business.”

This partnership will present opportunities for women mobile money agents to become profitable while at the same time attracting and retaining new customers. By increasing the number of female agents, this project aims to lower the barriers that women face in accessing financial service and to promote the innovative adoption of mobile technology amongst these women. It also aims to design a successful model for mobile operators around the world to replicate, in order to expand mobile money operations and financial inclusion for the unbanked.

(Source: USAID)

ICRW conducted an assessment of the Intel Learn program, an education initiative that provides technology education to youth around the world, in order to understand its impact on female learners. ICRW found that Intel Learn has been able to reach large numbers of girls and women and enhance their technology skills, critical thinking, and self-confidence, improving their effectiveness as students, community members, and businesswomen.

The program equips learners with skills in digital literacy, collaboration, creativity, and critical problem solving. Intel Learn increases students’ access to technology and also teaches them how to use the technology through hands-on projects to address real-life problems. The program has been implemented in sixteen countries and has reached more than 1.75 million youth. It does not focus on any particular population of students, but rather has a goal of reaching all groups equally poor and rich, males and females, urban and rural, and ethnic minority and majority groups. Approximately half of Intel Learn’s program participants are female.

Growing evidence demonstrates that educating girls enhances the health, productivity, and development of communities and nations. ICRW’s assessment found that the strategies and components of the Intel Learn program have successfully targeted girls’ needs and interests, provided girls and women with necessary skills and resources, empowered them to have control over their resources and make decisions, and set them on a path for economic empowerment. Thus, the program offers important lessons on how to enrich the lives of girls and women through technology education.

Access to the report: The Intel Learn Program Through a Gender Lens

(Source: ICRW)

The beauty of modern technology is that it has vastly speeded up communication and the transmission of information, helping businesses to become more efficient and productive. But this acceleration poses a real challenge for many small business owners who can get left behind if they aren't "up to speed". It's worse for those entrepreneurs living in rural areas in countries with limited access to the kind of information technology we take for granted, like a computer or a phone landline. But for the women entrepreneurs in these same areas those difficulties are multiplied by cultural traditions that often prevent them from being included in local business networks and markets.

This is the reality for women business owners living in rural Gujarat in India, where a group of them have come together and work for a large cooperative, 'RUDI' , to sell agricultural produce from local farmers. The women, known as 'Rudibens*' act as sales agents for the RUDI distribution network, selling food and goods in their own villages. Demand is often very high for the produce but it also fluctuates from season to season. And in order to fill their local orders for the produce, Rudibens have to travel long distances to bigger towns with RUDI centres, wasting time and money. By the time too that these orders are processed and delivered to the rural villages, the level of demand has often changed and they will have lost money they might otherwise have made. For the many women and families that rely on RUDI sales for their livelihood, the inefficiency of the system is a real problem.

Manjula, for example, started a business selling RUDI products after her husband died, leaving her with three children to support but no income. But because she has to travel to process the orders she receives and finds it a struggle to get childcare, she makes less money. And often the orders that she makes are not delivered until weeks later, by which time demand has changed leaving Manjula with produce she can't dispose of and less income.

To address these difficulties that stunt business growth for women like Manjula and other Rudibens, Cherie Blair Foundation has partnered with the Vodafone Foundation in India and the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), which oversees the RUDI network, to develop a mobile application tailored to their needs. The women already have basic mobile phones but the special app will allow them to engage in real-time communication with the RUDI management, check supply levels and text orders instantaneously. As a result, the burden of time and travel costs for will be reduced and processing efficiency will dramatically increase. This translates directly to higher income and more time for the women to invest as they choose, such as developing their businesses and caring for their families.

(Source: Huffington Post)

WTSA-12 affirms commitment to an inclusive Information Society

ITU’s membership has adopted a Resolution inviting ITU Member States to refrain from taking any unilateral and/or discriminatory actions that could impede another Member State from accessing public Internet sites and using resources, within the spirit of Article 1 of the Constitution and the WSIS principles.

Meeting at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) in Dubai, ITU members revised and adopted a Resolution first agreed at 2008’s WTSA in Johannesburg: Resolution 69, Non-discriminatory access and use of Internet resources.

Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: “Just days away from the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12), the adoption of this Resolution underlines ITU’s commitment to a free and inclusive information society. This should send a strong message to the international community about accusations that ITU’s membership wishes to restrict the freedom of speech. Clearly the opposite is true. It is in this spirit – fostering an Internet whose benefits are open to all – that I would like to head into WCIT-12”.

Noting the global and open nature of the Internet as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development in its various forms and that discrimination regarding access to the Internet could greatly affect developing countries; Resolution 69 invites affected ITU Member States to report to ITU, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) on any unilateral and/or discriminatory actions that could impede another Member State from accessing public Internet sites and using resources, within the spirit of Article 1 of the Constitution and the WSIS principles.

ITU’s work, along with many others, has played a key role in enabling the Internet. Without ITU standards providing the access technologies to homes and businesses and the transport mechanisms to carry information from one side of the world to another the broadband services that we have come to rely on would simply not work.

(Source: ITU Newsroom)

UNICEF Philippines, in cooperation with Globe Telecommunications, embarked on an initiative which aims to leverage the use of Information and Communication Technologies to achieve better health outcomes among women and children in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas in the country’s provinces and municipalities.

The initiative is dubbed as rCHITS which stands for ‘Real-time Monitoring of Key Maternal and Child Health Indicators through the use of the Community Health Information Tracking System’. It is a computerization project aimed at achieving a more effective and efficient system of managing health information on children and women living in disadvantaged areas. Globe Telecom donated Php one million (USD 24,000) as support to UNICEF’s programme.

According to Tomoo Hozumi, Country Representative of UNICEF Philippines, the donated money will go towards expanding the rCHITS program to reach more provinces in the coming year.

“Through this program, we are able to gather and consolidate real-time data on mother and child health indicators and help the local government make informed and well-planned decisions on health issues in their provinces”, said Hozumi.

He added that the project was originally conceived as a tool in support of community based injury prevention, but evolved to what is known today as rCHITS through the collaborative efforts of the University of the Philippines National Telehealth Center, UNICEF and Globe.

The multi-stakeholder cooperation moved towards developing a system specifically designed to monitor and obtain key maternal and child health indicators in selected municipalities towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals four and five, which is reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health.

(Source: FutureGov)

The program provides a 3G-enabled tablet powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and free Internet connectivity from Maxis Berhad, the local 3G operator, with which is possible to access information and resources, connect with the dedicated mentor who provides invaluable advice on growing the business of women, and engage with a global community of like-minded business professionals.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report notes a strong correlation between gender equality and a country’s prosperity and economic competitiveness. This is where the Women in Business Mentoring Program comes in. The program is a collaboration between Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach initiative, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the Foundation for Women’s Education and Vocational Training and Maxis Berhad with the goal of enhancing women’s skills and knowledge in business and information and communication technology, empowering them to obtain a better quality of life.

To date, 80 percent of participating entrepreneurs have reported a positive impact on their businesses and 90 percent have reported improved confidence and increased knowledge of technology.

Qualcomm’s passion has always been to expand the possibilities of mobile technology. By designing programs to accelerate women’s ownership of mobile phones and provide life-changing services for women in the developing world, Wireless Reach is working to help stimulate the economic ecosystem and close the mobile phone gender gap.

After Erin Radzi gave birth to her daughter, she had difficulty going back to work and decided to start a business from home. She thought she might supplement her family’s income by baking cakes and cookies, but she couldn’t afford a course on how to decorate wedding cakes. So she taught herself how to do it through online videos. Erin also sought additional training from the Foundation for Women’s Education and Vocational Training, and is now participating in the Women in Business Mentoring Program.

For more information on Wireless Reach, visit their website.

(Source: Qualcomm)

Library’s maternal health SMS service reaches over 90 women

Northern Regional Library’s Technology for Maternal Health Project has got off to a flying start: 94 pregnant women are now receiving vital health information sent directly to their mobile phones; the library’s health corner has been formally launched, and 10 health workers have been trained to use computers to conduct research.

Northern Regional Library in Tamale is working in partnership with the local development agency Savana Signatures to implement the maternal health service. Savana Signatures provides technical support for the SMS service, helped install the library Health Corner and provides information and communication technology (ICT) training for health workers.

The library’s new Health Corner has five computers where health workers and members of the public have free access to the internet. The library reports that health workers especially are using the computers to seek information for lectures and presentations they conduct at antenatal clinics in Tamale and rural areas.

Each computer has been installed with content provided by international agencies, including Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA); Medical Aid Films, and the Ghana health service. All content for the Heath Corner and the SMS service is carefully checked by a committee of local health workers to insure that it is accurate and locally relevant.

In addition to providing free access to computers, the library’s Health Corner is a training centre where Savana Signatures provides essential ICT training for health workers, to improve their research and communication skills. Ten health workers have received training, and another ten are to be trained in October.

The library Health Corner was officially commissioned by the Deputy Northern Regional Minister and the Northern Regional Health Director of the Ghana Health Service. It is attracting intense interest, and other health service providers, for example, the Tamale Teaching Hospital, are approaching the library with requests for information in different formats – film, audio and text – and for their maternal health education programmes.

(Source: EIFL – Ghana)

Two Secondary Schools to Benefit from 90 Girls' Scholarships, 50 Netbook Computers, and Internet Connectivity

Connect To Learn has been launched in Léona, Senegal with the announcement of 90 multi-year secondary school scholarships for 90 girls and the installation of 50 netbook computers supported by broadband connectivity for two secondary schools in the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) site in Léona. The launch at the Collège d’Enseignement Moyen was attended by MVP staff, students, teachers, parents, administrative authorities, education officials, and representatives of Ericsson and Tigo, two of the organizations supporting the effort.

Connect To Learn implements mobile broadband technology to connect classrooms to a 21st century education by enabling access to vital teaching and learning resources. The computers and connectivity contributed by the program’s technology partners will also allow teachers to improve their skills and knowledge and therefore the quality of secondary education in the schools where they work.

Through funds raised by Connect To Learn from individual and corporate donors, the program has also announced that they will offer multi-year scholarships this year for 90 young women to enroll in these schools. Girls eligible are MVP residents who have achieved academic excellence and whose families are unable to sustainably fund their education at the secondary level.

Connect To Learn is a partnership between the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Ericsson and Millennium Promise. As part of its contributions as chief technology partner for the initiative Ericsson has donated the 50 mobile broadband enabled computers and two video projectors. Tigo, the cell phone service provider that has joined the initiative in Senegal, is providing free Internet service that allows the netbooks to connect to the Internet through Tigo’s mobile phone network.

(Source: Connect To Learn)

Women farmers experience a lack of access to resources globally—in the form of production inputs, labor, credit, training, and information. Their enormous contributions to food production, subsistence farming, and the agricultural labor force in the developing world means that ensuring gender mainstreaming in information and communication technology (ICT) is a priority for global food security. It is also central to a global development agenda based on human rights and effective and sustainable development outcomes.

This briefing paper addresses these and related approaches in ICT services for agriculture that support sustainable practices and promote gender equality.

Download the full paper here

(Source: USAID)

In a bid to help expose Ghanaian female students to the world of technology and new opportunities, the government of Ghana has established an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) club for Tamale Girls Senior High School.

This novelty club is expected to be replicated across the length and breadth of the country, according to the Ghana's Ministry of Education.
Member of the Female ICT Teachers Association of the Ghana Education Service, Barikisu Seidu added that the "club is to stimulate the interest of the students in ICT learning and application to improve the number of females participating in ICT, which has become the source of opportunities".

Seidu said women were the bedrock of the society arguing that women would always be in a better position to impart the ICT knowledge onto their children as opposed to men.

"The ICT could enhance girls' chances of acquiring jobs as well as exploring other vital opportunities", Seidu said.

The director of Savana Signatures, Stephen Agbenyo urged the students to make good use of the opportunities offered by the club.

He noted that the new club would teach the female students about website development, blogging, internet researching, and other use of ICT tools for teaching and learning.

(Source: Biz Community)

Blue-Ribbon Group of Media Leaders Concludes a Year of Deliberations
With Release of Report and Review of Best Practices

The Healthy MEdia Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls, consisting of more than 50 leaders from the media industry, creative community, academia, and youth-serving nonprofits, completed more than a year of deliberations today by releasing a report offering a variety of recommendations and best practices to encourage more healthy and realistic portrayals of women and girls across all media.

The Commission Co-Chairs – Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis, founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media; and former Federal Communications Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, International Telecommunications Union Special Envoy and Laureate for Child Online Protection – announced the release of the group’s report during the Third Symposium on Gender in Media of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

Recognizing the need for gender balance and positive portrayals of women and girls in the media, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), along with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and The Creative Coalition hosted the Healthy Media for Youth Summit in the U.S. Capitol in October 2010. At that time, a broad cross-section of stakeholders gathered to chart a course to promote healthy media for the benefit of all young people and recommended that a Healthy Media Commission be formed to develop recommendations supporting a more positive and gender-neutral media environment for women, promoting the healthy development of a girl’s social, emotional and physical well-being.

The objective of the report, according to its Executive Summary, is “to develop recommendations supporting a more positive and gender-neutral media environment for women, promoting the healthy development of a girl’s social, emotional and physical well-being”. The report includes a section on “Healthy Elements of Media”, designed to encourage more healthy body images, active and diverse female characters, equal and healthy relationships, and roles for women and girls.

In addition, the report offers wide-ranging recommendations to a variety of key groups, helping media leaders, creators, and consumers “learn” more about healthy media, “choose” to promote healthy media images, and “educate” peers and colleagues about the healthy media issue and its ramifications for the health of girls and women. “Collectively we must lead efforts to raise awareness of, and facilitate greater education outreach around, healthy media, and work towards re-shaping our media landscape, so that it better promotes balanced and positive images of girls, and values their identities and aspirations”, the report says.

The Report and Recommendations of the Healthy MEdia Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls is available online at www.GirlScouts.org/HealthyMedia.

Our Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce is crucial to America’s innovative capacity and global competitiveness. Yet women are vastly underrepresented in STEM jobs and among STEM degree holders despite making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce and half of the college-educated workforce. That leaves an untapped opportunity to expand STEM employment in the United States, even as there is wide agreement that the nation must do more to improve its competitiveness.

• Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. This has been the case throughout the past decade, even as college-educated women have increased their share of the overall workforce.

• Women with STEM jobs earned 33 percent more than comparable women in non-STEM jobs – considerably higher than the STEM premium for men. As a result, the gender wage gap is smaller in STEM jobs than in non-STEM jobs.

• Women hold a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees, particularly in engineering.

• Women with a STEM degree are less likely than their male counterparts to work in a STEM occupation; they are more likely to work in education or healthcare.

There are many possible factors contributing to the discrepancy of women and men in STEM jobs, including: a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping, and less family-friendly flexibility in the STEM fields. Regardless of the causes, the findings of this report provide evidence of a need to encourage and support women in STEM.

Download full report here

(Source: Economic and Statistics Administration – USA)

The key for the future of any country and any institution is the capability to develop, retain and attract the best talent. Women make up one half of the world’s human capital. Empowering and educating girls and women and leveraging their talent and leadership fully in the global economy, politics and society are thus fundamental elements of succeeding and prospering in an ever more competitive world.

The Global Gender Gap Index introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006, is a framework for capturing the magnitude and scope of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress.

The Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education- and health-based criteria, and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons across regions and income groups, and over time. The rankings are designed to create greater awareness among a global audience of the challenges posed by gender gaps and the opportunities created by reducing them. The methodology and quantitative analysis behind the rankings are intended to serve as a basis for designing effective measures for reducing gender gaps.

The Index is designed to measure gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities in individual countries rather than the actual levels of the available resources and opportunities in those countries. They do this in order to make the Global Gender Gap Index independent from countries’ the levels of development. In other words, the Index is constructed to rank countries on their gender gaps not on their development level.

The Global Gender Gap Index, however, rewards countries for smaller gaps in access to these resources, regardless of the overall level of resources. Thus the Index penalizes or rewards countries based on the size of the gap between male and female enrolment rates, but not for the overall levels of education in the country.

Download full report (PDF)

(Source: World Economic Forum)

Asia-Pacific leaders attending a high-level United Nations-backed technology gathering heard a call for an increased presence of women in the region’s media, information and communication technology (ICT), and communications industries.

The two-day ‘Women with the Wave’ forum in Seoul, Republic of Korea, urged media industry leaders, governments and international organizations to “work harder to promote greater female representation” in industry workplaces and on the airwaves, according to a joint news release from the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Asia Broadcasting Union (ABU), a non-profit, non-government, professional association that aims to advance broadcasting in the region.

The gathering identified the need for a “gender-inclusive” environment in all occupational groups to encourage women and girls to seek on- and off-screen communications and technology jobs, the release said.

The forum also called for women to be given greater access to technological and digital platforms, and argued for a positive, non-stereotypical and balanced portrayal of women and girls across all forms of media and technological platforms.

US actress Geena Davis, who was recently appointed ITU’s Special Envoy for Women and Girls, set the tone for the gathering’s final statement with her endorsement of its aims in her keynote address on the first day of the 10-11 October conference.

“The time for change is now, and all of you in this room are powerful agents of change”, said the Oscar-winning actress. “I’d like to applaud Asian broadcasters, filmmakers, Internet stakeholders, academics and others in taking the lead to change the image of women and girls in ICTs”.

(Source: UN News Centre)

‘Women with the Wave’ forum speaker Geena Davis calls for more female characters, more positive portrayal of girls and women

Leaders attending an Asia-Pacific high-level forum have issued a rallying call for greater participation of women in media, information and communication technology (ICT) and communications across the region.

The call came at the end of the two-day ‘Women With the Wave’ forum in Korea, with delegates urging media industry leaders, governments and international organizations to work harder to promote greater female representation in industry workplaces and on the airwaves.

They stressed the need for a gender inclusive media and information and communication technology (ICT) environment that empowers women and girls to work in the media and ICT fields across all levels and occupational groups, both on- and off-screen. They also called for women to be given greater access to technological and digital platforms, and advocated for a positive, non-stereotypical and balanced portrayal across all forms of media and technological platforms.

The forum was one of a number of events leading up to the 49th General Assembly of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) in Seoul. It featured a keynote speech by Oscar winning actor and advocate Geena Davis, who was recently appointed ITU’s Special Envoy for Women and Girls.

“The time for change is now, and all of you in this room are powerful agents of change”, said Ms Davis. I’d like to applaud Asian broadcasters, filmmakers, Internet stakeholders, academics and others in taking the lead to change the image of women and girls in ICTs. From Korea’s famous K-dramas to Bollywood musicals, we need the characters that will inspire tomorrow’s tech-centered professionals”.

The final statement issued by the forum paid tribute to the ABU, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), host organization the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), and other participating partners for helping to highlight the crucial role media plays in promoting women’s full participation in all aspects of life and society.

“We note that women and girls make up 50 per cent of the world’s population and that equal rights and opportunity underpin healthy economies and societies,” the statement says. “We call on all who can assist to recognize the digital wave now sweeping the world and to join us in supporting the preparation of women and girls for the opportunities and benefits which the knowledge society is now bringing to families worldwide, and which will do so even more in the future”, it concludes.

ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré highlighted his organization’s strong commitment to harnessing ICTs to empower women, both through improved access to new technologies and through training opportunities that will help them pursue a career in the fast-growing ICT sector.

“ITU’s Tech Needs Girls campaign and recently launched annual Tech Needs Girls Prize targets girls aged 9-18 at the time when they are forming opinions and making career choices. Together, the campaign and prize aim to help them see a connection between tech and their daily lives, gain confidence in their skills and find fun in ICT. In addition, our comprehensive multilingual Girls in ICT Portal highlights tech scholarships, training opportunities and mentorship programmes for girls and women around the world”, he said.

Further details

To mark the first ever International Day of the Girl Child, ITU members and partners are today joining forces to launch the Tech Needs Girls Prize, a new global technology competition designed to inspire more girls to embrace technology and invent the future.

Our future is being shaped by technology and, with over 95% of all jobs now having a digital component, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector is an exciting place to be. Yet, as a global shortage of ICT professionals looms and the uptake of girls and women into ICT-related study declines, research reveals that technology has an image problem. Put simply, too many talented young girls mistakenly consider an ICT career to be boring, geeky, uncreative or a career path that lacks the ‘world-changing’ component many aspire to.

Working in partnership with lead players in the ICT, education and media industries, ITU’s new annual Tech Needs Girls Prize aims to dramatically shift perceptions. The prize targets girls between the ages of 9 to 18 at the very time when they start forming opinions about their place in the world and their choice of career path. ITU and its partners will name and tailor a suite of competitions to different specialist areas, offering girls around the world a variety of options to get involved, gain confidence in their abilities, demonstrate their creativity, explore their ‘inner entrepreneur’ and learn first-hand how ICT can make a real difference.

“Empowering women and girls is a key part of ITU’s mandate of ‘connecting the world’. I am looking forward enormously to seeing the imaginative submissions that will come in from girls right around the world, and hope that this new prize will encourage many of them to consider a future in this most exciting of industries,” said Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General.

The Tech Needs Girls Prize 2013 will be awarded as part of the annual Girls in ICT Day celebrations. ITU is working with leading players including Cisco, Intel Corporation and the G(irls)20 Summit to inspire girls to take the tech challenge. Geena Davis, ITU’s own Special Envoy for Girls and ICT, will also be lending her voice and the important work of her institute to ensure that girls are better equipped to be leaders and creators in the world of technology. Full details of the prize, partners and the competitions will be released over the coming weeks.

The prize forms part of ITU’s Tech Needs Girls campaign, launched at Girls in ICT Day this year, which is leveraging the convening power of ITU to bring players in the ICT, education and media industries together. This global call to action aims to transform the wide-ranging number of programmes and organizational initiatives into a force for movement on the urgent issue of ensuring girls and women play a much more substantive role in the ICT sector and are better empowered to harness technology to transform their lives and their futures.

(Source: ITU Newsroom)

Your Excellency Minister Kim Kum-law, Mr. Gil Hwan-Young, Dr. Kim Gwang-jo, Dr Eun Ju kim, Mr. Javad Mottaghi, distinguished delegates, Ladies and gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure to join you today to deliver my keynote address at the Women with the Wave: High Level Forum on Digital Inclusion of Women and Girls in this beautiful city of Seoul.

Today I’m going to share with you stories of a few experiences that led me down new paths – paths that were not part of my original plan and the impact they have had on my life and my work toward improving gender equality for girls and women. I’ve appeared onscreen as everything from a pirate captain to the President of the United States, but the first role I ever played was a man.

As little girls back in the 1960s, my best friend and I played-acted brave characters from TV westerns in her backyard. Because I was taller, I would often play the father, and she’d be my son. And, because we were young, we never noticed that there were no female characters we wanted to pretend to be from movies or TV.

I’ve spent most of my adult life advocating for women and girls, and one a small way has been by seeking roles women may appreciate; roles where the female character is in charge of her own destiny.

About eight years ago, I launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and its programming arm, called “See Jane.”  I did so because I wanted the data on one very specific thing: how many female characters were there in children’s media? You see, when I started watching children’s  programs, videos, and kid’s movies with my then-two-year-old daughter, Alizeh.  I was stunned to see that that there seemed to be far more make characters than female characters in these entertainments aimed at the youngest of children. I checked with my associates and industry leaders –no one seemed to be aware of the serious gender imbalance we’re feeding kids through the images they see.

In fact, the most common response was, “No, no, that’s been fixed”. My Institute sponsored the largest research analyses ever done into the content of movies and chidlren’s television programs in the United States at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, performed by Dr Stacey Smith.

The results were stunning – even though I knew in my heart what they would (303) likely be:  at the dawn of a new millennium – when  half of the global population is female – the message sent to children  is that women and girls do NOT take up half of the space in the world.

Currently, in U.S. family films, for every one female speaking character there are three male characters. In crowd and group scenes, only 17% of the characters are female. 17%! No one- least of all children – is seeing images of boys and girls sharing the sandbox equally. We’d like to assume today that the marginalization and invisibility of female characters, especially in entertainment made specifically for children, would be long gone - a relic of the past.

Unfortunately, the reality is that female marginalization remain deeply entrenched in today’s entertainment, and there has been no significant progress over the last twenty years our research covers. Well, I shouldn’t say no progress: the increase in female characters in family films over the last two decades is 0.7%. By my calculations, if we add female characters at that rate, we will achieve parity in 700 years.

The stark gender inequality in media aimed at children is of significant importance to our discussions on Women and Girls in ICTs, as TV and movies can wield enormous influence on  young children as they are developing a sense of their role in society as well as forming ideas about career choices. Our research shows that females are missing from critical occupational sectors including technology.

We recently completed a recent study on the careers of female characters in popular TV and Film and found that in family films males hold 83.8% of all STEM jobs. This calculates into a ratio of 5 male STEM characters to every one female STEM character. No female protagonists or co leads are shown with STEM careers. Looking across the categories of computer science and engineering, the ratio of males to females in these arenas is 14.25 to one! And in Television, there are 78.9% male and 21.1% female with STEM jobs. What message are boys getting about the worth and importance of girls, if media don’t show girls taking up space equal to their numbers?

Seeing women take their full role will enhance awareness of the benefits for the family and community of women’s empowerment, professional training, and non-traditional career choices.  We know when girls see characters engaging in unstereotyped activities, it can heighten their likelihood to pursue careers in the STEM fields. If boys see girl characters engaged in STEM fields, they will come to see it it as the norm and not the exception. So, what can we do to improve the status of girls and increase their participation in ICTs?

Well, we know what the Asia Broadcasting Union is doing: they are creating initiatives such as the Project on Gender Mainstreaming in Broadcasting which I have learned was implemented in a number of countries in the Asia Pacific  region, the latest one being in the Maldives as a joint ABU-ITU action. May I join with so many others in saluting you for this very important work.

I’m very pleased to be one of the champions of ITU’s recently launched ‘Tech Needs Girls’ campaign, a global initiative in the area of education that aims to encourage girls to play a much more substantive role in the technology sector, including by promoting women in ICT careers.

The time for change is now, and all of you in this room are powerful agents of change. I’d like to applaud Asian  broadcasters, filmmakers, Internet stakeholders, academics and others to take the lead to change the image of women and girls in ICTs. From Korea’s famous K-dramas to Bollywood musicals, we need the characters that will inspire tomorrow’s tech-centered professionals. 

There is a whole generation of young girls who will be influenced by the images they watch, whether in the movies, online videos, social network sites, video games and beyond.  If they can see it, they can be it! Korean entertainment launched the Korean Wave that has spread across the Asia Pacific region and beyond.  Which  makes Seoul  the perfect venue for launching this Gender Media Forum, Women with the Wave, and I am honored to be here on this auspicious occasion.

I’m convinced that the waves we create at this Forum, will improve both the status of women working in media and ICTs and foster a more just media portrayal of women and girls.

Thank you very much.

PREAMBLE
We, the participants in the Women With the Wave Gender Media Forum, held in Seoul, Korea on the 10th and 11th October, 2012, make this affirmation of commitment to its goals and outcomes and to the empowering of women through media and ICTs.

In thanking the organizers of the Forum, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and other partners, we note that women and girls make up 50 per cent of the world’s population and that equal rights and opportunity underpin healthy economies and societies.

Further, we recognize that the media has a crucial role to play in promoting women’s full participation in every aspect of life and society and, to this end, we invite the ITU and the ABU to endorse this statement with a view to seeking to assist in the practical implementation of its recommendations.

We also call on intergovernmental agencies, in particular ITU, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific (ESCAP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and UN Women (UNW), professional associations of broadcasters, especially the ABU, regional training institutions, such as the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and the Asian Media and Information Communication Centre (AMIC), commercial businesses and Foundations, relevant NGOs and tertiary education institutions, including University journalism and communication departments, to take note of this statement and to undertake, where applicable, to provide support for its recommendations.

COMMITMENT
We are committed to promoting a gender inclusive media and information and communication technology (ICT) environment, that empowers women and girls to fully participate and give access to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication by being able to:

 • work in the media and ICT fields across all levels and occupational groups on and off the screen;
 • have access to technological and digital platforms;
 • achieve a positive, non-stereotypical and balanced portrayal across all forms of media and technological platforms, including the recognition of women with ICT careers and girls who use ICTs for their empowerment.

IMPLEMENTATION

Specifically, we declare support for the practical application across the region of the following agreed activities and outcomes of the Forum:

• implementation of the Broadcasting for All: Focus on Gender guidelines that include strategic and practical applications for use in media and ICT workplaces;
• encouragement for the determining of a framework for the broad provision of training and access to technological and digital media by women and girls;
• applying existing research, surveys and findings of the portrayal, stories, faces and voices of the female population across the region and formulating a broad strategy for the application of fair representations across organizations and platforms;
• championing media leaders who promote content and balanced images of girls and women;
• piloting UNESCO’s Gender Sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM) as a practical tool to assess and encourage gender equality and women’s empowerment in media;
• collaborating with partners, such as the ITU, to promote women and girls in media and ICTs, including developing programming story lines with women in ICT careers and promoting the Women’s Digital Literacy Campaign;
• securing industry-wide commitments to take steps towards positive change to promote success stories on radio and television broadcasts;
• gaining specific attention and assistance, from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) through its various specialized departments and its member organizations, to the needs of smaller media institutions (such as in island regions and remote areas), thus enabling out-reach to women and girls and their empowerment in marginalized societies;
• development and distribution of educational modules for use in secondary schools, tertiary education institutions and other scholastic agencies (and, where applicable, by distance learning modes and techniques) to introduce students to gender and media/ICT issues, and the role of media in society.

CONCLUSION
We recall the inspirational discourse of the two day ITU/ABU/KBS sponsored Women With the Wave Gender Forum and, in particular, the successful media and ICT case studies and models shared by speakers from throughout the region. The collegiality of fellow Forum participants, the professionalism of the videos and films they exhibited to the Forum, the commitment of keynote presenters and the atmosphere of optimism expressed by all present have reinforced our belief that affirmative action on the Forum recommendations is vital to ensuring the forward progress of the empowerment of women and girls through media and ICTs.

To this end, we call on all who can assist to recognize the digital wave now sweeping the world and to join us in supporting the preparation of women and girls for the opportunities and benefits which the knowledge society is now bringing to families worldwide and which will do so even more in the future.
                                                                                                             ******

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) are jointly organizing the Women With the WAVE: High Level Forum on Digital Inclusion of Women and Girls, which is held in Seoul, Republic of Korea on 10-11 October 2012. This is in line with WTDC Res. 55 (Doha, 2006): “Promoting gender equality towards an all-inclusive information society”, Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 (rev Guadalajara, 2010): “Gender mainstreaming in ITU and promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women through information and communication technologies”, and the 4th World Conference on Women Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and media have an enormous impact on virtually all aspects of our lives, while being recognized as a critical enabler for socio-economic and cultural development in all countries around the world. The rapid progress of ICT technologies and proliferation of media platforms creates new opportunities to attain higher levels of development through ICT and media. The ability of ICTs and media to reduce many traditional obstacles, especially those of time and distance, makes it possible to use their potential to achieve digital inclusion for millions of people all over the world. Under favorable conditions, these technologies can be powerful instruments, increasing productivity, generating socio-economic growth, job creation and employability, and improving the quality of life of all.

Regrettably, recent studies have shown that the benefits of the ICTs and broadcast media revolution are still unevenly distributed between developed and developing countries and within societies. ITU, ABU, KBS, Forum partners and supporters are committed to turn the existing digital divide into a digital opportunity for all. These organizations have joined forces to promote digital inclusion of already marginalized social groups who risk being left behind the digital wave sweeping the world, particularly of women and girls.

For further information regarding this event, contact Ms. Aurora A. Rubio (aurora.rubio@itu.int)

(Source: ITU - Regional Office for Asia & Pacific)

The global campaign “TECH needs girls”, implemented in Republic of Macedonia on the initiative of the Deputy Minister for Information Society and Administration, Mrs. Marta Arsovska Tomovska, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science, MASIT (Macedonian ICT Chamber of Commerce) and FINKI (faculty of Computer Science and Engineering), after only 5 months form its promotion, has already shown results.

The campaign started with a celebration of the “Girls in ICT day” in April this year. Hundreds girls - high school students were included in the activities, while the media helped in spreading the “TECH needs girls” message to thousands of other across the country. The good idea was immediately embraced from the largest ICT companies in Macedonia, such as T-home and T-mobile, Ericsson, Seavus, Semos, Ultra, Nextsense, Netcetera, Asseco SEE, which contributed in the campaign’s realization.

As part of the activities, in September 2012 free trainings for programming, designing, computer animation and network administration were awarded to girls – students of the generation from several elementary schools in Skopje.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Education and Science, obtained from enrollment terms for academic 2012 – 2013, from the total number of students enrolled on first year university studies on state and private ICT faculties in the Republic of Macedonia, 73, 4% are male, while 26, 6% are female. Compared to the 76, 1% male and 23, 9 % female from the last 2011 – 2012 academic year, it is an increase of 2, 7% for female students!

The results themselves clearly show that we succeeded in encouraging girls to enroll on ICT faculties. In a future perspective, that will enable gender representation balance, but what is most important is that the total number of ICT work force in the Republic of Macedonia will increase.

In the future, the “Girls in ICT” concept will surly represent a great stimulus for further creating and opening new possibilities, opportunities and horizons, accesses to fresh knowledge and of course, recognizing young talents and benevolent investing in their capacities.

By the end of October this year, management board of the “Girls in ICT” campaign will be established. Under the presidency of Deputy Minister Mrs. Marta Arsovska Tomovska, the board will be constituted from women CEOs, women professors and representatives from state institutions who will engage their experience, knowledge and personal will for further development of the campaign’s activity. The board will represent a focal point where all ideas, suggestions and recommendations will be analyzed and from there transformed in future productive steps.

(Source: Girls in ICT)

One of the most prominent themes of this week’s General Assembly has been using low-cost mobile technology to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5: drastically lowering child mortality while boosting maternal and reproductive health in developing nations.

Since there could be 50 billion mobile devices with broadband access by 2017, as Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg predicted at the recent Social Good Summit, it’s no wonder that mobile phones are being harnessed in areas that may be remote and resource-limited, but are no longer disconnected from global health solutions. Here’s a look of three nascent initiatives using mobile technology to create a global health impact:

1. Perhaps the most effective means of empowering women in developing nations to make informed health-care decisions is through basic, adaptable messaging. For the past year, USAID, Johnson & Johnson, and the mHealth alliance have developed the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) to connect with over 20 million expectant and new mothers in 35 countries. Using simple mobile technology, MAMA offers vital health information on everything from swaddling to breast-feeding to immunizations.

MAMA has already been effective in South Africa, Indonesia and Bangladesh, where expectant and new mothers now have access (often for the first time) to a global sharing of timely, topical, culturally relevant health information.

2. Medic Mobile transcends the communication and geographic obstacles that all too often limit the efforts of health-care workers in developing nations. As CEO Josh Nesbit told the Social Good Summit audience, Medic Mobile started out by equipping 100 frontline community health workers in Malawi with mobile phones to facilitate essential services for pregnant women and newborn babies.

Nesbit saw the opportunity to offer critical care services in remote areas by harnessing a mobile phone infrastructure that already existed. Considering WHO’s assessment that half of all maternal deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and that there are more cell phones on the African continent than in the United States, Nesbit’s plan made perfect sense.

3. The next frontier in improving the health of mothers and children is digitizing food assistance. Enter the Better than Cash Alliance, which is helping some of the world’s most indigent populations by transitioning from cash payments to electronic aid, creating a “cash-lite” world.

Through mobile phones and text messages, the Better than Cash Alliance can deliver digital food vouchers, or “e-vouchers”, that enable people to buy food from local markets. According to WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin, “By 2015, WFP expects 30 percent of its assistance programs to be delivered in the form of cash and digital food”.

(Source: The Interdependent)

A project that provides online legal advice and digital trainings to Bolivian victims of domestic violence was praised in a recent publication of International Capacity Building Organization PSO.

The project, which was formerly supported by IICD in collaboration with local partner Casa de la Mujer (Woman’s House), was presented as an example of an inspiring innovative approach to capacity development that leads to the improvement of people’s lives.

The project consists of an online consulting service for women suffering from domestic violence, which provides them legal advice and the opportunity to interact online anonymously with professional counselors. In addition, these women are trained in the basic use of computers as well as the use of tools such as chat and Skype where they can speak to their peers or learn how to anonymously tell their story.

Given that most women do not have a computer of their own, Casa de La Mujer has created computer centres throughout Santa Cruz, which women can visit and use for free to send messages to lawyers and psychologists who volunteer in the project or to other victims, anonymously, if they prefer.

As a result, the women feel that they are not alone. By interacting with other women facing the same problems and by being introduced to basic ICT skills like blogging or using Skype, they are given a voice to communicate about domestic violence and inspire other women who suffer in other areas of the country. In addition to this, ICT has given them the opportunity to seek help maintaining their anonymity, something that is really important to victims of domestic violence and gender discrimination.

IICD’s officer Community Relations, Innovation & Capacity Development, Saskia Harmsen says that “We are pleased with the results seen from the training of 600 women in the use of ICT, and in the use of the on-line legal services and in legal rights issues”.

(Source: IICD)

Two projects, one in Kenya and one in Burkina Faso, show that female farmers have better access to ICTs and are using them to improve their livelihoods. However, there is still a gender digital divide, and some profound problems are preventing women from benefiting from ICTs.

Margaret Wanjiku Mwangi has been a regular user of the Ng’arua Maarifa ICT Centre in the rural county of Laikipia in Kenya since it was inaugurated seven years ago. She has acquired computer skills free of charge and regularly borrows books and magazines to discover new ideas to improve yield productivity. For example, she learnt how to preserve various vegetable seeds for planting to enhance food security. It was also at this rural ICT Centre, an initiative of the Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), that she came up with the idea of making a kitchen garden to grow vegetables in the dry season, and to make fruit juices at home to sell at special occasions and social gatherings.

Mwangi has also attended market access trainings at the ICT Centre, where she has learnt to use her mobile phone and the internet to check market prices. ‘Whenever my crops are ready,’ she says, ‘I use my mobile phone to check market prices in major towns so that I can learn about the current market situation. I share the information with neighbours, and we are no longer exploited by middle men’.

Bett Kipsang’, field officer at the Ng’arua Maarifa Centre says: “We have initiated training sessions targeting all the community members and specifically women. During these sessions, we introduce them to initiatives about online marketing skills, for example, where we train farmers to check market prices from a web-based portal using the internet and mobile phones”.

The portal is called Sokopepe, which loosely translated into Swahili means ‘online market’. It was developed by ALIN, for use by local farmers to access market information via the Short Message Service (SMS). The internet portal has been customized to receive SMS and give feedback on the prices of commodities as inquired by the farmers and buyers. The initiative enables farmers to upload their offers online and receive market information from different market centers in order to make informed decisions on where to sell their produce. This marketing system has helped rural women find prices and also discover the location of prospective buyers‘.

(Source: ICT Update)

The objective of The GSMA mWomen Design Challenge: Redefining the User Experience is to meet the needs of resource-poor women by improving the smartphone user experience.

Designers, programmers and innovators of all kinds are invited to consider the user experience of resource-poor women to reimagine a smartphone’s core user interface to be more intuitive and accessible. The more a woman can use her phone, the more value she’ll be able to realize from the pre-installed apps, widgets, and other functionality that can enhance her and her family’s lives.

Today, most mobile users in developing markets rely on basic feature phones, which generally offer little beyond basic voice and SMS functionality. But smartphones will drive the next stage of the mobile revolution, offering access to more phone features, as well as being the primary tool for internet access for many in the developing world. As competition grows and the phones become more popular, manufacturers will realize economics of scale and will reduce prices, creating a cycle that will ultimately lead to affordable smartphones throughout the developing world.

More information
(Source: GSMA mWomen)

Malvar Community eCenter (CeC), a telecentre based in Batangas, Philippines, has been declared the winner of a contest organized by Telecentre.org Foundation (TCF) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to support their joint Telecentre Women: Digital Literacy Campaign. The contest was open to all telecentres conducting digital literacy training for women from April 7, 2011 to September 1, 2012. A total of 221 organizations and telecentres from 65 countries participated in the contest, submitting verifiable reports of the digital literacy training for women they conducted during the contest period. TCF tallied and verified the reports, which showed that Malvar Community e-Center had trained the most women. ITU will now award the Malvar Community eCenter 15,000 Swiss Francs worth of ICT equipment for its telecentre.

Malvar CeC, was able to train a total of 528 women in basic digital literacy courses during the contest period. Of the total, a vast majority (316 or 60%) admitted that the training was their first introduction to the Internet. Trainees came from all walks of life–from students to public and private sector employees, to the unemployed, to retired senior citizens.

Upon hearing that they had won the contest, Malvar CeC Manager Linda Balbuena said, “Competing with the world’s telecentres is really daunting and quite intimidating. But we gave it our best shot and we won! We, at the Malvar Community eCenter are all thrilled and exhilarated! With the prize equipment, we think of how much easier it will be for us to reach more women in remote areas and teach them basic computer literacy. Thanks and more power to Telecentre.org. Foundation and ITU!”

Malvar Municipal Mayor, Carlito Reyes, who was instrumental in the establishment of the government-supported telecentre, also expressed his delight at the win, saying: “I am very happy and honored to learn that our Community eCenter won the contest of training the most women to become digitally literate. It is totally remarkable and amazing that we won in an international competition like this.”

The Telecentre Women: Digital Literacy Campaign target is to reach 1 million women.  To learn more and participate in the campaign, please visit http://women.telecentre.org.

(Source: Telecentre.org)

The service - 'Business Women' - was introduced by Nokia West Africa, in partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women (CBFW) and MTN. Cherie Blair, founder of CBFW, told journalists that women entrepreneurs are faced with significant barriers to scaling up their businesses, including access to affordable resources, marketing channels and training inputs.

According to Blair, the new information service aims to address this imbalance by providing essential entrepreneurship tips, delivered via SMS to mobile phones with the Nokia Life service.

Women entrepreneurs present at the launch of the service expressed optimism that the new information service would assist them in overcoming some of the social and economic barriers preventing women from reaching their economic potential.

Respondents agreed that computers and the internet allow women to build entrepreneurial success; however, mobile phones have the most potential because their portability and ease of use make them a particularly friendly tool to support women's business growth.

James Rutherford, the Vice President of Nokia West Africa, said the initiative was part of Nokia's "commitment towards connecting people to new opportunities, including making women a larger part of the next billion of people to be connected".

"Nokia Life is by far the world's largest mobile information service suite helping consumers in emerging markets learn, live and share information better", he said. "The foundation invests in women entrepreneurs to build and expand their businesses; and in doing so, benefit not only them but also their families and communities. We are delighted to partner with the foundation to provide Nigerian women with the best information available to help their businesses.

The service will be available for free, for the first six months, to Nokia Life users who are also currently subscribed to MTN Nigeria.

(Source: Daily Times)

Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Anna Maria Chávez Will Accept “Diversity Advocate” Award On Behalf of the Commission in New York City September 12.

The leaders of the Healthy MEdia Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls expressed gratitude to the Walter Kaitz Foundation for the Foundation’s decision to bestow upon the Commission the Foundation’s Diversity Advocate Award.

“The Healthy MEdia Commission strives to promote representations of women in the media in the areas of healthy body images, active and diverse female characters, equal and healthy relationships, and increased roles of women and girls”, said Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis, Founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and a co-chair of the Healthy MEdia Commission. “We’re proud to receive this award in recognition of our goals to ensure we’re creating a positive media environment for our children”.

The Healthy MEdia Commission is guided by its principal sponsors, Girl Scouts of the USA, The Creative Coalition, The National Association of Broadcasters, and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. The Walter Kaitz Foundation is the cable industry’s national foundation dedicated to advocating for diversity.

“It’s especially gratifying that a prestigious organization such as the Kaitz Foundation, which is dedicated to enhancing and increasing diversity in media, would recognize the efforts of the Commission. We thank the Foundation for that recognition”, said Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Anna Maria Chávez, who will accept the Award on September 12 on behalf of the Commission. “We and the Healthy MEdia Commissioners also look forward later this fall to delivering a full set of recommendations on how to encourage the proliferation of healthy images of women and girls in all forms of media”.

The Kaitz Foundation on July 18 announced that the Healthy MEdia Commission would be recognized with its Diversity Advocate Award at the annual Awards Dinner of the Foundation, on Wednesday, September 12, in New York City. The award is presented annually to an individual or organization outside of the cable industry that has demonstrated unwavering commitment to diversity.

More details

(Source: Walter Kaitz Foundation)

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women supports women entrepreneurs, providing them with a variety of resources and tools to overcome barriers they may encounter. In their published report Mobile Value Added Services: A Business Growth Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs in partnership with the ExxonMobil Foundation, they demonstrated that business barriers in emerging markets can be addressed through the development of targeted mobile phone services. They launched this research at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier this year and are now following up on their findings, carrying out recommendations from the report with the mobile technology sector to deliver a service specifically tailored for women business owners in developing and emerging markets.

This week, in partnership with Nokia and MTN Nigeria, they are launching Business Women, a new mobile phone service for women looking to grow their small-scale enterprise in Nigeria. Designed with the experiences of Nigerian women entrepreneurs in mind, the service was developed by international and Nigerian entrepreneurship experts. It provides valuable, bite-size information on business management such as advice on working with traders, how to improve distribution channels, the steps required to register a business in Nigeria and how to tap into valuable business networks. Customers who opt into this service will receive four to five text messages with business tips per week and also have the option of taking a weekly multiple choice quiz to test what they have learned.

They will introduce Business Women in conjunction with a project that provides hands-on business skills training to over 2,000 women entrepreneurs in Nigeria in partnership with the Youth for Technology Foundation. They look forward to charting the progress of the women entrepreneurs who use Business Women and to following this launch with mobile services for women entrepreneurs in Indonesia and Egypt soon.

(Source: Huffpost Tech)

According to a study by the Research Center for Women’s Action (CIPAF), about 80 per cent of teachers in the Dominican Republic believe that boys excel in mathematics while girls do better in languages. But the facts speak to a different reality: “We compared these results with real data and found out that it was not true: girls have had better grades in math”, says Magaly Pineda, Executive Director of CIPAF.

Overcoming stereotypes, promoting interest in mathematics among girls, and eventually reducing the gender digital divide in the Dominican Republic is the objective of the project Gender and ICTs: Equality and Equity in E-Dominican, organized by the CIPAF and supported by the UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality.

Women represent 61 per cent of the university population in the Dominican Republic, and yet, barely 11 per cent of these students are studying for careers in science and technology. The figures on household trends also show a gap in the opportunities that men and women have to access digital technology: only 38 per cent of households headed by women have access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

The digital divide remains difficult to close. While more women are entering universities, women are generally still absent from key areas of the economy. “The ICT sector is the fastest growing in the country, but women represent only 33 per cent of the labor market and most of them in support tasks”, says Magaly Pineda.

To address this reality, math clubs such as “E-girls” and “Super math” have been created under the umbrella of the Gender and ICTs project. The aim is to promote science subjects amongst girls in public schools. The initiative includes mentoring and career guidance campaigns to speed up the entry of more women into the Technological Institute of the Americas (ITLA) and in technology careers.

The initiative Gender and ICTs is part of the Plan for Equal Opportunities for Women in the Information Society, created by the National Commission for Information Society and Knowledge. This Plan is the first of its kind and will integrate a gender perspective into the broader Dominican National Strategy for the Information Society (E-Dominican), and will contribute to reducing the gap between men and women in access to information and communication technologies.

(Source: UNWomen)

Dream-wings is a free online learning portal run by Gyeonggi Women’s Development Center – GWDC. It offers e-learning services and over 300 courses in office work, healthcare, social welfare, IT, foreign languages and hobbies.

“Stay-at-home mothers wishing to get a job and working mothers looking for better career opportunities never have enough time for self-development. They find a favorable option with Dream-wings which can be accessed anywhere and anytime”, says Dr Cho Jung-ah, head of GWDC.

Dream wings-supports women’s career development, including finding a job or starting a new business. It started off in 2004 as a local website built for women living in Gyeonggi Province. Based on the research conducted by Samsung SDS, GWDC created a master plan offering e-learning services to women who have experienced an extensive period of career breaks. A year later, GWDC opened the online Gyeonggi Women Career Development Center, Korea’s first-ever free e-learning service for women. It began to offer nation-wide services in 2011. This year, GWDC introduced a mobile version of the portal – Smart Dream-wings.

Focused primarily on IT education, Dream-wings has expanded the scope of its services into total career development support by adding diagnostic services (e.g. competency diagnosis and employability diagnosis) and support for job placement and business start-up. The initiative is fully funded by the government.

(Source: FutureGov)
Further details

An intensive camp for budding female programmers and engineers hopes to increase the number of women in the tech world.

Women earn the majority of bachelor degrees in the U.S., but only 24% of females work in technical fields. "Girls and boys at 12 or 13 like math and science the same, but then something shifts. There’s a cultural perception that a coder or engineer looks like a white male", says Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code and former New York City Deputy Public Advocate.

So she founded Girls Who Code, a summer program with backing from Twitter, General Electric, Google, and eBay that wants to help close the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) gap by giving high school girls (ages 13 to 17) the opportunity to learn more about what engineering and technology careers have to offer--and by giving them the confidence to pursue their goals.

The New York City program, which kicks off this summer, will have 20 participants, representing all of the city’s boroughs and 12 different ethnicities. "We wanted to focus on girls who didn’t have a lot of access at home or schools that were passionate about technology", says Saujani.

The Girls Who Code participants will have a jam-packed summer schedule, with activities planned Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Every week will have a different theme (mobile apps, robotics, entrepreneurship, etc.) and speakers will come talk to the girls every day. Already, Girls Who Code has lecturers like General Electric CMO Beth Comstock, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, and Gilt Groupe founder Alexis Maybank lined up. Once or twice a week, the participants will take field trips to various tech startups and established companies, including Twitter, Google, Facebook, and General Assembly.

During the final two weeks, the girls will work on their final projects, which will ask them to solve problems using tools they’ve learned during the summer. One example: The girls might be asked identify a challenge in their neighborhood, and develop something--a video game, say, or a mobile app-- to address it. The girls will receive feedback and help from their mentors teachers, and at the end of the program, they’ll have the opportunity to showcase their ideas to a group of entrepreneurs and engineers.

(Source: Fastcoexist)
Further information

ICT Update magazine is preparing an issue that will focus on Women and ICTs and they would like to hear from anyone working on agricultural or rural development projects that emphasize the role and position of women in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, where ICTs (mobile phones, computers, GIS, email, Internet, radio, TV, etc) are used to improve employment opportunities or to encourage an interest in traditional agricultural practices.

 ICT Update magazine is looking for projects that focus on empowerment, female rural entrepreneurship or capacity building. If someone is involved in such a project then they have to get in touch with brief details on the technology they use, how women are involved, and how it contributes to rural development in ACP countries. They can then send an article outline and list of questions to cover in the article, or organize a time for a telephone interview.

For more information, send an email to: evert-jan@contactivity.com

(Source: iConnect)

Further details
 

The World Wide Web Foundation announced the publication of Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations. This publication is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the book is a compendium of articles by recognized experts describing the real and potential effects of the World Wide Web in all major aspects of economic and  social development.

The book fills a gap in the current store of knowledge by taking a broad view, offering detailed commentary from fourteen  experts who are deeply engaged in the field of ICTs for development, many with extensive experience in developing countries,  and each able to emphasize the key questions, challenges, and successes unique to their field.

The research unites themes of technological innovation, international development, economic growth, gender equality, linguistic and cultural diversity and community action, with special attention paid to the circumstances surrounding the poor and  vulnerable members of the Global Information Society.

Readers will be able to draw parallels across each field and see where similarities in the deployment of ICTs for development exist and where there are divergences.

Download the full text here

(Source: Web Foundation)

The GSMA mAgri team invites to a one hour webinar on Wednesday 27th June (at 14.00 UK time) sharing practical and actionable lessons which can be applied to the design and marketing of mobile information and advisory services for women smallholders.

The mAgri Programme identifies opportunities where mobile can have the most impact to mitigate these problems. They are uniquely placed to bring together mobile network operators, agricultural organisations, NGOs, ICT professionals and donors to act on these opportunities.

Half of all farmers in the developing world are women, and in some countries such as Rwanda women account for 70% of the agricultural workforce.

Women farmers are less productive than men but if they had equal access to resources, including quality and actionable information, women farmers could grow 30% more food.

With a focus on service design and marketing, this webinar will focus on how mobile operators, VAS providers and agricultural NGOs can provide women farmers more equal access to mobile information and advisory services. Armed with better access to information, women farmers can make more informed decisions, increase their resilience and ultimately improve productivity and incomes.  Subject matter experts in gender and agriculture will share their insight and draw on best practice from closely related programmes and initiatives (such as gender-responsive extension programmes and using ICTs to empower rural women).

Reserve your Webinar seat at:https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/213949574

(Source: GSMA)