Girls in ICT Day 2026: Arab States Edition

Eleven Countries, One Goal: Keeping Girls Safe Only in the Era of AI.

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How the Arab States mobilised over 1044+ girls across more than 18 events and taught them to stay safe in the age of AI.

A Question Worth Asking Every Year

Every year on the fourth Thursday of April, the Girls in ICT Day invites the world to pause and ask a simple but urgent question: what kind of digital future are we building and how can girls be the ones to build it?

Since its launch in 2011, this global initiative, established under ITU Resolution 70 on mainstreaming a gender perspective and promoting gender equality through information and communication technologies, has grown into one of the most significant annual commitments to digital inclusion worldwide.

Complementing it,  ITU Resolution 55 (Rev. Baku, 2025), adopted at the World Telecommunication Development Conference, calls on the Telecommunication Development Bureau to mainstream gender across all activities, ensuring that the push for equal participation in ICTs is embedded not just in celebrations, but in policy, programmes, and practice.

This year’s global Girls in ICT Day theme, “AI for Development: Girls Shaping the Digital Future,” places girls and young women at the centre of one of the most important transformations of our time. It is a reminder that artificial intelligence should not be shaped by a few, but by all, and that girls must be empowered not only to use digital technologies, but to design, influence, and lead the digital future. Within this global framework, the Arab States celebration adopted a focused regional lens: “Safety Online in the Era of AI.” This sub-theme responded to a growing and urgent challenge: ensuring that girls can participate in digital spaces with confidence, critical awareness, and protection from technology-facilitated harm, including online harassment, stalking, gendered disinformation, AI-generated deepfakes, and other emerging risks.

For our region, the theme could not have been timelier. Across the Arab States, countries are making meaningful strides to build a more inclusive and safer digital landscape for women and girls. Saudi Arabia has seen women reach 32 per cent of its national cybersecurity workforce, above the global average of 24 per cent, and organisations such as Women in Cybersecurity Middle East now count over 3,000 members across 21 Arab countries; all ensuring a women lens into national cybersecurity matters. But much work remains. Teaching girls not only

to access technology, but to navigate it safely and critically, is no longer a nice-to-have, it is a matter of rights, dignity, and safety.

Against this backdrop, the ITU Regional Office for the Arab States took a deliberate step beyond isolated national celebrations in 2026, introducing a Regional Collective Implementation Plan designed to amplify impact, foster cross-country collaboration, and ensure coherent delivery of a shared curriculum, where possible. The results speak for themselves: more than 18 events, 11 countries, and over 1044 girls and young women trained, inspired, and equipped to engage with technology on their own terms.

Behind every successful event is a foundation of preparation. Months before the first girl took her seat at a workshop in April, the ITU Regional Office for the Arab States worked with policy makers and national organisers in Libya, Jordan, Iraq, and Sudan to build a shared understanding of gender equality in the digital sector.

Through three online workshops, participants were guided through the ITU Academy course on Gender Analysis and Digital Inclusion: How to Achieve Gender Equality in the Digital Sector​. Participants from Ministries and Regulators examined their own countries’ legislation and policies through the lens of access, benefits, participation, and power as the four dimensions that reveal where inequalities are embedded and where targeted interventions can make the greatest difference. Countries shared experiences, compared approaches, and left not only with new analytical tools but with a genuine regional conversation about what it takes to include more women and girls in 2027 and beyond.

Sudan — 13 to 20 April: Digital Skills in the Heart of Displacement

The story of Girls in ICT Day 2026 in the Arab States began with the most courageous step. At the Al-Afadh Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Al-Dabba Locality, Northern State, the Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Authority of Sudan (TPRA) launched an intensive eight-day training camp that brought together 90 girls in one of the most powerful acts of commitment the region would see this year.

The programme was structured into two learning tracks. Girls aged 10 to 14 (40 participants) dived into Scratch programming, building their first steps in computational logic and creative coding. Girls aged 15 to 18 (50 participants) tackled infographic design, learning to communicate ideas visually through digital tools. Senior officials of the Authority spoke of the initiative as part of a broader mission to bridge the digital divide across the country’s diverse regions. Girls’s spirits were remarkable as they arrived with high morale and keen eagerness, reminding everyone that circumstance does not define ambition.

Total girls reached: 90+ 

The ITU Regional Virtual Event — 20 April: Three Countries, One Digital Room

On 20 April 2026, the ITU Regional Office for the Arab States hosted the Arabic-language edition of its regional virtual celebration, bringing together 99 girls from Libya, Jordan, and Iraq in a shared Zoom session that crossed borders, languages, and time zones.

Facilitated entirely in Arabic by our volunteer, Abrar El Durat from the National Information Security and Safety Authority, the session was centred on Cybersecurity for Girls in the AI Age, offering interactive, hands-on learning tailored to the digital realities that young girls navigate every day. The session was built not around abstract concepts, but around the platforms these girls actually use, the risks they actually face, and the knowledge they actually need.

For Libya, joining the virtual event was part of a wider effort. The General Authority for Communications and Informatics (GACI) and the National Information Security and Safety Authority (NISSA) also ran a series of self-supported activities promoting cybersecurity awareness and digital empowerment, collectively reaching 90 girls.

Total girls reached via virtual event: 99+ (Libya, Jordan, Iraq) | Libya national activities: 90+

Oman — 21 April: Girls Take the Stage

On 21 April, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Oman (TRA) joined the global celebration of Girls in ICT Day 2026, welcoming 50 girls and women to explore technology and digital innovation. The event reflected Oman’s continued commitment to advancing women’s participation in the digital economy, contributing a quiet but meaningful presence to the region’s growing momentum.

Total girls reached: 50+

Morocco — 22 and 24 April: Learning on Their Own Terms

In Morocco, Girls in ICT Day 2026 took shape across two workshops in the city of Salé on 22 April and in the capital Rabat on 24 April; co-organised with the Agence de Développement du Maroc, the Women in AI Morocco Chapter, Centre Horizons Ouverts, Academia Raqmya, and the Office de la Formation Professionnelle et de la Promotion du Travail. Together, they welcomed around 100 girls for an experience designed not around what adults think girls should know about technology, but around how girls actually live online and make of artificial intelligence an ally.

Throughout the workshops, female volunteer trainers from Women in AI’s Morocco Chapter were invited to share how they had begun their own careers in technology: the setbacks, the turning points, and the advice they wished they had received at the same age. Girls could ask questions freely, and many did. The message was consistent: a career in technology is not reserved for anyone in particular. It belongs to those willing to reach for it.