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Potraz, Girls in ICT day 20195/15/2019Africa, Zimbabwe, Gokomere Catholic Mission, ZimbabweGIRLS IN ICT DAY WOWs YOUNG WOMEN AND GIRLS FROM MASVINGO PROVINCE The Girls in ICT Day initiative continues to grow globally as well as in all member countries including Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has been commemorating Girls in ICT Day every year in different provinces around the country on a rotational basis since 2012. This year, the Ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, POTRAZ, service providers across the telecommunications sector and young women and girls from across Masvingo Province converged at Gokomere High School to commemorate this day. Women play a key role in reducing poverty and promoting social and economic development for themselves, their families and their countries. ICTs are an essential tool for the social and economic development of women and girls as technology can be used to provide education as well as jobs, literacy and life skills training for them. The International Girls in ICT Day, an initiative backed by all ITU Member States at an ITU Plenipotentiary Resolution 70 (Rev. Dubai, 2018), is aimed at encouraging and empowering girls and young women to consider studies and careers in the growing field of ICTs, enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector. This day, which is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of April sees countries from across the entire ITU membership organize various events that attract as many girls and young women as possible to commemorate and disseminate information about opportunities and careers offered by this sector. For Zimbabwe, this year was one of the biggest commemorations held, with over 1000 young women and girls from the entire province of Masvingo, mostly from rural and underserved communities and schools gathering at Gokomere High Schools. The day was marked by a hive of activities that included presentations of written scripts by girls on community problems that they identified in their own communities and proposing how ICTs can assist to solve these problems, Girls also had an opportunity to listen to female engineers, computer scientists, innovators and electrical engineers already working in the ICT sector, share about their journey from high school, subjects they studied, challenges they faced while on their journey as women in a male dominated field and how they overcame these challenges. Students also had one on one discussions with service providers across the telecommunications sector and to ask questions to engineers and service providers alike. This seemed to be very exciting for the girls and some indicated that they had been struggling to choose a career path and this commemoration brought some clarity in terms of their career choice. WHY GIRLS IN ICT DAY? According to the International Telecommunications Union, one of the best reasons is that there are job opportunities in the ICT sector! The sector is marked by a pressing need for a wide range of ICT talents – there is a growing gap between the digital skills needed by employers, and the number of jobseekers with the required technical know-how. This means that highly qualified women in technical fields have significant opportunities available to them. However, not enough students are preparing themselves for studies in math, engineering, computing, and sciences, and the number of female technical students is disproportionately low. In researches carried out by ITU, it was revealed that ICT companies are looking to attract and promote women because achieving greater workforce diversity is good for business. The lack of young women attracted to ICT studies is reflected in ICT companies and government agencies around the world. The ICT sector is currently male dominated, especially at senior levels. Where women are present, it is often in low-level, low-skilled jobs. Fortunately, many companies and organizations are looking to increase the numbers of women in the sector, realizing that increasing the number of women at the top positively impacts financial performance; those that ignore diversity issues, meanwhile, risk on-going labour shortages. ITU, as the leading United Nations agency for telecommunications and ICTs, seeks to encourage gender balance in the ICT sector at all levels of the profession. Supporting the education of women and girls in the ICT sector is also in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 5, aimed at achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls through, among others, ICTs. Not only are jobs in the ICT sector lifting women out of poverty, but a more gender-balanced sector offers fulfilling mid and high-level careers, and enables highly talented women to springboard to the top of the career ladder. This is good for everyone. As UN Secretary General António Guterres has said:
DIGITAL INCLUSION One of the critical reasons why ITU saw it fit to dedicate a day that looks at encouraging women and girls to take up careers in the ICT sector is to ensure that there is digital Inclusion of this group and to promote ICT accessibility and use for the social and economic development of people with specific needs, including indigenous peoples and people living in rural areas; persons with disabilities; women and girls; and youth and children Over 357,000 girls and young women have already taken part in more than 11,100 celebrations of International Girls in ICT Day in 171 countries worldwide since the inception of the commemoration of this day. Government ministries, national ICT regulatory authorities, ICT companies, academic institutions, UN agencies, and NGOs around the world have been encouraged by ITU to join the global effort and celebrate International Girls in ICT Day as well. |