Good Practice: #eSkill­s4­Girls-Ini­ti­at­ive

Access to digital transformation for girls (globally)
 

Overview

Categories
  • Topics: Education
Project duration
Since 2017
Commissioned by
  • German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Context

Digital transformations are changing our world and the way we live, work and learn. Despite all the potential of digitization, so-called "digital divides" exist depending on socio-economic status, gender, geography, age and educational background. People in countries of the global South run the risk of being excluded from the benefits of digital transformation. Women in particular do not benefit from the potential of digitization to the same extent as men: Worldwide, more than 250 million fewer women than men have access to the Internet, although online access is one of the most important requirements for social and economic participation today.


However, the digital gender gap is not only a question of access to infrastructure and technology, but also a question of digital skills. The acquisition of these skills is often limited for women due to a variety of socio-cultural factors. Currently, women are underrepresented at all levels in the technology sector. In addition, women and girls are exposed to an increased risk of experiencing gender-specific discrimination, sexual harassment and cyberviolence on the internet.

Solution

As part of the German G20 presidency in 2017, the BMZ has launched the #eSkills4Girls initiative. The goal of the G20 initiative is to close the digital gender gap and to invest more in digital skills for women and girls. This not only contributes to the empowerment of women and greater equality in the digital world, but also opens up new employment prospects.

Implementation

Together with partners from politics, business, research and civil society, the #eSkills4Girls initiative promotes educational and employment perspectives for women and girls in a digitalized world. For this purpose the BMZ sets the following priorities:

More projects on gender and digitization: In Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia, the BMZ successfully implements #eSkills4Girls projects (opens in a new window) #eSkills4Girls projects through GIZ. They focus on training in digital skills, the integration of digital technologies in professional training and non-formal education, and raising awareness of career opportunities in the tech sector. In Rwanda, for example, the software academy WeCode trains women as software developers and testers.

Engagement in the multi-actor initiative EQUALS: EQUALS (opens in a new window) (Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age) is a multi-actor partnership founded at the end of 2016 by ITU, UN Women, UNU (United Nations University), ITC (International Trade Center) and the telecommunications industry association GSMA to promote gender equality in the digital age. Until 2019, the BMZ and UNESCO jointly chaired the working group on digital literacy, which focuses on promoting digital literacy among girls and women. Through the EQUALS Digital Skills Fund, the BMZ supports 10 initiatives each year that teach digital skills to girls and young women. In 2019, 10,000 women and girls took part in the training sessions of the selected initiatives.

Promoting female role models from the tech sector: Female role models who have successfully established themselves in the tech sector are an inspiration for young women and girls to discover MINT subjects and professions in the digital sector for themselves. The book Women in Tech: Inspiration, keine Märchen“ (opens in a new window)(Women in Tech: Inspiration, not Fairy Tales) portrays 30 inspiring women from around the world who have found their way into the tech industry and question existing gender roles and stereotypes.

Strategic partnerships with the business community: The German software company SAP is in charge of organizing the Africa Code Week (ACW) (opens in a new window). Between 2017 and 2019, the BMZ sponsored around 20 #eSkills4Girls programming workshops a year in 17 African countries as part of ACW. To date, 27,994 girls and young women have participated in these workshops.

Cooperation with non-governmental organizations: In cooperation with the NGO World Pulse (opens in a new window), the BMZ promoted the training of 115 women and girls as digital ambassadors through training in digital skills and skills transfer. The goal was to ensure that the female ambassadors passed on the skills they had acquired to members of their communities in workshops. The 205 face-to-face training sessions offered by the digital ambassadors enabled 12,000 people to be reached in their communities by 2020.

Online platform to promote the exchange of knowledge: The online platform #eSkills4Girls (opens in a new window)presents over 30 projects on digital skills, portrays female role models and bundles information on relevant studies, data and events from various G20 partners.