Lulu Bisignani at accelerateHER Around the world, 250 million children lack access to basic education; literacy rates staggeringly low in some countries. Young girls are two-thirds more likely to be excluded from access and opportunities for education. According to UNESCO’s Director General Audrey Azoulay, by teaching basic reading and writing skills to 171 million children we can eradicate 12 per cent of the world’s poverty. Taking on this monumental challenge is Kukua, an e

The first think piece in I'd blush if I could: closing gender divides in digital skills through education from the EQUALS Skills Coalition shows how complex it is to achieve gender equality in information and communication technologies (ICTs). Data collected from various sources, including the World Economic Forum's 2018 Global Gender Gap Report, reveal an intriguing and surprising paradox: there is no direct correlation between gender equality levels and the proportion of fe

The annual EQUALS in Tech Awards recognize initiatives from around the world that help imagine a better digital future for women and girls. Every year we give awards recognizing work that helps girls and women get equal access, skills and opportunities online and in the tech industry. At the 2018 awards, we asked this year’s winners to tell us a bit about how the recognition that goes with winning the award might impact their work. Laboratoria's Marisol Alarcón answers questi

Margaret Gates, 15, from Wantagh, New York, dreams of being an engineer or astrophysicist, but until 2016, she had yet to explore other STEM career opportunities. That was when her aunt, a Member of the New York Academy of Sciences, told her about the Academy’s 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures program, as a result of receiving a newsletter with a call for mentees and mentors for the program. She thought it would be a great opportunity for Margaret. Margaret Gates (photo courtesy of

"Ubuntu" is an ancient humanist African philosophy which was coined from the Zulu phrase "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu", which literally means that a person is a person through other people. It drives at the relatedness and “family-ness” that should exist between people and supports the idea of community as the building blocks of society. Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously described Ubuntu as "the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is

Growing partnership agrees to bold goals to close the gender gap in tech New York, 22 September 2018 — The EQUALS Global Partnership today committed to a broad set of strategic goals to bridge the digital gender divide, at its annual principals’ meeting at the Yale Club in New York City. The meeting brought together influential EQUALS partners representing leading private sector organizations, universities, United Nations organizations and government agencies—who work togethe

I grew up taking apart computers with my father. I’d muse about books on my father’s bookshelves with strange titles: PERL, Java, C++. “Daddy, what do they mean?” I would ask. “Those are computer languages,” my father would explain. I was fascinated that computers have languages just like humans. I mastered computer languages as a teenager at school. Then, my curiosity shifted to what is inside a computer. I set out for Stanford to study electrical engineering. While I excell

Pilar Figueroa Casas was working at a market in Mexico City when she first heard about Laboratoria, an organization offering digital bootcamps for women aspiring to work in technology. Figueroa Casas had graduated with a degree in international business from the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City and then worked at a government office, a national bank, a drug store before taking the job at the local market. At the time, she felt her career was stuck, the 24-year-ol

The EQUALS Skills Coalition has two new members. Both Oxford Policy Management and Pro Mujer are organizations devoted to helping bridge the gender gaps in opportunity, education and access for women. We welcome these two new EQUALS partners, who join more than 60 organizations working actively around the world to achieve equality for women and girls in technology and other areas. Learn more about our newest partners: Oxford Policy Management Besides expertise in creating new

Youth across the world remain hungry for employment in the digital economy. Enter coding schools. They provide digital skills training and fast track students into employment. In Afghanistan, where barriers to the education of girls remain, coding schools offer much more. PHOTO CREDIT: AngelHack Take Code to Inspire. The extracurricular coding school teaches mobile app and web development, gaming, full-stack development and graphic design. Its graduates enter the employment p

As we enter the third quarter of the year, EQUALS is pleased to announce two new partners joining our Skills Coalition. Known as the "World’s Smartest Network®," the New York Academy of Sciences is among the oldest scientific organizations in the United States, and its members have included luminaries such as Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, and Margaret Mead. Now numbering over 20,000 members in more than 100 countries, the Academy brings together communities

We are pleased to formally announce and welcome three new members of our global partnership. Now in our second year, EQUALS comprises more than 60 partners working together to bridge the gender digital divide. Our newest members are Next 3B, the Republic of Burundi and AfChix. Next 3B We welcome our first new partner, Next 3B, as an organization aimed at accelerating and facilitating the positive impact of the next three billion people joining the Internet. Their pilot projec

ITU celebrated the annual World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) Thursday at the ITU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland with an impressive ‘AI-powered Moonshots’ panel discussion that showcased the experiences of leading women space explorers. The global audience heard insights from astronaut and pilot Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman in space; Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman in space; and the world’s first female private space explorer,

Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) is a youth-led movement of daring social innovators who have the tools, knowledge, and networks to create opportunities and transform their own communities. An EQUALS partner in the Access Coalition, DOT work with youth, the private sector, governments, and community-based organizations in 25 countries towards a collaborative vision of communities around the world shaped by social innovators. At only 22 years old, Ariane Umuringa has already co

Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) is a youth-led movement of daring social innovators who have the tools, knowledge, and networks to create opportunities and transform their own communities. An EQUALS partner in the Access Coalition, DOT work with youth, the private sector, governments, and community-based organizations in 25 countries towards a collaborative vision of communities around the world shaped by social innovators. As a Digital Champion with DOT, Kijoli Mjombo mentor

Girls in ICT Day activities have started in Papua New Guinea! In support of the international day to empower girls with ICT skills, the #GirlsInICTechWeek initiative in Papua New Guinea is a 4-day learning opportunity in areas of ICT, including hardware and computer technology, software development and networking. #GirlsInICTechWeek is in its third year – and this is the first time the event is taking place in West New Britain Province. The West New Britain #GirlsInICTechWeek

This article originally appeared in ITUNews. Miss.Africa Digital, a Pan-African programme to promote digital skills for women across the continent, has been named as a finalist for the Equals in Tech Awards, which take place in Geneva, Switzerland next week. Sophia Bekele is the Founder and CEO of DotConnectAfrica (DCA) Group, a Kenya based organization that runs the Miss.Africa program and administers the Seed Fund grants and awards. She explains what Miss.Digital Africa is

As an EQUALS founding partner and the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technology, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was delighted to participate in the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals Global (NGAP) Summit hosted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, 27-28 November 2017 -- and to be part of the dialogue on increasing the participation of women in this employment sector. In order to addre

Bytedance, an artificial intelligence leader in China with over 200 million active daily users on its Internet platforms, has become the latest official partner of EQUALS. EQUALS Partners work together to promote awareness, build political commitment, leverage resources and knowledge, harness the capacities of partners, and supporting real action. Originally founded by GSMA, the International Trade Centre, the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Universi