For two days in September, a group of high-level individuals are gathering in Accra, Ghana, for a summit with a mission: furthering the rights and interests of African women and girls through technology policies. The Youth for Technology Foundation’s (YTF) President and CEO Njideka Harry is participating as a panelist for “Digital Education and Skills,” lending her voice and expertise to help shape the conversation and provide actionable insights.
The “Africa Summit on Women and Girls in Technology,” taking place September 13-14, focuses on four areas: affordable broadband, women’s rights online, digital education and skills, and digital entrepreneurship.”
“Young people need more comprehensive education that responds to labor market needs,” said Harry. “A complete absence of skills of youth in Africa is a problem too, but skills mismatches seem more relevant.”
Harry continued, “We know estimates suggest that by 2020, over 60 percent of new jobs created will require skills that less than 20 percent of the workforce possesses. Since women and girls make up more than half of the world’s population and outnumber men in university attendance and graduation, they can make vital contributions to bridging the skills gap. But only if the right enabling environment exists.”
This event’s topic is a sweet spot for YTF. As an organization that uses the power of technology to transform the lives of disadvantaged people in developing countries, YTF knows that accelerating the achievement of gender parity is not just a fairness argument but an economic imperative. It is key to building a better world. Over 17,000 girls and women benefit from YTF’s education and entrepreneurship training programs in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda in 2015.
This is the first summit for the collaboration between the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), the World Wide Web Foundation, the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE), the African Development Bank and UN Women.
