Coding for African girls

Africa Code Week (ACW) 2018 exceeded all expectations by empowering 2.3 million young people from 37 African countries with digital and coding skills, compared to 1.3 million from 35 countries in the previous edition.

More than 46% of this year’s 2.3 million participants were female, reflecting a huge appetite for digital skills development among Africa's girls.

Dedicated grants from key partner BMZ, who has been supporting ACW since 2016 as part of the #eSkills4Girls initiative, across 15 emerging and developing countries, introduced 13 791 girls to digital skills and employment perspectives.

SAP further collaborated with Unesco and BMZ/GIZ to strengthen the gender component of the Train-the-Teacher package for Africa Code Week.

"Female representation in African companies in STEM-related fields currently stands at only 30%, requiring powerful public-private partnerships to start turning the tide and creating more equitable opportunities for African youth to contribute to the continent’s economic development and success,” says Sunil Geness, director of government relations and CSR at SAP Africa and global coordinator of ACW 2018.

According to Cathy Smith, managing director of SAP Africa, the resounding success of Africa Code Week is a wake-up call unveiling what the young generation actually needs and rightfully expects: “Young people in Africa don’t just need opportunities: they need to know how to take the first steps to get there. They need role models and guidance."

Focusing on the introducing coding skills to African youth and raising awareness of the importance of digital education, ACW augmented efforts in 2018 through capacity-building with governments, schools and non-profit organisations. As a result, close to 23 000 teachers were trained on the ACW digital learning curriculum in the run-up to October 2018 events.

ACW is an award-winning initiative taking place every year in the month of October. It is now actively supported by key partners Unesco YouthMobile, Google, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Cape Town Science Centre, the Camden Education Trust, 28 African governments including Namibia, over 130 implementing partners and 120 ambassadors across the continent.

For the third year in a row, Google expanded their grant allocations in 2018, awarding micro-grants to 53 non-profit organisations and allowing more than 100 000 young people from 11 countries to be exposed to computer science and coding skills, 57% of whom were girls. – SAP News Centre