ECA and ITU organise a continental ICT camp for African girls

Under the auspices of the UN 75th anniversary celebrations and the Decade of Action for achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will organise a hybrid (online and in-person) camp to over 3000 women and girls from across Africa. The event which will be held from 30 November to 11 December 2020 is dedicated to information and communication technology (ICT) as a crucial tool for women’s empowerment. In line with this, the ECA-ITU will further support 124 girls to participate (onsite) in the UN Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, with thousands of others joining online to be trained to code using the Scratch program as well as gender equality, mainstreaming, confidence building, and public speaking. ‘Our goal is to empower women and young girls through the development of skills for sustainable inclusive entrepreneurship, and harness digital technologies to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs in line with the Declaration on the Decade of Action and Delivery on Sustainable Development,’ noted ECA’s Director of Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resource Management, Jean-Paul Adam.