The virtuous ripple effect of education for girls is so far-reaching that former UN Secretary General and Nobel Prize winner Kofi Annan once called it “the single most effective tool for development.”

Our mission: support young women like never before by boosting relevant education and employment opportunities in the digital century.  UNESCO YouthMobile and BMZ (as part of the #eskills4girls initiative) have been supporting Africa Code Week activities since day one with grants awarded to 70 organizations to date, introducing thousands of girls to coding skills in emerging and developing countries.

According to Mr. Youssef Belqasmi, Secretary General of the Moroccan Ministry of National Education, "Africa Code Week has become a success model to introduce coding and computational thinking in classrooms nationwide, to address issues of gender equality in education and to include people with special needs."

With 47% of female participation in 2019, the initiative continues to make the issue of girl empowerment through technology a priority. And what better way to achieve this than equipping and strengthening girls' very role models? Capacity building, again, is the key.

In addition to facilitating teacher trainings that focus on gender-sensitive curriculum development, ACW also launched a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program to grow female leadership in education across Africa. Now in its third year, the Women Empowerment Program brings together female teachers from every corner of the continent to share best practices in girl mentoring, teacher training and access to digital education.