Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) hosted an expert group meeting on 19-21 December 2022 to examine opportunities and challenges in building a critical mass of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in Africa, with a particular focus on addressing barriers to the digital upskilling of women and girls.
The virtual meeting was an opportunity for ECA to present the findings of its Regional Brief on Leveraging Digitalisation for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, which assesses Africa’s current digital capacities and the status of various initiatives, designed to assist countries in embracing the digital revolution.
A diverse group of experts, including government officials, development specialists and academics, evaluated the scope of new capacity-building programmes recommended in ECA’s regional brief, which seek to digitally upskill women and girls in selected African Member States. They further identified partnership opportunities for a cross-sectoral implementation of these programmes.
Experts also shared country experiences of existing initiatives that have succeeded in building the capacities of women to adequately utilise digital tools for a range of economic activities, including e-commerce, digital finance and digital marketing.
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For further information, please contact Mr. Syed T. Ahmed, Associate Economic Affairs Officer, ECA, at syed.t.ahmed@un.org.