By Iminza Keboge
Published July 3, 2020
Coding for Employment, an initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) that first brought participants from Nigeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Rwanda together in 2018, is said to be establishing 130 ICT centres for excellence across Africa, training 234 000 youth for employment and entrepreneurship with the ultimate aim of creating more than nine million jobs. Hendrina Chalwe Doroba, Manager in the Education, Human Capital and Employment Division at AfDB, explains how Rwanda, that hosted the pilot programme, is empowering women in technology.
How has the government of Rwanda enabled women to pursue careers in technology in particular, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in general?
The government of Rwanda has been a foremost champion of women in ICT and in the fields of STEM by driving initiatives like the establishment of the Carnegie Mellon University-Africa campus, for which AFDB provided funding. Students from 17 countries pursue highly specialised ICT skills here.
Rwanda also hosts the African Institute of Mathematics (AIMS) which is now recruiting balanced cohorts of women and men. Lastly, AfDB-funded University of Rwanda College of Science and Technology has for many years produced women leaders in the ICT sector.
Rwanda’s government also supports initiatives such as the Miss Geek Rwanda competition, an initiative of Girls in ICT Rwanda, which aims to encourage school-age girls, even those in remote areas, to develop innovative tech or business ideas and to generally immerse themselves in ICT. The Miss Geek initiative has now been rolled out in other countries in the region.
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What role has the Bank played in supporting Rwanda’s digital strategy, especially in relation to women?
The strategy of AfDB’s Coding for Employment center of excellence in Rwanda has been to join forces with the Rwanda Coding Academy through a grant agreement to support the school’s activities, like ICT equipment, teacher training and career orientation. The Rwanda Coding Academy started in January 2019 and has so far enrolled one cohort, which is now going into their second year.
Besides the Rwanda Coding Academy, AfDB’s Coding for Employment programme held a two-day masterclass for girls and young women entrepreneurs at the 2018 Youth Conneckt summit, where more than 200 beneficiaries were trained in using digital tools to amplify their businesses. The session was attended by women entrepreneurs as well as students from girl schools in Kigali, including those from White Dove School, which is an all-girl school fully dedicated to training in ICT. The masterclass culminated into a pitching exercises from various groups who presented their ideas to a panel of judges.
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What lessons can other African countries learn from Rwanda’s approach to the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and the the role of women in it?
The government of Rwanda has been a trailblazer in using innovation to improve public services across the country using the e-governance platform Irembo, to bring government services closer to citizens. In addition, the government is driving national digital skilling campaigns by championing digital ambassador programmes and platforms such as Smart Africa, which has organised the annual Transform Africa summit since 2013. Rwanda’s ambitions extend to piloting the Kigali Innovation City, also AfDB-funded, to serve as the country’s knowledge and innovation hub by attracting new businesses and incubating ideas. At the same time, the country has created a business environment which is pro-entrepreneurship and welcomes global inventors to test their ideas and concepts. Zipline, a company which uses drones to deliver medical supplies in remote areas, is an example.
Lastly, Rwanda promotes women leaders in the ICT and innovation sector. The country’s Minister of ICT and Innovation is a woman, as is the CEO of the Irembo platform. Appointments such as these are helping to dispel the myth that women are not as capable as men in ICT.
