“No country can get ahead if it leaves half of its people behind. This is why the United States believes gender equality is critical to our shared goals of prosperity, stability, and peace, and why investing in women and girls worldwide is critical to U.S. foreign policy.”
These words from Secretary of State John Kerry emphasize the United States’ commitment to the rights of women and girls as a central aspect of U.S. foreign policy. But what does women’s empowerment have to do with science and technology? Current trends suggest that women’s participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is significantly lagging compared to men’s involvement.
For example, women constitute only 30 percent of all the world’s scientific researchers, according to a UNESCO Women in Science fact sheet. The emergence and growth of the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector in the developing world however, represents a burgeoning field that has the potential to provide significant career opportunities to future generations. And this potential can be seen particularly in Africa — over the past decade alone, Sub-Saharan Africa has had six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies.
Despite these advances in the development of the ICT sector, there remains a gap in access to ICT. Women are vastly underrepresented in the ICT arena, from university enrollment in STEM majors to employment in research institutions and the corporate and entrepreneurship spheres.
In 2012, the Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP) launched the LIONS@FRICA initiative which is a public-private partnership that seeks to enhance and deepen the startup and innovation ecosystems of targeted fast-growing African economies. The success of this initiative, which now boasts an annual DEMO AFRICA event on the continent, numerous BoomCamp trainings, and more, is a testament to the promise of African startups. S/GP has made LIONS@FRICA an ongoing commitment to provide high impact mentoring and training of African technology entrepreneurs.
This week, in honor of Computer Science Education Week and the “Hour of Code” challenge, we are pleased to announce a new partnership between the State Department’s LIONS@FRICA initiative,Intel, Microsoft , Girl Up, and the Rwandan Girls Initiative, and the support of the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI) to expand STEM educational opportunities to young African girls through a summer 2015 Girls STEAM Camp, aptly named the Women in Science and Innovation (“WiSci”) Camp. The STEAM acronym is derived from the traditional STEM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, while additionally incorporating the fields of Art and Design for creative engagement.
The WiSci camp will bring together over 100 African and U.S. high school students for a three week summer camp on computer science, robotics, and art and design, taught in highly personalized small classes. The participants will engage in cultural exchange, receive specialized training and mentorship in STEM fields, and have the opportunity to build leadership and entrepreneurship skills.
This new and exciting public-private partnership reinforces the idea that it is imperative for young girls to acquire the necessary knowledge and skill sets to better take advantage of future career opportunities in STEM-related fields and ultimately participate in the global economy.
The 2015 pilot WiSci Girls STEAM Camp comes at a time when gender parity is at its lowest at the the secondary and tertiary education levels in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the United Nations’ “The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics” report, these rates are among the lowest of all developing regions. Overall, the average number of women science researchers is 33 percent on average in Africa, whereas the rate in Sub-Saharan Africa is less than both the continental and global average at only 28 percent.
Now is the time to confront these gender disparities while equipping the next generation of young female leaders with the proper tools to succeed in STEM careers. Our commitment begins by rallying greater participation of young women in STEM education programs that focus on training, mentoring, critical thinking, and creativity.
More information on the WiSci Girls STEAM Camp is available on our website here, by following #WiSci2015, or by contacting S/GP at partnerships@state.gov.
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Thomas Debass serves as the Deputy Special Representative for Global Partnerships in the Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP).