coding Archives - �鶹ԭ�� Africa News Center

ACW Announces 2022 AfriCAN Code Challenge Winners

�鶹ԭ�� News — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 07:13:49 +0000

For the third consecutive year, Africa Code Week’s AfriCAN Code Challenge (ACC) continues to grow in popularity and reach. The winner of this year’s ACC 2022 edition was the Project developed by Henintsoa, Warren and Shekinah from Madagascar.

“From start to finish, this has been one of the most exciting editions of ACC. The youth of Africa have yet again proven their talents and strong 21^st century skillset with creative and conceptual games delivered,” says Olajide Ademola Ajayi, �鶹ԭ�� ACW Global Coordinator.

AfriCAN Youth rise for the coding challenge

The AfriCAN Code Challenge is a coding contest that spans across Africa, inviting all-young individuals from different walks of life from 8 – 16 year to develop a game using the programming language.

This year’s competition saw thousands of entries from more than 30 countries spanning as far as South Africa and Ethiopia. In September 2020, launched the challenge with support from partners such as ,��, and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa ().

Over the years, the competition has evolved into an annual event that celebrates the creativity and technological skills of African youth. For the 2022 challenge, youths were called upon to develop a multiplayer game that proposes a sustainable solution for protecting life. Thereafter, they were asked to create and share a 3-minute YouTube video that details how their game works, the coding techniques used, and how it aligns with the theme and evaluation standards.

The winners of the AfriCAN Code Challenge were selected by a distinguished panel consisting of Africa Code Week delegates, �鶹ԭ�� employees, and STEM education specialists.

This year’s Top 3 winners:

First place: Madagascar – by Henintsoa, Warren, and Shekinah
Second place: Mauritius – by Nikhil, Mithil, Seeya, Grace, and Kesha
Third place: Nigeria – by Team Techlite

Followed by:

Sao Tome & Principe –
Morocco –
Ethiopia –
Zimbabwe –
South Africa –
Cameroon –
Gabon –

Beyond AfriCAN Code Challenge

that the digital participation could assist in driving the economic growth and development of Africa. This suggests that increased investment in digital infrastructure and skills could have a significant impact on the continent’s economic development.

Claire Gillissen-Duval, Senior Director of EMEA MEE Corporate Social Responsibility and Co-founder of Africa Code Week at �鶹ԭ��, says “ACW is currently in a transition period where we will be transferring the ACW curriculum to the Ministries of Education to assist in the integration of coding into school curricula. Once they introduce coding into schools, we look forward to seeing sustainable growth in the number of participants in the AfriCAN Code Challenge as ministries of education will have a wider reach and access to more��young��people.”

For more information about �鶹ԭ�� Africa Code Week and the AfriCAN Code Challenge, or how you can get involved, visit��www.africacodeweek.org or connect and follow on social media @AfricaCodeWeek.

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Welcome to the ‘Low-code’ Future

Toby Shapshak — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 07:34:08 +0000

Small businesses, that are unable to afford to build software from scratch, have taken to this drag-and-drop system with glee.

When I first started working on the��Mail & Guardian’s��website, the first news site in Africa, I had to learn to code��. HyperText Markup Language is the glue that holds the internet together – and makes those underlined blue links click through to another page.

It was 1998 and internet publishing was in its infancy. Things like content management systems (CMS) for creating a database of stories and publishing them automatically were still in the future. Word�鶹ԭ�� – the most widely used publishing system – was still years away.

Everything we did was manual. We wrote the stories and then used an HTML editor app to build the page. Then we had to use a file transfer protocol (FTP) app to upload that file to our servers. Any images had to be separately uploaded. It was necessary technical admin because the software that is widely used now didn’t exist yet.

In the 20 years since, internet publishing software has become so simple. It’s possible for a tech neophyte to publish their own website within a few hours, using any number of hosting services and watching a YouTube instructional video.

Coding is something that happens in the background, especially using Word�鶹ԭ��, which most of us have never seen nor understand.

Nor should we. As trite as it is, I have compared tech to driving a car when explaining why it’s too complicated. Everyone understands how cars work. You use the key to unlock and then drive them. How many people know or understand how an internal combustion engine works? Nor should they.

A low-code future opens doors for small businesses

In the last 30 years, as computers and then smartphones have become mainstream, people have been forced to learn a lot of technical stuff they don’t need to. It’s been one of my ongoing bugbears with the consumer technology industry: it has tried to entice buyers of shiny gadgets by impressing them with the billions of transistors on a computer chip, or how many megapixels the camera has. Most of us don’t need to see, nor understand the complexity of, what’s under the hood of our cars or our phones. This ease of use is coming to other parts of the tech universe – most notably in using services.

Often called “low-code” or “no-code” this is a way of using payment services, online shops and web publishing for anyone who has a small amount of tech understanding. Want to start an e-commerce store? Use��to help you build it. Need payments? Plug in one of the many such services. If you run a yoga or pilates studio,��does it all for the instructor and lets people (literally) book their own time slot and pay for it. Small businesses, that are unable to afford to build software from scratch, have taken to ‘low-code’ with glee.

Software giant �鶹ԭ�� is the latest big firm to adopt this methodology. Using drag-and-drop to create your own apps and services allows the average user – and not an expensive developer – to build their own software. Instead of bringing in a mechanic, the actual drivers can choose what they want. With a global shortage of software developers expected in the next few years, it also frees up a business from yet another business congestion.

It’s one of the ways small businesses are leading the world.

This article first appeared in the��.

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NSSEC Teams Up with Coderina to Equip Teachers with Coding Skills

Ugo Onwuaso — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 06:49:31 +0000

The recent partnership between the National Senior Secondary School Education Commission (NSSEC) with one of Africa’s Leading EdTech Not for Profit; Coderina Education and Technology Foundation, is set to unlock Nigeria’s human capital development by enabling teachers to prepare students for the Fourth Industrial revolution (4IR).

This partnership is a huge step toward fulfilling the commission’s mandate to reposition the country’s education system in alignment with the future of work requirements.

For the first time in the history of the Nigerian education system, selected teachers from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory participated in the �鶹ԭ�� Africa Code Week Train the Trainer program, with over 300 teachers trained over one week.

The program equips teachers with computational Thinking and an introduction to the MIT Scratch visual coding environment, designed to make coding a “child’s play” for young learners.

Prof. Benjamin Abakpa, Executive Secretary of the Commission, said that repositioning the education system starts with providing teachers with the proper education and tools to prepare students adequately.

“Therefore, Teacher education is one key area that the NSSEC will focus on, among other necessary initiatives, to help fulfill its mandate.

“As we work to raise a tech-savvy generation of students, we must also raise a generation of tech-savvy teachers. Coding should be part of the education curriculum, like other literacy and numeracy subjects. Coding is as much about creativity as it is about math, science, and problem-solving.

He gushed about the high level of interest the TTT program has engendered and the fantastic cooperation between the commission and the State education Ministries that led to the initiative’s success.

Femi Niyi, Coderina BOT Chairman, explained, “In response to the future of work, education must evolve to support teachers in developing individual student potential and preparing students to become lifelong learners so they can innovate tomorrow’s world and solve real-life problems in their communities”.

The �鶹ԭ�� Africa Code week, the most extensive digital literacy on the continent of Africa, is designed to demystify coding and make it a learned skill for students. However, achieving this would require teacher training and transformation from traditional teaching styles to pedagogy that supports the acquisition of 21st century skills and competencies necessary in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

A second wave of training for teachers is planned to equip more teachers and translate to training more students.

Students in classrooms across Nigeria will experience their first introduction to Africa Code Week coding curriculum which started November 1st to end November 30th .

They will also have an opportunity to participate in the �鶹ԭ�� AfriCAN Code Challenge, a pan-African competition to help students showcase their coding skills and pit their wits against teams from countries across Africa.

Notably, an all-girls team from Federal Government Girls College Oyo came first overall in Nigeria and placed 2nd in the Africa-wide edition of the program. They were rewarded with tech equipment such as laptops for their efforts.

The benefiting teachers also took their turns to testify about the training:

“Very interesting session……well done by our instructors. Please the recordings should be made available for us as guide and backup. Though, there are many video tutorials online. Thank you,” says Adelabu Adekunle Qazeem of Remo Secondary School, Sagamu, Ogun state.

Nafiu Yakubu of GSS Gaya Gandu, Kano, Kano State, has this to say, “We appreciate this program as it prepares the students towards programming and use of scratch software. We are very grateful”.

Also commenting, Sotannde Abiodun Kabir, Abeokuta Grammar School, Abeokuta, Ogun State, said, “Thanks for adding me to this group. I recognise my being here as a great opportunity”.

This article first appeared on .

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UNESCO African Code Challenge Awards

�鶹ԭ�� News — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 06:49:31 +0000

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), through its Science and Mathematics Educator’s Federation (SMEF) Thaka-Khoali Programme��held the 2020 African Code Challenge Winners Competition Awards ceremony under the African Code Week (ACW) initiative.

In his remarks, UNESCO Secretary General (SG) Teboho Tsilane informed that ACW is��an annual event that Lesotho adopted in 2016. He noted that it was facilitated by UNESCO, working jointly with collective schools to spread digital literacy across��the country and nurture the 21st Century era with skillful workforce through practical and playful learning.

“I congratulate all participating schools and learners this year, I hope that this initiative will also persist��even in the countless upcoming years. Schools that participated in the 2020 ACW competition were Masitise High School, Thabeng High School and New Millennium��High School,” Tsilane stated.

The UNESCO-SMEF programme is in its first year under ACW and is intended “to share with the Government of Lesotho (GoL), as a key stakeholder on how the��initiative is advancing Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics, Design Thinking in a creative way��through coding especially among the youth and children”. UNESCO-SMEF Ambassador and Trainer for ACW Scratch Programme Bokang Selialia explained that the purpose of the program is to train on and raise awareness of ICT to students��and also to engage them in order to transform their education system, which requires excess knowledge of Mathematics.

Selialia explained that in the Africa Code��Challenge Winners Competition, students’ teachers get involved, playing students’ mentors for their projects to be successful and be submitted to�� Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing (�鶹ԭ��). The three winners; ‘Matumelo Makoa, Reamohetsoe Khomo-haka and Keabetsoe Mokhali were awarded trophies, certificates and compensations.

As indicated by Tsilane, these students participated in the three African Code Challenge projects precisely speeding calculator, Covid-19 awareness and maze games.

Therefore the 1st winner title went straight to ‘Matumelo Makoa from Masitise High School who participated in speeding calculator, coached by Mr. Sello Mpota, 2nd��winner was Reamohetsoe Khomo-haka who participated in Covid-19 awareness coached by Mr. Malakoane Thejane while the third winner was Keabetsoe Mokhali from Thabeng High School coached by Mrs. ‘Maneo Mapharisa.

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Creators of the Week: Building Smart Cities in Africa with No-Code & �鶹ԭ��

Esmee Xavier — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 06:48:34 +0000

Creators (clockwise): Tshepo Mahloko, Phillip Phiri, Sikhumbuzo Dlamini, Seatile Vinolia Nakedi

Profession: �鶹ԭ�� Co-Innovation Lab, Africa

Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

Solution: Smart City App for Partner Innovation Day

With the upcoming release of �鶹ԭ�� AppGyver, partners and developers around the globe are discovering new opportunities with #nocode in AppGyver. The �鶹ԭ�� Co-Innovation Lab Africa hosts hackathons and Partner Innovation Days, where teams engage with new technologies and creative problem solving. Recently the Co-Innovation Lab demoed a Smart City app, which combines AppGyver and �鶹ԭ�� backend tools to streamline service requests in Johannesburg, South Africa.

&#��1��539;��Tell us first about the Co-Innovation Lab and what you’re working on.

Tshepo Mahloko:��I’m responsible for the Co-Innovation lab in Africa, and we are one of about 14 labs globally. We work with partners to help them build solutions on our platforms. Typically, we enable them on the �鶹ԭ�� Business Technology Platform (BTP) for instance to build side-by-side extensions for some of our business systems like S/4HANA. Sometimes the partner may have an application of their own which they would like to integrate with �鶹ԭ�� business systems, we help with this as well amongst other things.

We provide this assistance at the moment through an offering we call #Hack2Build, which is a rapid prototyping initiative to drive early-stage inspiration, use case exploration and technology adoption for �鶹ԭ�� partners. In the seven days of #Hack2Build partners have an opportunity to try out their ideas and put their �鶹ԭ�� knowledge into practise by applying a combination of technologies to solve business challenges and develop innovative solutions supported by �鶹ԭ�� experts.

The whole aim is not just about having a winner for the event, what follows is what we call the build phase, where we engage with them one-on-one to help them take their prototypes to actual solutions. In the future, we hope to host a Hack2Build event focused on low-code no-code with �鶹ԭ�� AppGyver.

&#��1��539;��What were your roles in the Smart City demo?

Phillip Phiri:��For this project I was mostly behind the scenes, getting the integration with BTP working and also with our business rules and workflow. We’re trying to get as many �鶹ԭ�� backend services to work with it, just to showcase how you can have a full stack app, but also sticking with the low-code/no-code theme, so we picked out a few tools within BTP that would go well with AppGyver.

Seatile Vinolia Nakedi:��I am the intern of the whole group and basically I touch on everything that the guys allow me to work on which is great, some of it strictly development as well. On the end to end solution with AppGyver, I worked with Philip in terms of the business rules and workflow. I played with AppGyver a little bit also and enjoyed it, lots of drag-and-drop, nothing too hectic.

Sikhumbuzo Dlamini:��I’m a full stack developer, so covering basically everything from front- to backend, mostly working with �鶹ԭ��-related technologies.

&#��1��539;��Tell us about Partner Innovation Day and the Smart City App.

Tshepo Mahloko:��Partner Innovation Day is an opportunity for partners to hear from �鶹ԭ�� on the latest updates with regards to our technology platform and partner support offerings that can help them innovate with �鶹ԭ��. Each Partner Innovation day has a technology focus, which in this case was low-code/no-code development with �鶹ԭ�� AppGyver. We also built a demo to demonstrate the practical use of the technology.

In this case we wanted to demonstrate that low-code/no-code is real and that you can build a really compelling application that integrates into an �鶹ԭ�� backend. We decided to go with a smart city use case because we felt that there are endless requirements for citizen applications within a city/municipal context, which makes it a good fit for rapid application development.

As a city, you respond to natural disasters, service requests, pandemics, and you have such a huge audience of citizens that often times requires a very close engagement through various platforms. Being able to put an application together and deploy it in a place where citizens can access it very quickly is what AppGyver promises to do.

Through this app, citizens can log service requests and get the latest update on issues logged anytime of the day, whether it’s a burst water pipe, a pothole or streetlights that are out. With the intelligence built on �鶹ԭ�� BTP we were able to implement some automation that allows for immediate feedback for the citizen. Most of the cities would already have some sort of backend used to handle tickets, so we decided to use AppGyver for the citizen app frontend because it’s very quick to develop these type of solutions on the platform and get them in the hands of the citizens, whether they are on native or web. That’s the beautiful thing about AppGyver.

&#��1��539;��How was it working with AppGyver alongside �鶹ԭ�� services?

Phillip Phiri:��We really wanted to stick to the whole theme of low-code/no-code. We quickly learned that from AppGyver, we can call APIs and that was a great sign that we can get something working over here, as long as we can send data from AppGyver. Whatever payload we were getting from AppGyver, we could work with that data, format and change it.

Tshepo Mahloko:��One thing we realized is when you take a picture with AppGyver, it uses your phone camera’s full might, so the file comes as a high-definition image and converting it to Base64 results in a huge payload. We were thinking about how we could reduce it, but thought it might be too complex for AppGyver and that we may need to write custom code on BTP.

Sikhumbuzo quickly looked it up and found the compress picture flow function, and within a few minutes we plugged it into our flow and we were compressing pictures. I was totally impressed by that. From the time we found the solution, to having it implemented and working in our app was about five minutes. That’s truly incredible.

Phillip Phiri:��When I saw it in action, that’s when I became a believer. You could very quickly come up with an idea, drag a few components onto a screen and boom, here’s an app, and it’s fully functional. Having built mobile apps before, typically you’re looking at a week just to get your layout right, getting the button to listen to events, and doing debugging.

The value in this is huge — even in a day, you can already have an app out there. You can show it to somebody important and focus on the really important bits like core functionality and the value given to your customer or users.

&#��1��539;��What’s most exciting for the partners using AppGyver moving forward?

Phillip Phiri:��I see this really fitting in well, especially for our hackathons. What I envision with AppGyver with the partners is that they’ll have a little more freedom to build their apps and then take advantage of that value add, which is that business logic behind the scenes that they’re really there for.

Tshepo Mahloko:��I agree with Phillip on this, it will be a big hit for our Hackathons. A lot of the intelligent technologies that one might want to leverage for their solutions are available through APIs. From what I’ve seen with this demo that we built, it’s very easy to integrate and call those APIs, and get feedback with AppGyver. At the end of the day, one can focus on building the value around their solution rather than trying to hack through code just to invoke APIs from different systems and coordinate that logic.

&#��1��449;��For more information on��#Hack2Build��and to see upcoming events, visit��

This article first appeared on .

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Teachers to Lead a Post-COVID Recovery in Education

Cathy Smith, Managing Director, �鶹ԭ�� Africa — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 06:46:00 +0000

October 5^th is , an annual event marked by UNESCO in recognition of the invaluable contribution teachers make to our children’s future.��With the theme this year, “Teachers at the heart of education recovery”, this year’s celebrations take stock of the huge impact of the COVID pandemic on teachers and students alike.

��

The year 2020 will be remembered by teachers around the world as one of adapting to new circumstances and technology. But while in developed countries, online learning merely presented challenges, in Africa the effect was catastrophic. About on the continent were closed, resulting in . On a continent which already displays wide disparities in wealth and access to technology, a disruption of this magnitude was a major setback.

The need to upskill teachers

In fact, most teachers cited a lack of access to technology and affordability issues as the biggest barrier they faced to teach their students online during the pandemic. Before COVID, many African teachers had received . The lockdown forced them to in order to support learners, parents and caregivers so that learning could proceed, despite the uncertainty caused by the virus.

The fact that many new teachers lack digital skills is precisely why the need to upskill them is so crucial. Teachers have enormous potential to bridge the digital divide in Africa. With our annual (ACW), whose launch coincides with World Teacher’s Day, �鶹ԭ�� and global partners such as UNESCO, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and Irish Aid, bring together a wealth of talent to train African teachers and students in coding and 21^st century skills. Last year the program reached . More than 10 500 workshops were hosted across 43 countries and 21 000 teachers were mobilised through virtual and in-person Train-the-Trainer sessions.

Teaching digital fluency

��One of the driving forces behind the ACW initiative is to see African countries adopt coding as part of their school curriculum. In a survey conducted among participating countries in 2020, , and ten more indicated they are planning to incorporate coding soon. The survey also found that 87% of respondents agreed that��ACW��plays an influential role in advancing the adoption of coding as a school subject.

Through the initiative’s Train-the-Trainer sessions with learners, ACW is simplifying what has historically been perceived as a highly technical area. Learning how to code is like learning a new language, a language which opens doors into the 21^st century and beyond. African teachers need to be empowered to combine traditional and digital literacy in their classrooms, so that students not only learn to read and write, but to develop their creativity to experiment and find solutions which help them engage better with the world around them.

Since inception in 2015, what we have learned from ACW is that it involves participants who would normally have had no exposure to coding, apart from consuming applications on their smart phones or computers. Coding is relevant to all industries in today’s globalised economy and as a result, digital skills need to be constantly refreshed. Through our innovative public-private partnerships, we firmly believe that by sharing skills and knowledge, we will empower Africans – both teachers and learners – to take control of their futures.

There is little doubt that teachers are key to rebuilding society post-COVID because of their inestimable power to reimagine the future and reshape young people’s lives. To do this, African teachers will need to embrace the technology at their disposal in order for students to get the quality education they need to face the rigours of the digital world. African education must find new models that foreground virtual teaching to cushion it against future disruptions. As ADEA Executive Secretary Albert Nsengiyumva so aptly puts it, “Today, more than ever before, we need to adapt as quickly as possible to crises and look for alternatives to advance education and training in Africa.”

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Ghana Teachers Embrace Digital Learning

�鶹ԭ�� News — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 07:19:40 +0000

Switch to all-virtual model enables teachers from all 16 regions to take part in Train-the-Trainer sessions
Survey reveals teachers wish to continue virtual model even after pandemic subsides
AfriCanCode Challenge mobilises youth enthusiasm for digital skills

ACCRA, Ghana – 14 September 2021 – Despite the dual challenges of low internet penetration and a switch to virtual teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers in Ghana have embraced the opportunity to learn 21^st century digital teaching skills during this year’s Africa Code Week Train-the-Trainer campaign.

Ghana has from 14.2 million people in 1989 to 28.8 million people in 2017. , a demographic dividend that the Ghanaian government aims to harness through improved education opportunities for all its youth.

Speaking at the launch of last year’s Train-the-Trainer activities in Ghana, Minister of Education, Hon. Dr. Yaw Adutwum, said: “Coding is not just a skill. It’s a different way of teaching and a different way of learning that puts the student at the centre of the learning process.”

More than 39 000 teachers in 37 countries were mobilised during the 2019 Africa Code Week. This year, with an all-virtual format due to the impact of the pandemic, Africa Code Week is taking place in all African countries, including a month-long series of virtual coding sessions that took place across the continent from October until December.

Teachers embrace digital learning opportunity

Francis Ahene-Affoh, SVP at the DreamOval Foundation, says there was a high level of interest in the Train-the-Trainer sessions this year despite the challenging conditions of the pandemic. “We had to switch to an all-virtual teaching model supported by �鶹ԭ�� master trainers from around the world, as well as our network of local partners. Teachers from all regions in Ghana registered and participated on the virtual training. Teachers from as far as Fumbisi in the Builsa south in the Upper East region of Ghana. This is an opportunity for an inclusive training, ensuring every teachers irrespective of location benefits from the coding training. This year’s training targeted 800 teachers. In 2020 alone over two weeks, we trained 1080 teachers from across the country.”

A survey conducted by the DreamOval Foundation of participating teachers revealed many would choose to continue with online learning in future. “While the majority of participants at this year’s Train-the-Trainer sessions were from the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions, this year’s virtual learning model also enabled teachers from every part of Ghana to participate,” says Ahene-Affoh. “We believe this indicates a need for virtual teaching to continue even when the pandemic subsides, as the travel to attend training sessions in person can be an obstacle to teachers’ participation.”

Internet connectivity continues to be a challenge in Ghana, and few teachers have access to laptops. “Despite not having resources, more than half of teachers surveyed joined the sessions via their mobile phones. This level of commitment and passion for teaching and digital skills development is hugely encouraging as we work to prepare the country’s youth for participation in the digital economy,” says Ahene-Affoh.

Mobilising youth in continent-wide coding challenge

A recent addition to Africa Code Week activities is the AfriCan Code Challenge, a continent-wide coding challenge calling on youth aged 8 to 16 to compete in a competition. The competition was launched in September last year in partnership with �鶹ԭ��, UNESCO YouthMobile and Irish Aid.

According to Mustapha Diyaol Haqq, Africa Code Week’s 2019-2020 youth ambassador in Ghana, interest in the AfriCanCode Challenge has been high among Ghanaian youth. “Despite low levels of internet penetration in Ghana, young aspiring coders from across the country have taken up the challenge. Through teamwork, problem-solving and newly-developed coding skills, youth are putting forward their vision for what the future of education holds for the continent.”

Cathy Smith, Managing Director at �鶹ԭ�� Africa, says: “While the pandemic has upended the lives of learners and teachers across the continent and disrupted schooling, it has also created opportunities. The growing urgency to provide learning through digital channels is driving greater interest in digital skills among learners and teachers alike.��Teaching young kids to code is a gift that will endure for decades to come. If we harness our most precious resource – our abundance of youthful talent – Africa will go from strength to strength in 2021 and beyond.”

For more information about Africa Code Week, please visit

ENDS

About �鶹ԭ��

�鶹ԭ��’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an �鶹ԭ��® system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. �鶹ԭ�� helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, �鶹ԭ�� helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit

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Meet Ethiopia’s Ten Year-old Coding Champion

�鶹ԭ�� News — Fri, 21 May 2021 07:02:47 +0000

Much has been written about the importance of advancing digital literacy on the African continent, especially among its younger citizens. With more than half of the world’s under-25s expected to live in Africa by 2050, mobilizing and inspiring this youthful population to be active participants of the global digital economy is central to the continent’s future.

For Soliyana Gizaw Hunde, ten year-old coder and recent winner of the inaugural AfriCANCode Challenge, a love of maths and science and a strong community spirit inspired her to develop a fun and engaging way to practice math and raise awareness of COVID-19 related health protocols.

“Being part of the AfriCANCode Challenge has been fun, and winning the national and overall competition was very exciting,” says Soliyana, who lives with her parents in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. “It has motivated me to do more and dream big.”

The AfriCANcode Challenge was introduced after the 2020 �鶹ԭ�� Africa Code Week program shifted to an all-virtual format in the wake of the global pandemic. The competition challenged youth aged 8 to 16 to develop a game using the Scratch coding language to reimagine school and education, or answer the question “How will your tech change the future of education?”.

Participants from 22 countries made it to the final round of the competition, and the winner was announced in early 2021. All of the top three winners were girls, with Soliyana crowned overall winner at a virtual prize-giving ceremony in February.

Soliyana says she was inspired to learn coding after seeing the projects her cousin, a software engineering student at one of the local state universities, was doing. “When I was eight, my cousin helped me take a short coding training course at a local center. Since then, I have watched instructional videos on YouTube, and I have been motivated to keep practicing.”

After the pandemic forced the Ethiopian government to close schools, Soliyana decided to apply her coding skills in service of her community by participating in the AfriCANCode Challenge.

“When we started staying at home due to the pandemic, I heard how it was affecting people in our community and what we could do to protect ourselves and our loved ones. I decided to develop my Mathstainment game to create awareness about COVID-19 and offer a simple and fun way to practice maths.”

Mathstainment, the educational game developed by Soliyana, was built using the Scratch programming language. It asks a series of maths questions that leads a character on the screen ever closer to personal protective equipment (PPE) for each correct answer. After a few incorrect answers, the player has to start over. Maths questions are posed at varying difficulty levels, ranging from ‘Easy’ to ‘Difficult’.

Asked what lies ahead for the young coding champion, Soliyana says: “I want to be an astronomer. I want to know how the universe works.”

Alexandra van der Ploeg, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at �鶹ԭ��, says Soliyana and her fellow participants at this year’s AfriCANCode Challenge are inspirations to youth across the continent. “The innovation and community-minded spirit displayed by this year’s participants point to a bright future for Africa’s citizens. It is also hugely encouraging to see the high ratio of female participants, whose ingenuity saw all three top place finishes claimed by girls.”

She points to progress over the past few years with expanding access to coding teaching and digital literacy opportunities for the continent’s youth. “�鶹ԭ�� Africa Code Week and the AfriCANCode Challenge mobilizes hundreds of partners in the public and private sector who rally around the urgent task of empowering Africa’s youth with essential digital skills. As we continue into an uncertain future, this investment into youth skills development will pay huge dividends over the coming years and decades.”

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�鶹ԭ�� Volunteers Stand up for Girls’ Education Worldwide

�鶹ԭ�� News — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 16:47:18 +0000

45 �鶹ԭ�� experts volunteered all summer to mentor girls in the Technovation Idea Lab

Did you know that the first programmer was a woman? Two centuries later, Ada Lovelace would probably find hard to believe that globally, women only hold 24% of jobs in the ICT sector.
Celebrated on the second Tuesday of October since 2009, Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), and to ‘create new role models for girls and women’.
As COVID-19 creates additional barriers to learning, and digital skills are ever more important, UNESCO and Technovation have partnered to empower girls to ‘tech’ the stage.

Project-Based Learning Goes Global…and Virtual

The late Seymour Papert, father of the Scratch coding learning platform and a global pioneer in project-based learning, once described the future of education as follows: “Kids will work in communities of common interest on rich projects that will connect with powerful ideas[i].” According to him, not only do children learn better when engaged in a project, but they are able to use technology and inquiry to respond to a complex issue, problem or challenge.

This is exactly what 1,359 girls from all corners of the world were able to partake in: a global challenge where they could build an Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution that solves a community issue close to their heart, tech entrepreneur style.

As accessible and virtual learning for girls becomes more important than ever before, UNESCO has partnered with global tech education non-profit , a member of , to support countries in developing inclusive learning solutions. Together they ran the Technovation Idea Lab: an online tech education challenge for girls.

‘Empower a Woman, Empower a Nation’

Joined by community partners and local industry mentors (including 45 ICT experts from 6 �鶹ԭ�� offices in Brazil, France, India, Ireland, Mexico and South Africa), adolescent girls (aged 10-18) from Brazil, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan went through an exciting learning journey.

The challenge started on July 27 with a 5-week AI entrepreneurship learning program: a great way to inspire girls through tech in an immersive, hands-on environment that enables them to solve the real-world challenges they care about most. Collaborative problem-solving, ethics in AI models, dataset building, ideation: these are just a sample of the skillset that the girls were able to hone along the way.

�鶹ԭ�� volunteers provided feedback on students’ work, held virtual office hours, and helped create videos and blog posts to help inspire and engage girls around AI learning and its application to real-world problems. �鶹ԭ�� volunteers treasured this unique opportunity to share their expertise with the next generation of female innovators and leaders.

“Encouraging girls to innovate at an early age is a great way to ignite their social changemaker mindset,” says Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility and co-founder of the Africa Code Week initiative at �鶹ԭ��. “With the continent’s working-age population expected to swell by two-thirds reaching 600 million by 2030[ii], the community-oriented and highly creative African girls have a pivotal role to play in building a safer and more equitable future”.

As nations strive to ensure continuity of learning through alternative methods such as online learning, the focus must be maintained on major threats to development such as the gender digital divide. And we shall all keep in mind, as UN former Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said, that “when women thrive, all of society benefits and succeeding generations are given a better start in life. The empowerment of women is the most effective tool for development[iii].”

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Africa Code Week 2019 Results: Governments and Communities Mobilize to Drive Digital Skills Development Among African Youth

�鶹ԭ�� News — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 08:06:44 +0000

�鶹ԭ��, UNESCO & partners empower 3.85 million youth with basic coding skills in 2019.

Africa Code Week 2019 results show impact on sustainable capacity building to support government-led digital skills development.

Several African countries started adopting coding skills into school curricula.

Africa Code Week (ACW) 2019 has once again exceeded expectations by empowering 3.85 million youth across 37 African countries. More notably, the progressive adoption of digital skills into the school curriculum of several African countries points to the growing influence of educational initiatives such as ACW in preparing the continent’s youth for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Cathy Smith, Managing Director at �鶹ԭ�� Africa, says: “Once again, Africa’s vibrant youth population has stepped-up to claim its place in the global economy, with millions of young Africans taking on the challenge of learning essential digital skills. Africa Code Week’s growing partner ecosystem and continued focus on equipping teachers with tools and knowledge is creating a sustainable platform for building a bright future for the continent, the benefits of which will be seen for decades to come.”

Empowering youth by transforming teaching in the digital age

Launched in 2015 by �鶹ԭ�� and UNESCO, Africa Code Week is on a mission to introduce coding skills to African youth 8-16 years of age by raising awareness of the importance of digital education and building teaching capacity.

In support of this, says Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility and Africa Code Week Global Lead at �鶹ԭ��, the 2019 edition expanded its outreach to a record-breaking number of teachers. “Together with our partners and thanks to their support, we witnessed more than 39,000 teachers mobilized as part of the October 2019 workshops, including over 17,500 in Morocco alone. In Nigeria, we also scaled our impact by working closely with the Niger and Taraba state governments, enabling teachers across the region to access the training for the first time. And thanks to the DreamOval Foundation in Ghana, children with disabilities were able to attend tailored coding classes ensuring equal opportunities for all.”

Francis Ahene-Affoh, SVP at DreamOval Foundation, said: “Teaching our youth digital skills is also an opportunity to inspire and engage their creativity and open the door to new thinking around the challenges we face as a country and a continent. Africa Code Week is a powerful tool to enable all-inclusive education that leaves no child behind.”

Governments now driving transformation of teaching, skills development

Since the launch of ACW in 2015, several countries including Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia have included digital literacy into their respective school curricula. Ahene-Affoh points to the Ghanaian government’s efforts to make coding skills a core pillar of basic education as a recent success made possible in part by ACW. “The impact of Africa Code Week in inspiring our youth to think innovatively and expand their capabilities in basic coding should not be underestimated. Over the course of the past five years that we have actively supported the program in Ghana, many children at the basic education level have been inspired to prepare themselves for the 21st century job market.”

Another success story can be found in Morocco, where digital skills were included in the country’s school curriculum benefitting millions of youth. According to��Hon. Saaïd Amzazi, Morocco’s Minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research, “Africa Code Week played a key role in making computer science both a priority and a celebration in every Moroccan school. The initiative helped trigger a passion for learning on an unprecedented scale while making best practices available for other nations to build on.”

In Africa Code Week 2019, Morocco secured first place among the 37 participating countries by successfully engaging 2.4+ million youth, of which 48% were girls. A Women Empowerment Workshop hosted by the Ministry in Rabat in October also engaged 28 teachers from 15 countries and focused on sharing best practices for girl mentoring, teacher training and access to digital education. Ranking second place in 2019, Cameroon’s engagement highlights strong government focus on capacity-building strategies.

The 2019 results also reveal that 47% of total ACW participants were girls. “Africa Code Week is a powerful tool for levelling the playing field and bringing more women and girls into the digital economy,” says Moez Chakchouk, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information. “The program is also a successful model in achieving Sustainable Development Goal #17, highlighting��how local and global public-private partnerships can enhance international support for capacity-building programs.”

Partnering for greater impact

Actively supported by UNESCO YouthMobile, Google, Irish Aid, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Jokkolabs and the Camden Education Trust, the program works closely with African governments and more than 130 local organizations and 120 ambassadors across the continent.

Joining forces with �鶹ԭ��, Google supported Africa Code Week by allocating grants to 55 non-profits that focus on expanding access to digital skills to youth in 18 countries. More grassroots organizations received funding from BMZ (16 grants in 12 countries) and UNESCO (15 grants in 8 countries) to boost girls’ access to ACW training.

According to Gillissen-Duval, “Africa Code Week’s greatest strength is its strategic partnerships. With their help we are able to introduce an exciting new chapter for 2020 and beyond by completely shifting to the world of virtual! The program modification will increase our Pan-African reach to ensure no child or teacher is left behind, and will be formally announced over the next few weeks.”

In addition to the number of teachers and youth empowered, additional highlights for 2019 include Irish Aid, the Irish government’s official international development aid program, joinining the program as strategic partner and Hadi Partovi, tech entrepreneur and founder, attending a workshop at the Siyafunda Community Technology Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to Smith, the initiative helps prepare Africa’s youth for an uncertain future. “All stakeholders in the public and private sectors need to unite and support a radical overhaul in how we prepare Africa’s youth population, which is expected to reach 455 million by 2055, to be active participants in the digital economy. The impact of Africa Code Week on the African education sector is an encouraging sign for the future of the continent.”

Visit the ACW web site and for more information on this fifth edition. Follow �鶹ԭ�� and ACW on Twitter at , and ��

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