African Girls Can Code Initiative by UN Women Ethiopia and its Partners at the Paris Peace Forum

African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI), implemented by UN Women Ethiopia in collaboration with the African Union, International Telecommunication Union with the generous support of the government of Denmark in its first year, is among 120 innovative projects selected to participate in the Paris Peace Forum (PPF). 

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande: President of the United Nations  General Assembly at the AGCCI booth © UN Women

The PPF opened on 11^th November 2019, the UN Secretary General António Guterres and Anne Hidalgo the Mayor of Paris were officially welcomed by Pascal Lamy, President of the Paris Peace Forum. Opening speeches were made by Trisha Shetty; President of the Paris Peace Forum Steering Committee, Ursula von der Leyen; President-Elect of the European Commission, Wang Qishan; Vice President of the People’s Republic of China, Félix Tshisekedi; President of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Emmanuel Macron; President of France. 

AGCCI which will run from 2018 - 2022 aims to close the digital gender gap in Africa by equipping young girls with digital literacy, coding, and personal development skills. The Initiative was selected for its contribution to close the digital gender gap. UN Women, with its partners, is showcasing AGCCI and its successes by presenting two of the girl coders, Ruth Mulu of Ethiopia and Sizolewethu Mophanga of the Kingdom of Eswatini, both participants formed the first coding camp held in August 2018 in Addis Ababa. 

AGCCI brought two coders from Ethiopia and Eswatini to explain about the project:

Sizolewethu Mophanga of the Kingdom of Eswatini and Ruth Mulu of Ethiopia © UN Women

The Paris Peace Forum is held every year in Paris – France, to place global governance on top of the international agenda. Stakeholders discuss global governance issues and cooperate on solutions through three spaces:

• Space for Solutions - Presenting solutions for incremental change where all organizations can showcase and advance their global governance project to other stakeholders to jointly advance them. 
• Space for Debates - Discussing solutions rather than problems where stakeholders discuss projects, initiatives, and ideas to address the challenges of our world. 
• Space for Innovations - Developing digital prototypes where experts help create technological solutions for the world of tomorrow.

The Paris Peace Forum also identifies global governance projects by launching a ‘Call for Projects’ to organizations from all over the world by inviting public and private organizations from all over the world to showcase their projects in order to forward innovative solutions.