Launch Forum 2015
Bridging the Gender Gap,
Opportunity for Women and Girls
in ICT White Paper
WHITE PAPER
This white paper is based on insights from the Pre-launch Forum of GirlsGoIT
that took place in Mingir, Hincesti on March 27, 2015. The topic that was
discussed by the invited guests was “Bridging the Gender Gap - Opportunity
for Women and Girls in ICT”.
The GirlsGoIT forum brought together government institutions, international
organizations, businesses and civil society to discuss about the opportunities
of Women and Girls in ICT and the role technology can play in bridging the
gender gap in this field.
In 2011, digitization boosted the world’s economy by USD 193 billion
and created 6 million jobs. According to the Digital Agenda for Europe, A
Europe 2020 Initiative (2013), The European Commission posited that the EU
Digital Sector would realize an additional EUR 9 billion, if women are more
effectively integrated into technological professions . Inspiring more girls to
consider digital careers and enabling more women to secure digital jobs
provides paths to increased gender equality and an improved economic
forecast for any country. At the same time studies show that even the girls
who are passionate about technology don’t necessary choose to pursue a
career in IT. The main reason behind it is the fact that IT is perceived as an
‘only boys club’.
As a result, the GirlsGoIT program ambitions are to inspire and encourage
young girls who are passionate about modern technologies to actively pursue
this interest. This white paper summarizes key insights of the pre-launch
forum of GirlsGoIT in Mingir by presenting in detail all its activities, the panel
discussion, the success stories, and the coding workshop.
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Panelists
Ms Stela Mocan (Moderator)
Executive Director,
eGovernment Center
Ms Maia Sandu
Minister of Education,
Moldova
Ms Ingrid Tersman
H.E. Ambassador of the Swedish Embassy
to Moldova
Ms Ulziisuren Jamsran
Country Representative,
UN Women Moldova
Ms Ana Chirita
Executive Director of Moldova Association
of Private ICT Companies
Ms Gina Grotelueschen
Deputy Program Director,
Novateca
Source: Digital Agenda for Europe, A Europe 2020 Initiative, Women in ICT. (2013).
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INSIGHTS FROM
THE PANEL DISCUSSION
“It doesn’t matter who you
are, it doesn’t matter what
background you have, it
doesn’t matter where you are,
there are opportunities in IT.”
Our first step to address the need for more girls in the ICT sector was to make major IT stakeholders, governmental
institutions and the general public aware of this issue. It was important to inform people about the opportunities for Women
and Girls in ICT as this subject was never addressed in Moldova. Therefore, the pre-launch forum of GirlsGoIT hosted a
public discussion with representatives of government institutions and international organizations to get to know their
perspective on this topic.
Information and Communication Technologies “ICT” offers
creativity, it offers communication opportunities, it offers team
building and it offers networking. It doesn’t matter who you are,
it doesn’t matter what background you have, it doesn’t matter
where you are, there are opportunities in IT.
The forum was organized in Mingir because the program aims to attract young talented girls from all over Moldova;
especially, girls from rural areas whose opportunities are much more limited compared to those from Chisinau.
“At this Moment, we are making
some changes in the curricula so
that pupils could start learning
more about modern technologies
starting with the 6 years old.”
Maia Sandu, Minister of Education, Moldova
It is important that the young generation starts realizing the importance of
knowing modern technologies: “At this
moment we are making some changes
in the curricula so that pupils could
start learning more about modern
technologies starting with the 6th
grade.”
“If I were to judge just by the grades
then girls outperform boys in mathematics, which means that our girls are
very good and are not disadvantaged
from the very start. They shouldn’t
stop pursuing this path only because
of the stereotype that women can’t be
engineers or IT specialists. Moreover,
it is very important to understand what
the IT sector brings and broaden our
perspectives.”
Maia Sandu, Minister of Education,
Moldova
Novateca, through global library
program support modern skill especially with using internet space,
information and technology to support
the co-creation of initiatives, facilitate
ICT workshops using modern libraries,
whether in health, education, we work
to support the economic development
and digital access to information. 99
percent of librarians are women, 65
percent of those that goes to the
libraries are women and girls. This is
why Novateca is part of GirlsGoIT
program, to support the digital skills of
girls and women using libraries as a
space for tech-related activities.
I want to mention a personal connection for me which is a project I did 15
years ago in Stefanesti, I worked in a
project to support the libraries and
school, it was the first project to bring
Internet access to the school in
Stefanesti and the community. This
again, through the years and experience shows that ICT is the key
enabler of the future.
Gina Grotelueschen,
Deputy Program Director,
Novateca
For the IT companies it doesn’t matter
whether you are a girl or a boy. What
matters, are your competencies.
Ana Chirita, Executive Director of
Moldova Association of Private ICT
Companies
Ingrid Tersman, H.E. Ambassador
of the Swedish Embassy to Moldova
“99 percent of librarians are women,
65 percent of those that goes to the
libraries are women and girls.”
Gina Grotelueschen, Deputy Program Director, Novateca
We need women to be the role
models. We need successful cases.
We need girls to see that their peers,
their friends; the girls from their
neighboring village and from their
own communities need to succeed.
This is actually the best way to
actually make sure that the girls get
interested and that they utilize that
opportunity
The IT sector is one of the most
successful ones in Moldova with
well-paid jobs. With the help of the
GirlsGoIT program, we would like to
involve more girls form the rural areas,
including Romani girls and girls with
disabilities, in the IT sector.
“We need women to be the roles
models, we need successful cases.”
Ulziisuren Jamsran, Country Representative, UN Women Moldova
“What matters, are your
competencies.”
Ana Chirita, Executive Director of
Moldova Association of Private ICT
Companies
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SUCCESS STORIES
Maria is an 18 years old girl from
Floresti whose team won the first prize
on the global competition Technovation Challenge in San Francisco,
California. Her high school team of 4
young girls developed an application
called AcuaMea that offers information
on the quality of the water in their local
community.
“It is necessary to have creativity,
ingenuity and will.”
After taking an online course on
programming in the winter of 2014 the
girls decided to develop “an application that would really solve a community problem” said Maria Toma in her
speech. She also added that “at the
beginning it was necessary to find the
problem, and the most urgent one for
our community was the accessibility of
pure water. Everyone has a problem
with water. Therefore, we’ve created
our app, so that people could choose
the places with potable water. In
addition, this application contains
pages with instructions on how to
purify the water in case there is none.”
“I think I can inspire many girls
because at the age of only 18 years
old I’ve managed to create something
that isn’t only beautiful but also useful
for the society.”
For the AcuaMea team, it all started
with their participation in the national
contest of Technovation Challenge
where they won the first prize.
Afterwards, they decided to go forward
and send their application for the
international round. Their team was
selected amongst the 8 finalists and
represented Europe at the global
Technovation Challenge in San
Francisco, California. The project
AcuaMea won the first prize of $10000
and the girls are investing this money
into the application to improve it and
promote it. As Maria said “We want to
make our application available on a
national scale so that people can take
better care of their health as many
problems start with water.”
“I hope in a few years I will be working
in the IT sector, because I love it and it
helps people.”
Irina Revin has her own enterprise in
the IT sector that develops websites
and web applications for international
clients. In her professional experience,
there have been situations when
clients didn’t trust her because she was
a small young girl with little practical
experience, but Irina never gave up.
She managed to convince them to give
her a chance by offering them the
product they asked before signing the
contract. At the beginning, her team
developed the products the clients
asked from A to Z, tested it and they
signed the contract only if the clients
liked it.. As Irina said, “this proves that
the most important thing is to be
confident in your own work and work
with a trustworthy team.”
According to Irina one of the biggest
problems at the moment is the fact that
there are no schools to prepare
excellent IT specialists. Having
graduated from an ICT specialty
herself, Irina qualifies it as being
useless for her, acknowledging that
she learned a lot more by herself
working on her own projects. Another
major problem, in her perspective, is
the fact that the few well-qualified
specialists in IT chose to go abroad
and explore their opportunities over
there.
“I chose IT because it gives me the
opportunity to be free, in time, space,
movements and action. It gives me the
opportunity to express myself.”
Irina Revin
“I believe the IT sector is a necessity for
Moldova because we, the young people,
are dependent on technologies. This
project will be helpful and we’ll be able to
show that not only guys can code.“
Maria Toma
Other Quotes
“You’ve started (about GirlsGoIT) at the right time, this being a sector that
needs more attention.”
“It gives you the opportunity to change the world by just having one simple
idea.”
“Women have the desire to pursue the IT path but they stop because of their
lack of confidence.”
“I want to encourage all the girls and all the women to pursue a career in IT.
You know recently there was made this young millionaire’s top and about 60 %
of them are people who work in IT.”
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THE WORKSHOP
To show that GirlsGoIT is more than
just talk, we’ve created a demonstration of an introduction lesson into
coding. With the help of local leaders
we’ve selected 16 high-school girls
that are interested in modern technol-
ogies and showed them in a practical
lesson how to create a website using
html programming. The workshop took
place in the Novateca Library in Mingir
and was delivered by two young
trainers from Yopeso.
GirlsGoIT
IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES
YOPESO specializes in agile software development for web and mobile.
THE BIG PICTURE GirlsGoIT
The GirlGoIT project envisions a
long-term impact and therefore focus
on two main activities.
GirlsGoIT platform will be launched in
order to intensify dialogue and
collaboration between the interested
stakeholders. The platform will also
seek to enable government, business,
civil society and development partners
to commit to cultivate and enhance
girls’ digital skills and entrepreneurial
mind-set.
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After successfully delivering the first
run of the summer programme, each
of the 36 participants will be given a
set of tools to form a local chapter of
Girls Code IT in their communities.
This will further empower each
participant with the entrepreneurial
spirit to activate a larger number of
girls in developing ICT skills. Each
local chapter formed, will create, in
assistance with the project team a
short term vision for one year and will
define clear objectives to be
achieved. Also, each chapter will plan
and organize at least 2 projects/workshops in the planned year. The
planning of activities of the chapters
will take place during the last week of
the summer programme.
In the first year, GirlsGoIT will run a
summer camp that will teach 36 girls
from rural communities, Romani girls
and disabled locomotive girls how to
code and develop web applications.
We’ve partnered with 6 youth organizations to help us with the recruiting
process, but also to cover the whole
teritory of Moldova. The target group
for the summer camp are 16-20 years
old girls that have demonstrated an
interest in coding and programming, a
willingness to resolve community
issues, and an investment in their own
professional development.
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GirlsGoIT is an Initiative formed by
UN Women
UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of
women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate
progress on meeting their needs worldwide. The Agency works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; empowerment of women; and achievement of equality
between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights,
humanitarian action and peace and security.
e-Government Center
The e-Government Center is part of the State Chancellery, the Prime Minister’s Office and
serves as the Government Chief Information Office and coordinates the design and implementation of the Governance e-Transformation Agenda (e-Governance) all across the
government, both at the strategy and technological levels. eGC chairs the National Council of
e-Transformation Coordinators and ensures sectorial synchronization and alignment of
ministries’ efforts for governance e-transformation. eGC works closely with State Chancellery
to advance the government public service reform through business process reengineering
and digitization.
Novateca
Novateca is a five-year program designed to facilitate the transformation of Moldovan
libraries into vibrant community centers. With the guidance of trained librarians and the
support of community partners, citizens will enjoy free access to technology and community
services that address local needs. Novateca is made possible through the support of the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation in cooperation with the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID).
ATIC
Moldovan Association of Information and Communications Technology Companies, ATIC,
promotes the development of the ICT sector in the Republic of Moldova through viable
partnerships between the private companies, similar organizations, state institutions,
international organizations in order to enhance the competitiveness and development of the
sector and company capacities, enlarge the market, attract investments in the country and
participate in the decision making and regulatory process on the national and international level.
TEKEDU
TEKEDU also known as A.O. Asociaţia pentru dezvoltarea tehnologiilor informaţionale
„EDUCAT” aims to empower children for inclusive ICT education and development in
Moldova. Our ambition is focused on providing digital skills for young ones to take interest in
technology and embrace the 21st century ICT skills through intuitive educational program.
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GirlsGoIT program aim to boost Moldova’s entrepreneurship and innovation capacity by
investing and empowering girls and women to master digital technologies. girlsgoit.org