How Africa
Senegalese-born, British Tech Entrepreneur Mariéme Jamme, founder of iamtheCODE – the first African-led global movement to mobilize multi-stakeholders to advance STEAMD (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, arts and design) education for women and girls announce a new partnership with Alibaba Cloud, the cloud-computing arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group at the Mobile World Congress (MWC).
Adding a new twist to the rapidly expanding iamtheCODE blended curriculum of technologies that gives access to the most marginalised young women in the world.
The Alibaba Cloud logo will be added on the Digital Wheel of the iamtheCODE Curriculum, which also awards certificates to young women students who pass the 12 weeks course of iamtheCODE Digital clubs.
Alibaba Cloud will also provide tailored courses on a range of topics including cloud computing, data analysis, machine learning and security.
To date, iamtheCODE has got a presence in 64 countries including China where it hosted its first UN Sustainable Development Goals Hackathon in 2017 with UNDP. So far, in just under two years, 13,000 girls gain access to iamtheCODE blended curriculum.
This exponentially growing movement aims to support young marginalised women with their career path towards solid digital skills and other practical STEAMD (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, arts and design) subjects by teaching them how to code, inviting them to decode the UN Sustainable Development Goals, track what the young women and girls are learning though data and provide good nutrition education.
iamtheCODE is also asking governments, businesses and philanthropic foundations to support girls to actively participate in the digital revolution so that they can hold the technology jobs of the future. Hence it has also nominated Christopher Schlaeffer, a key figure behind the initial launch of the Android Operating System and a European technology executive, pioneer and serial founder as its Patron. Schlaeffer previously served as Chief Digital Officer of VEON (NASDAQ: VEON) as well as Chief Product & Innovation Officer, Corporate Development Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of Deutsche Telekom (Xetra: DTE).
iamtheCODE has been recognized by the United Nations and is supported by many prominent organizations including the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, the UN High Level Panel of Women Economic Empowerment, Microsoft, UBS Optimus Foundation, UNILEVER, the Gates Foundation and UNICEF.
As the worlds of digital media, consumer electronics and social media continue to collide, iamtheCODE believes young women and girls must have access to digital content, smartphones, and high-quality curriculums to prepare them for the job markets. Smartphones are instantly transforming the lives of girls in Africa and saving their lives.
Jamme comments: “We are delighted to partner with Alibaba to engage more young women and girls from the most disadvantaged background in the world and use its technology to change their lives. Our blended curriculum will become even more accessible as we add Alibaba Cloud to it.
For iamtheCODE, priorities are to use technology to improve the lives of young women entrepreneur through tech, to create employability and to equip them with the digital skills of the future. We are truly honoured and excited for the young women as they will have access to the new technological advancements of Alibaba Cloud. This moment is truly historic. Working with Alibaba Cloud will make a great difference in the lives of millions of young women globally.”
The Alibaba “Tech for Change Initiative” calls for inspiring ideas such as iamtheCODE to tackle global social and humanitarian challenges in areas such as education, economic development and the environment through technologies.
“Through the Tech for Change initiative, we want to bring together creativity and innovation to tackle critical problems and challenges faced by humanity such as equality in education, healthcare for the underprivileged, sustainable agriculture and wildlife protection,” comment Dr Wanli Min, Chief Machine Intelligence Scientist, Alibaba Cloud. “We are delighted to partner with iamtheCODE to train 1 million women and girls by 2030 and have them as part of the Tech for Change initiative.”
About iamtheCODE
iamtheCODE is the first African-led global movement to mobilize government, private sector, civil society and philanthropic foundations to advance STEAMED (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, Entrepreneurship, and Design) Education. A fundamental pillar of iamtheCODE’s work is the empowerment of women and girls across the world, a key target of SDG #5. It aims to enable 1 million women and girl coders by 2030 and give them the skills they will need in the future in order to find decent and good work.
Committed to the vision of equality for all and enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, iamtheCODE works towards:
The elimination of discrimination against women and girls
- Empowerment of women and girls through technology
- Take action for women’s and girl’s economic right and opportunities.
- Equality between men and women as partners and beneficiaries of development, rights of man, of humanitarian action, peace and security
About Alibaba Cloud
Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com), the cloud-computing arm of Alibaba Group, is among the world’s top three IaaS providers, according to Gartner, and the largest provider of public cloud services in China, according to IDC. Alibaba Cloud provides a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to businesses worldwide, including merchants doing business on Alibaba Group marketplaces, start-ups, corporations and government organizations. Alibaba Cloud is the official Cloud Services Partner of the International Olympic Committee.
