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Event Name
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SmartGirlz in ICT Competition
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Description of the event
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1. BackgroundThe International Girls in ICT Day is an initiative backed by all International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Member States that aims to encourage and empower girls and young women to consider studies and careers in the growing field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The day is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of the month of April. In Tanzania, a consortium made up of the University of Dar es Salaam ICT Incubator (UDICTI), Youth for Children (Y4C) innovation Hub, Tanzania Data Lab (dLab), and the ICT Commission of Tanzania, for the first time commemorated the International Girls in ICT Day on 25th April, 2019 at the College of Information and Communication Technologies (CoICT) under the theme “Capacity Building and Career Awareness”. A total of 90 people, including 73 female students from secondary schools and higher learning institutions participated. During the day, the consortium launched a capacity building programme for secondary school female pupils, named “SmartGirlz ICT Competition”. The SmartGirlz ICT Competition is a programme that focuses on building capacity on ICT to secondary school girls’ students through training on soft and technical ICT skills, and thereafter nurturing the girls as they gain the ability to solve social challenges using ICT. The competition rewards the best solutions as a motivation towards the realization of career opportunities. The capacity building programme launching was accompanied by motivational talks in order to create awareness on possible career paths in the field of ICT. The motivational talks delivered by ICT practitioners, techpreneurs and career guidance experts, inspired and exposed female students and pupils to career opportunities in the field of ICT.The SmartGirlz in ICT Competition programme consists of capacity building (soft skills training on Human Centred Design and pitching, technical training on software systems design and development), and 2 competitions (in-school & inter-schools Competitions). After soft skills and technical trainings, students are given a challenge that exist in their society for them to use the knowledge accumulated through trainings to ideate and implement prototype solutions on the given challenge. The implemented prototypes in each school will undergo in-school competition to get two winners, which will further compete with prototypes from other participating schools on the last day of our programme i.e during the commemoration of ITU’s International Girls in ICT day.2. Scope of the initiativeThe SmartGirlz ICT Competition programme is a response to implement the International ITU’s Girls in ICT initiative by creating awareness and building capacity in ICT to secondary school girls. 3. BeneficiariesThe target beneficiaries of this programme are secondary school girls from schools that lack or have limited ICT infrastructure to facilitate teaching and learning of ICT related subjects.4. ObjectivesThis programme aims:a. To build capacity in ICT/digital literacy of secondary school girlsb. To create awareness and encourage the girls to consider studies and later career in ICT profession.c. To create and foster linkages among various stakeholders from academia, government and industries in implementing National and International agendas.5. ResultsIn our first batch in July, 2019 to September,2020. Six secondary schools were recruited to join the programme. Among the six schools, 3 schools are Government owned (Mikocheni, Kawe Ukwamani and Salma Kikwete) and the other 3 are private owned (Alpha, Feza Girls and Baobab Girls), and a total of 298 students were trained/participated in the programmme. Thirteen (13) solution prototypes out of more than fifty (50) made up to the finals in Inter-school competitions. Linkages were created among CoICT-UDSM, ICT commission, Universal Communication Service and Access Fund (UCSAF) and Tanzania Data Laboratory.In the second batch in 2021, seven (7) secondary schools were recruited to join the programme. Among the seven schools, four (4) are Government owned (Kijitonyama, Makumbusho, Kawe Ukwamani and Salma Kikwete) and three (3) are private owned (Alpha, Makongo and Ubungo). A total of 110 secondary school girls are participating in this programme. Fourteen (14) solution prototypes out of more than forty (40) made up to the finals in Inter-school competitions. Linkages among TCRA, CoICT-UDSM and Tanzania Data Laboratory were fostered.
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Entity organizing the event, organizers
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1. University of Dar es Salaam ICT Incubator (UDICTI) & Youth for Children Innovation hub under the College of Information and communication technologies (CoICT) of the University of Dar es Salaam, 2. Tanzania Data lab (dLab),3. Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA)
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