MentorNations believes that digital literacy is a human right. As a youth-run and youth-led organization with operations in Tunisia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, the team empowers young people to transform their lives through technology. With a primary focus on Tunisia, youth volunteers teach mobile application development, IoT, robotics, technology entrepreneurship and funds hackathon winners to launch their own tech companies. All mentors, speakers, classes, and leaders are made up with at least 50% women and girls. Each year, we run thousands of camps, and our premier camp is funded by the American Embassy in Tunisia where 35-40 young people (always at least 50% girls) between the ages of fourteen and twenty two from all regions across the country spend 30 days in the capital learning mobile application development, IoT powered by micro:bit, and entrepreneurship. Participants sleepover in the capital and also learn team building, goal setting, marketing, human resource management, and failure. The outcome of all of our camps are a functional mobile application launched in the app store, a functional IoT solution, and a business plan for the company. We have been featured on national and regional news outlets for our work to empower young women and girls to transform their lives through technology. In a country where some regions experience upward of 57% unemployment, a harsh digital divide, and challenges with increasing the number of women in tech, our program provides the very skills that empower young women and girls with the tools they need to compete in the 21st century economy.

http://mentornations.org/

• Western Europe and North America

• Women

Each person should have the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge in order to understand, participate actively in, and benefit fully from, the Information Society and the knowledge economy. Literacy and universal primary education are key factors for building a fully inclusive information society, paying particular attention to the special needs of girls and women. Given the wide range of ICT and information specialists required at all levels, building institutional capacity deserves special attention. Continuous and adult education, re-training, life-long learning, distance-learning and other special services, such as telemedicine, can make an essential contribution to employability and help people benefit from the new opportunities offered by ICTs for traditional jobs, self-employment and new professions. Awareness and literacy in ICTs are an essential foundation in this regard. To achieve a sustainable development of the Information Society, national capability in ICT research and development should be enhanced. Furthermore, partnerships, in particular between and among developed and developing countries, including countries with economies in transition, in research and development, technology transfer, manufacturing and utilization of ICT products and services are crucial for promoting capacity building and global participation in the Information Society. The manufacture of ICTs presents a significant opportunity for creation of wealth. The attainment of our shared aspirations, in particular for developing countries and countries with economies in transition, to become fully-fledged members of the Information Society, and their positive integration into the knowledge economy, depends largely on increased capacity building in the areas of education, technology know-how and access to information, which are major factors in determining development and competitiveness.