Remarks by CARICOM Secretary-General on the occasion of Girls in ICT Day 2023 Regional Event

“When women and girls are empowered through ICT, homes and societies benefit overall. With easy, affordable access to the internet and the necessary skills to use digital technologies, they gain opportunities to start new businesses, offer their products in new, sometimes online markets, find better-paid jobs and participate more fully in public life.” – CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr. Carla Barnett

CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr. Carla Barnett, on Thursday, 27 April, made remarks at the opening of an event to observe Girls in ICT Day 2023.

The  CARICOM Girls in ICT Partnership in association with the Restore a Sense of I Can (RSC) International organisation, is hosting the regional day-long online event under the sub-theme ‘Girls in ICT and the boys who support them’. ‘Digital Skills for Life’ is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) theme for the Day.

Please read the Secretary-General’s remarks below:

• Honourable Ministers with responsibility for Information, Communication and Technologies (ICT), Education and Youth;

• Senior Officials/Policy Makers in Information, Communication and Technologies (ICT), Education and Youth;

• Members of the CARICOM Girls in ICT Partnership Steering Committee and Restore a Sense of I Can (RSC) International;

• Representatives of Regional and International Institutions;

• Dean and other Ambassadors of the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors Programme;

• Students, Parents, Teachers;

• Members of the Media;

• Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good morning.  It gives me great pleasure to once again share remarks with you on International Girls in ICT Day. The CARICOM Girls in ICT Partnership, in conjunction with “Restore a Sense of I Can” (RSC) International and other partners are commemorating the day with this regional event involving more than 40 workshops.

International Girls in ICT Day aims to encourage more girls and young women to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) theme for this year is ‘digital skills for life’.  The CARICOM Girls in ICT Partnership and RSC International have chosen as a sub-theme “Girls in ICT and the boys who support them”.  This is an effort to bring both girls and boys into the ICT space to ensure that the CARICOM Region is reaching and developing future technology leaders.

While there are signs of progress all around the world since we met last year, the ITU reports in 2022 that:

• The power and transformational potential of internet access and use is not equally distributed. Of the estimated 2.7 billion people currently unconnected, the majority are women and girls;
• The digital gender gap continues to expand in many developing countries, creating a need to support digital gender equality;

• Adolescents are growing up in a world in which technology, migration, climate change and conflict are reshaping their society;

• Youths aged 15-24 years are the driving force of connectivity, with 75 per cent of young people worldwide now able to use the internet;

• Although women account for close to half of the world’s population, 259 million fewer women have access to the internet than men. Only 63 per cent of women are using the internet in 2022, compared to 69 per cent of men. This gender gap is even more concerning in lower-income nations in which 21 per cent of women are online, compared to 32 per cent of men, a figure that has not improved since 2019.

According to experts, the digital gender gap can be minimised by building digital skills and promoting ICT education for girls and young women, while supporting their participation in technology development, local content creation and ICT innovation.

Studies across the world show that young people need four types of skills as they advance to 2030: Foundational, transferable or ‘life-skills’, job-related and digital.  CARICOM continues to work to bolster the policy environment to teach and foster these skills.  Some of these initiatives include:

Other initiatives include instituting the CARICOM Digital Skills Taskforce and ongoing urgent work in the Caribbean Association of National Training Authorities (CANTA) – to develop regional Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) courses, standards and frameworks. There is also an ICT Sector Gap Analysis project, started this year, which will give us real-time data on how we are performing as a Region and the existing gaps.

I am happy to share that the CARICOM Girls in ICT Partnership will be launching a career webinar series in July 2023, which will offer access to educational resources and training to bolster capacity-building. ICT provides career opportunities to young female professionals as a sector and many modern careers are reliant on ICT. 

When women and girls are empowered through ICT, homes and societies benefit overall. With easy, affordable access to the internet and the necessary skills to use digital technologies, they gain opportunities to start new businesses, offer their products in new, sometimes online markets, find better-paid jobs and participate more fully in public life.

Today we join the rest of the world to celebrate and salute girls and women across the world who are working in the ICT sector, many of whom are in regional organisations and the public sector. 

I urge all of us gathered here today, to join forces to ensure that the leadership and participation of women and girls are at the heart of all the efforts. Let us seek every opportunity to hear from the women and girls, and the men and boys who support them, as we craft policies which can unleash the resourcefulness, creativity, tenacity and resilience of our young people.

When we meet next year, it is my hope that we can truly say that we did our utmost to increase CARICOM girls’ and boys’ access to technology and information in a safe and empowering environment.

Thank you and best wishes for an enjoyable event.

Source: CARICOM TODAY