International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated worldwide every year on the fourth Thursday of April. Girls in ICT Day provides an opportunity for girls and young women to see and be exposed to the benefit of ICT in enabling their career and aspiration. To date, over 377,000 girls and young women have taken part in more than 11,400 celebrations of International Girls in ICT Day in 171 countries worldwide.
The Government of Bangladesh is working towards a large number of ICT and Digital technology projects to close the digital gender divide - placing special emphasis on Digital Bangladesh Vision 2021. At the UN digital Cooperation summit, held in September 2020, Prime Minister, H.E. Sheikh Hasina declared Bangladesh's vision to ensure high-speed internet connectivity to all particularly in connecting the schools by 2030.
The Government of Bangladesh recognises the potential of ICT as a catalyst for economic and social progress particularly for women, girls, persons with disabilities and the vulnerable groups and communities. Women and girls in Bangladesh face major challenges and many of them are not able to benefit from ICT. In order to close the digital gap and to ensure the no one is left behind, Bangladesh is working towards including women and girls in ICT programmes and job opportunities. Using the gender lens, Bangladesh aims to implement gender-equitable ICT access and digital equality for women and girls.
With the goal to bring more women and girls online and to reduce the digital gender gap, the ITU Asia and the Pacific Regional Office, the Alliance of Affordable Internet initiative of the World Wide Web Foundation in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh (the Department of Information and Communications Technology Bangladesh, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication Bangladesh, Ministry of Post and Telecommunication of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, the Aspire to Innovate (a2i) the Bangladesh government’s flagship digital transformation program, jointly implemented by the ICT Ministry and Cabinet Office with technical support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)) are organising the Girls in Tech Day Bangladesh 2021 that aims to encourage girls and young woman to pursue studying STEM and to enhance the level of digital skills and raise awareness on meaningful and safe use of ICT.
The celebration will take place in collaboration with the State Ministry of ICT, the Ministry for Women and Children Affairs Bangladesh, the UN Resident Coordinator's Office in Bangladesh, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) , University of Dhaka, North South University, Bangalink, Teach for Bangladesh, Women in e-Commerce, e-Worldwide Group, SBK Tech Ventures, Women in Digital, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), Preneur Lab, Code.org and Facebook.
