Digital Inclusion

Key Highlights

The global celebration for Girls in ICT Day 2024 in Manila, Philippines, was held under the theme of ‘Leadership’. Regional celebrations engaged nearly 40,000 girls and youth around the world in 193 events and activities organized across more than 84 countries, enhancing their digital skills.

As part of the Generation Connect Young Leadership Programme (GCYLP), implemented in cooperation with Huawei, 30 young changemakers from 28 countries participated in a ‘Development Week’ hosted by BDT. Activities included leadership fireside chats with senior representatives from ITU and Huawei, workshops on project management, innovation, and leadership, an intergenerational panel discussion, as well as reflection and briefing sessions.

The 2024 Generation Connect Youth Envoys, comprising 184 inspiring young individuals from 64 countries, participated in a knowledge development and mentoring program, which included online self-paced training on essential topics, such as ICT and web accessibility, as well as inclusive digital communication during emergency situations. 

The Her Digital Skills initiative and the AI Skills Accelerator for Girls benefited 1446 young women, aged 18 to 25, from 19 countries. Twenty-eight workshops, three online mentoring programmes and two career advice webinars aimed to equip young women with essential digital and leadership skills and to advance their professional careers.

In 2024, 1,055 participants from 144 countries, with 74% from developing countries and 42% women, registered in online self-paced and tutor-led training courses on digital inclusion topics. This included ICT accessibility to achieve inclusive societies, to build accessible websites, to ensure inclusive digital communication in times of crisis and emergency, to build SMART cities for all people, or on topics related to ageing in the Digital Age, and on strategies to ensure connectivity in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities. Our online self-paced trainings, delivered through the ITU Academy, are not only free of charge but also available in multiple UN languages and digitally accessible formats, making them also accessible to deaf and blind persons.

In Focus

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