UN Women's African Girls Can Code Initiative runs two-week 'Binti Dijitali' coding, robotics and AI camps for Tanzanian women aged 17–25; Phase 2 (2022–2026) targets 1,000+ participants across 11 African countries.
2,000 women and girls (17–25)
Target participants (overall AGCCI) (since 2018)
600+ participants across 32 African countries
Phase 1 participants (2018–2021)
1,000+ girls across 11 countries
Phase 2 target participants (2022–2026)
Details
Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
UN Women Tanzania
Period
2018–2026
Keywords
gender equality, digital skills, coding, NGO/UN
Context
UN Women, the African Union Commission and ITU launched the African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI) in 2018 to train 2,000 African women and girls (17–25) as coders, designers, and creators; in Tanzania the programme is delivered as 'Binti Dijitali' with the Ministries of Gender, ICT and Education in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, funded by the Government of Belgium.
Activities
Phase 1 (2018–2021) reached 600+ participants across 32 African countries; Phase 2, launched in Dar es Salaam on International Girls in ICT Day (9 May 2022), runs 10-day/two-week residential camps covering coding, UI/UX, web production, robotics and (in later cohorts) AI applications, targeting 1,000+ girls across 11 countries including Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and DRC, with a Phase 3 in planning from 2025.
Results
Evidence is mostly qualitative case-tracking rather than a formal impact evaluation: alumna Flora Kagoma went on to build an AI-enhanced drone for crop-disease detection that won second place in Tanzania's Mama Samia Award for Best Agriculture Idea, while others (e.g. Annagrace Malamsha) moved into digital marketing and design careers — encouraging signals but not yet a systematic outcomes study.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Funded by the Government of Belgium; no public per-participant or total budget figure was found.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Phase 1 ran 2018–2021, Phase 2 launched May 2022 and runs through 2026, with Phase 3 in planning from 2025.
Staffing & skills
UN Women, African Union Commission, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Ministries of Gender, ICT and Education (Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar), Government of Belgium (funder)
Conditions for success
National ministry co-delivery rather than a purely NGO-run camp.
A residential camp format covering a broad skill set (coding, UI/UX, robotics, and later AI) rather than a single narrow topic.
A multi-year, multi-phase design (Phase 1 through planned Phase 3) that lets the programme build on earlier cohorts.
Commonly funded by
Philanthropic / foundation funding
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
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Data sources
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