evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice

AI and Robotics Youth Training Programme — ITU, Google and will.i.am's Pilot in Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire · Abidjan · See the Côte d'Ivoire profile

ITU, Google.org and will.i.am's I Am Angel Foundation launched a one-year AI-and-robotics pilot across five African countries in September 2025, targeting 20,000 students and 1,000 teachers; Côte d'Ivoire held its teacher training-of-trainers workshop in March 2026.

20,000+ students
Students targeted across the five-country pilot (target, not verified enrolment) (one-year pilot, launched September 2025)
~1,000 teachers
Teachers targeted across the five-country pilot (target, not verified enrolment) (one-year pilot, launched September 2025)
AI and Robotics Youth Training Programme — ITU, Google and will.i.am's Pilot in Côte d'Ivoire

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) / Google.org / I Am Angel Foundation / UNICEF Giga / Technology Innovation Hub of IIT Delhi
Period
Launched September 2025; Côte d'Ivoire teacher training-of-trainers workshop held March 2026; one-year pilot (2025-2026)
Keywords
AI literacy, robotics, coding, teacher training, digital ethics, youth skills

Context

The AI and Robotics Youth Training Programme is a one-year pilot launched in September 2025 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) together with Google.org (which committed USD 1 million in funding and technical expertise) and musician will.i.am's I Am Angel Foundation, with technical support from the Technology Innovation Hub of IIT Delhi and delivery through UNICEF's Giga school-connectivity initiative. The programme runs across five African countries — Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa — targeting students aged 10-18 and their teachers, with a stated cross-country goal of reaching more than 20,000 students and training around 1,000 teachers (roughly 200 per country).

Objectives

The programme aims to train teachers to run after-school 'AI School Clubs' offering project-based learning in AI literacy, robotics fundamentals, coding, digital ethics, edge AI and computer vision, and to feed country-level lessons into the ongoing refinement of UNICEF's Giga Learning Hub.

Activities

In Côte d'Ivoire, implementation began with a training-of-trainers workshop for teachers held in March 2026, preparing educators to run AI School Clubs, including hands-on use of Google's Teachable Machine tool. Trained students are expected to take part in National Robotics Challenges linked to the global Robotics for Good Youth Challenge.

Conclusions

As a newly launched pilot, the programme has no independent learning-outcome data yet, and Côte d'Ivoire-specific participation figures beyond confirmation of the March 2026 teacher training-of-trainers workshop have not been separately published. This should be read as an early-stage, well-funded pilot rather than a proven-impact programme.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Google.org committed USD 1 million in funding and technical expertise across the entire five-country pilot (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa); no Côte d'Ivoire-specific budget breakdown has been published.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Programme launched September 2025 as a one-year pilot; Côte d'Ivoire's teacher training-of-trainers workshop took place in March 2026.
Staffing & skills
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (programme lead), Google.org (funding — USD 1 million committed — and technical expertise), will.i.am's I Am Angel Foundation (partner), Technology Innovation Hub of IIT Delhi (technical support), UNICEF Giga school-connectivity initiative (delivery channel)

Conditions for success

  • Train-the-trainer model, starting with a teacher training-of-trainers workshop before student-facing activity
  • Integration with an existing school-connectivity initiative (UNICEF Giga) rather than building new delivery infrastructure from scratch
  • Multi-partner funding and technical model (ITU, Google.org, I Am Angel Foundation, IIT Delhi) spreading risk and expertise across organisations
  • Linkage to a global competition structure (Robotics for Good Youth Challenge) providing a concrete showcase goal for trained students

Common failure modes

  • As a newly launched pilot, there is no independent learning-outcome data yet
  • Reach figures (20,000 students, 1,000 teachers) are cross-country targets stated at launch, not verified enrolment or completion numbers
  • Côte d'Ivoire-specific participation has not been separately published beyond confirmation that the training-of-trainers workshop took place

Where it fits

Governance type
multi-stakeholder pilot (UN agency, corporate philanthropy, celebrity foundation, academic technical partner, delivered via national education systems)
Scale
multi-country pilot (five African countries)
Income level
lower-middle-income (Côte d'Ivoire, and broadly across the five participating countries)

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful