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Good practice Imported

Girls in ICT Day 2026 — WITSI's 'AI for Development' Programme in Honiara

Solomon Islands · Honiara · See the Solomon Islands profile · See the Honiara profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 96% 20/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

WITSI's 2026 Girls in ICT Day in Honiara drew 200+ young women from 32 schools for an 'AI for Development' programme on disaster-response AI, an AI-for-Good challenge and cybersecurity, continuing an annual event first recorded with 150+ participants in 2021.

200+ participants
Participants (2026 edition) (6 May 2026)
32 schools
Schools represented (2026 edition) (6 May 2026)
150+ participants
Participants (2021 edition) (2021)
Girls in ICT Day 2026 — WITSI's 'AI for Development' Programme in Honiara

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Women in Technology Solomon Islands (WITSI), a chapter of the Information Technology Society Solomon Islands (ITSSI)
Period
2021–2026 (recurring annually; featured edition 6 May 2026)
Keywords
AI literacy, girls' digital inclusion, disaster-response AI, cybersecurity awareness

Context

On 6 May 2026, Women in Technology Solomon Islands (WITSI), a chapter of the Information Technology Society Solomon Islands (ITSSI), convened over 200 young women from 32 schools and institutions in Honiara for International Girls in ICT Day, themed "AI for Development: Girls Shaping the Digital Future." The event is funded by the Australian Government through the Australia Solomon Islands Partnership for Justice and has recurred annually since at least 2021.

Activities

The programme included an "AI for Good" team challenge, a cybersecurity awareness session delivered by the Solomon Islands CERT, a virtual keynote from a Perth-based software engineer, and a panel of local women technologists; content was linked to AI use cases in the country's recovery from Tropical Cyclone Maila (satellite-based disaster monitoring, ocean-temperature early warning, remote medical diagnosis).

Results

The 2026 edition drew over 200 participants from 32 schools, up from the 2021 robotics-themed edition's 150+ participants from 23 schools, indicating sustained, growing institutional commitment.

Conclusions

Evidence is limited to attendance figures and programme description from local news outlets; no learning-outcome, skills-retention or follow-on-enrolment data has been published for any edition.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Funded by the Australian Government through the Australia Solomon Islands Partnership for Justice; no budget figure disclosed.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Single-day annual event, recurring since at least 2021.
Staffing & skills
Women in Technology Solomon Islands (WITSI) organisers, Solomon Islands CERT (cybersecurity session), Volunteer technologists and panelists

Conditions for success

  • Sustained annual recurrence since 2021 with growing attendance
  • Funding continuity via the Australian Government's Australia Solomon Islands Partnership for Justice
  • Linking AI content to locally relevant context (Tropical Cyclone Maila recovery)

Common failure modes

  • No learning-outcome, skills-retention or follow-on-enrolment data has been published for any edition

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

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

Attachments

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