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Good practice Imported

Girls in ICT Learn-A-Thon — Zambia's National AI, Cybersecurity and Data-Science Track for Schoolgirls

Zambia · Lusaka · See the Zambia profile · See the Lusaka profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 59% 47/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Zambia's SMART Zambia Institute runs a nationwide Girls in ICT programme with Cisco Networking Academy — from 150 girls trained in 2021 to a 2025 three-week Learn-A-Thon in AI, cybersecurity and data science, backed by 58 Starlink-connected school kits.

150 girls
Girls trained in the 2021 cohort (2021)
more than 100 girls
Girls trained in the 2022 cohort (2022)
58 kits
Starlink kits deployed to schools (2025)
3 weeks
Duration of the 2025 Learn-A-Thon (April 2025)

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
SMART Zambia Institute, Ministry of Education & Cisco Networking Academy
Period
2021–2025, recurring (2025 Learn-A-Thon launched 25 April)
Keywords
AI literacy, cybersecurity, digital skills, gender equality, K-12 education

Context

Zambia's SMART Zambia Institute has run a Girls in ICT programme since 2021 with international and corporate partners including ITU, Cisco and Airtel Zambia, aimed at bringing digital-skills training to girls from marginalised communities.

Objectives

The programme aims to give schoolgirls across urban and rural provinces hands-on training in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and data science, building on the Cisco Networking Academy curriculum.

Activities

After a 2021 cohort of 150 girls from three provinces and a 2022 follow-on cohort of more than 100 girls, the 2025 Learn-A-Thon launched on 25 April (International Girls in ICT Day) as a three-week national programme reaching girls in all provinces. The Ministry of Education deployed 58 Starlink kits to schools to support access, and materials reference Zambia's National Cybersecurity Act No. 2 of 2021.

Results

Participation figures exist for the 2021 and 2022 baseline cohorts, but public sources do not report independently verified completion rates or learning-outcome data for the 2025 cohort specifically.

Conclusions

The programme has run in institutionalised form since 2021 under a government agency, with new infrastructure investment showing multi-year continuity, though its most recent edition's outcomes are not yet independently measured.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
SMART Zambia Institute, Ministry of Education, Cisco Networking Academy, ITU, Airtel Zambia

Conditions for success

  • A standardised Cisco Networking Academy curriculum
  • Infrastructure investment (58 Starlink kits) to reach rural schools
  • Recurring institutional ownership by a government digital agency
  • International and corporate partnerships for delivery and connectivity

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes 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

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

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