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Good practice Imported

Sisters of Code - Cambodia's First Girls' Coding Club Adds Generative-AI Tools to Close the Confidence Gap

Cambodia · Phnom Penh · See the Cambodia profile · See the Phnom Penh profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 40% 53/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Cambodia's first all-girls coding club, run since 2019, trained 180 girls (110 graduating); pre/post surveys show belief that "not all girls can study technology" fell from 14% to 7%. Its April 2026 event added a Google AI Studio module reaching ~300 students, over 90% girls.

180
Girls enrolled in 2022-2023 club cohort
110
Graduates from 2022-2023 cohort
14 %
Belief that 'not all girls can study technology' (pre-programme)
7 %
Belief that 'not all girls can study technology' (post-programme)
96 %
Members rating training useful or very useful
100 %
Members who would recommend the programme to other girls
18 %
Members told they were not allowed to study computer science
~300
Attendees at April 2026 Girls-in-ICT Day AI session (April 2026)
>90 %
Share of April 2026 event attendees who were girls (April 2026)
Sisters of Code - Cambodia's First Girls' Coding Club Adds Generative-AI Tools to Close the Confidence Gap

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Sisters of Code / IT Academy STEP Cambodia
Period
2019-2026
Keywords
education, gender equality, coding, AI literacy

Context

Sisters of Code is Cambodia's first coding club exclusively for girls, founded in early 2019 by IT Academy STEP Cambodia in Phnom Penh after its founders observed that girls were being steered away from technology subjects.

Objectives

The club aims to close the confidence gap in technology education for Cambodian girls by building coding skills and challenging the belief that girls cannot study technology.

Activities

Members complete 14-18 week clubs with weekly trainer-led sessions; in April 2026 the club added a 'Girls Can Code with AI' session using Google AI Studio at its Girls-in-ICT Day event, held with the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and IT Academy STEP Cambodia, alongside talks on AI careers and AI's role in Cambodia's tech sector.

Results

A 2022-2023 cohort of 180 female students from public and private schools produced 110 graduates, and self-reported pre/post alumni surveys found the share agreeing that 'not all girls can study technology' fell from 14% to 7%, with 96% rating the training useful or very useful and 100% saying they would recommend it to other girls; the same surveys found roughly half of members had felt unsupported in computer-science studies and 18% had been told they were not allowed to study it. The April 2026 AI session drew roughly 300 students, over 90% of them girls.

Conclusions

Evidence is self-reported by the operating organisation rather than independently verified, so the belief-change and satisfaction figures should be read as programme-level testimony rather than an external evaluation; funding partners include the Liechtenstein Development Service.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — A weekly, trainer-led club format with no capital infrastructure implies a low direct delivery cost, though no specific budget figure is published.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — The club has run continuously since early 2019 with recurring 14-18 week cohorts, a long-running rather than short-term format.
Staffing & skills
IT Academy STEP Cambodia trainers, Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (event partner)

Conditions for success

  • weekly trainer-led sessions sustained over a 14-18 week cohort format
  • partnership with government for outreach events (Girls-in-ICT Day)
  • external development funding (Liechtenstein Development Service) supporting delivery

Common failure modes

  • roughly half of surveyed members reported feeling unsupported in computer-science studies, and 18% had been told they were not allowed to study it

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

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

Attachments

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