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Microsoft Arabia participated in the 2nd Women’s Enablement in Technology Sector Summit, held on March 8. Niamh Spelman, Microsoft’s head of services in the Middle East and Africa, delivered the keynote address.
The summit focused on encouraging and training more women to enter the world of information and communications technology (ICT) — an aim that is aligned with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and Microsoft’s own mission of empowering people and organizations to achieve more.
The summit, which was hosted by the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), was held at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) in Riyadh.
In her talk titled “Unleashing the Power of Women,” Spelman said: “The world of technology will benefit significantly from greater diversity when it comes to gender.”
She said hiring women will bring numerous tangible benefits to families, local communities, and national and global economies. “Increasing women’s employment in MENA could increase household incomes by 25 percent and Microsoft Arabia is ideally positioned to help make this happen,” added Spelman.
The Microsoft chief announced the Microsoft DigiGirlz 2020 initiative at the summit.
DigiGirlz is in partnership with MCIT and Think Tech and will invest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education for women. The initiative will be launched in three places — Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province. The first stage of this initiative, Train The Trainer, has already been accomplished with the training of 90 Saudi women, who will then train and support students who participate in DigiGirlz events. The second phase will use Minecraft Education to train some 600 female students from intermediate schools, thus opening new career pathways in the ICT sector.
In the Middle East, women make up less than 10 percent of the region’s technical workforce. However, as part of its Vision 2030, the Saudi government is determined to change this and has launched a range of initiatives to ensure it happens.
The summit was also a part of these initiatives, bringing together stakeholders and experts in the field from around the globe for a day of discussions, workshops, and presentations.