A global collaboration between industry partners, NGOs, Ministries of Education, and governments that stresses the importance of public-private partnerships in solving the challenges of the gender gap and the urgency to empower more young women through tech education.
The AI Forward Alliance (TAIFA) is empowering a generation of female leaders and innovators to use technology to drive innovation to solve complex global problems.
TAIFA offers girls everywhere access to the education, skills, and technology essential for success in and influence in a future where AI plays a pivotal role.
Report on Women in AI
Unlocking the $200 Billion Innovation Opportunity: Empowering Women in AI
“Women in AI: A Global Overview of a $200 Billion Innovation Opportunity” explores the transformative potential of women in the technology sector, particularly in the rapidly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). While currently less than a third of tech professionals are women, this report highlights the immense economic and innovative benefits of bridging the gender gap.
Discover how investing in AI-skilling for women and girls can unlock a staggering $212 billion for the global economy. Delve into the data-driven insights on the current landscape, explore successful case studies, and learn about the programmatic elements crucial for long-term impact. This report provides a roadmap for countries to set ambitious targets, implement effective AI-skilling programs, and empower women to become the “Builders of Better AI.”
Join us in envisioning a future where women are not just consumers of AI, but active creators and leaders, shaping a more equitable and prosperous world for all.
Video: Data Walkthrough
To gain a deeper understanding of this timely and urgent report’s overview and the data behind it, we encourage you to watch this video.
Toolkit: Guide for Governments & Allies
This companion toolkit, “Implementing AI Entrepreneurship Programs: A Guide for Governments and Allies“, provides practical steps and strategies to empower women and girls in AI, paving the way for a more inclusive and prosperous future.
Get the toolkitThe AI Forward Alliance in Action
Breaking the Cycle:
Ongoing Gender Gaps In Innovation And Tech Are Rooted In Education
A very small percentage of the workforce is made up of high-skill level jobs that have an outsize impact on world progress. For instance, less than half a percent (0.45%) of the workforce is made up of software professionals…and more than 70% of this group is male.
These gender gaps originate in higher education, reflecting the opportunities, information and choices given to young women since middle school, with less than 30% enrolling in ICT studies and 36% in STEM fields.
Despite over a decade of efforts and initiatives to address gender gaps in STEM, they persist—and it’s an urgent problem. This scarcity of talent threatens global growth and development because science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industries and their adoption of new and frontier technologies are at the center of innovation and economic progress (World Economic Forum,2023).
Revealing the Opportunity:
The Untapped Power of Girls and Women and AI
Bringing more girls and women into science and technology will ensure that not only are the jobs of the future filled, but more importantly we will be able to drive social well-being, inclusive growth and sustainable development. This is because there is irrefutable evidence showing that educating and empowering girls and women positively impacts entire communities and economies; increasing the earning capabilities of women helps eradicate poverty, promotes lifelong learning opportunities, fosters innovation, reduces overall inequalities and helps achieve SDGs 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10.
See recent AI projects made by girlsA Partnership for the Goals:
The AI Forward Alliance
The AI Forward Alliance ensures that girls and young women around the world have AI proficiency and entrepreneurial mindsets to strengthen and accelerate their countries’ economies and well-being.
The AI Forward Alliance (TAIFA) is committed to providing 25 million girls and young women with the skills, knowledge, access, tools and mentorship to not only understand how AI models work, but to train, develop and deploy their own machine learning models and transformative technologies that tackle real-world problems in their communities.
The collaborative expertise and resources of Technovation and UNICEF form a powerful leadership and partnership driving the alliance. At the core of TAIFA’s strategy, Technovation’s program empowers girls and young women with tech education, an entrepreneurial mindset, and future-ready skills, extending beyond the development of hard skills. The program guides girls in identifying real-world problems, developing solutions, and instills the agency to tackle these pressing challenges. Leveraging UNICEF’s global reach, with access to educators, ministries of education, and girls and women in 144 countries, ensures the wide-reaching impact of the alliance.
Empowering Change:
A Dynamic Ecosystem Of Partners
TAIFA Goals and Expected Outcomes
Primary goals:
- Empower 25 million girls and young women through AI, coding, and entrepreneurship educational programming
- See 6 million of those young women enter the workforce in fields related to technology by 2030
How we’ll do it:
- Giving the center stage to women leaders and innovators to be role models and trailblazers for the next generation.
- High level engagement of the private sector in supporting girls’ and women’s education and empowerment
- Implementing large-scale skilling of girls and women in data science and machine learning
- Galvanizing resource commitments from key industry leaders, philanthropy, foundations and individuals
The AI Forward Alliance Members
The Alliance is designed strategically, with each organization leveraging its knowledge, network, and capital to empower the next generation of female leaders and innovators to solve complex global problems.
UNICEF and Grameen Foundation give TAIFA increased access to educators, ministries of education, and girls and women as network partners.
The App Inventor Foundation will support the development of resources and training for TAIFA’s ecosystem educators and facilitators as a technical partner.
Girl Geek X will bring its expertise to help grow and strengthen a global community of women tech leaders as a workforce development partner.
The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Shopify, and ServiceNow join as funding and resource partners.
Generation Unlimited brings its expertise as a network partner to reach and support more girls on their entrepreneurial journeys.
EY teams will provide knowledge through mentoring, coaching, and judging.
Find your place
Get Involved
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Dig Deeper
Learn More
Learn more about why educating girls and women is the single most powerful thing we can do to ensure a sustainable future for everyone.
Join the Conversation: Events by TAIFA
The Alliance partners co-host events that offer deep dives into the topics, research, and conversations behind our vision and collaborative work in AI and female empowerment. These events feature leading voices and aim to inspire and engage a broad audience.
Our most recent event was on September 19, 2024 in New York, NY:
25 Million Future Shapers Forum
This forum will showcase the progress made in achieving gender parity in leadership and discuss strategies to address structural barriers hindering women’s participation in the tech industry.
This event was a side event at UNGA’s Summit of the Future
In The News
Episode 3102: 150,000 Innovators and Counting: Technovation’s Journey to Transforming Tech Education
Tech Talks Daily [Podcast]
Read NewsAI can improve equity in the workplace, but there are still biases to watch for
Financial Post
Read News13 education-focused projects that make learning more empowering, empathetic, and accessible
Fast Company
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