The UNICEF Game Changers Coalition
Equipping young girls around the world with the 21st century skills they need and want, to be the designers of a more inclusive, diverse, and secure digital future.
Every year, adolescent girls and young women in low and middle-income countries miss out on $15 billion in economic opportunities due to the digital gender gap.
Within the gaming industry, less than a quarter of the workforce are women, yet girls represent about 50 per cent of the world's video gamers. Innovative approaches, co-created with and for girls, in partnership with the tech and gaming industries, can shift the needle toward a more inclusive digital environment for adolescent girls.
Building on UNICEF’s existing Skills4Girls portfolio (spanning 22 countries and reaching close to 6 million girls), the UNICEF's Game Changers Coalition is a global forum of like-minded partners committed to equipping this generation of girls with the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) skills they want and need to become coders, designers, and leaders of a more inclusive, diverse, and safer digital future.
About the UNICEF Game Changers Coalition
The UNICEF Game Changers Coalition is a unique forum where private companies, civil society organizations, governments and young leaders from around the world team up to close the gender digital gap through video games.
Together with partners within and beyond the video gaming industry, and with girls at the core, the Coalition:
- Promotes diversity, equity and inclusion within the video gaming industry
- Supports and finance concrete, measurable actions for girls worldwide—including local skills building through UNICEF country offices
- Demystifies video gaming career pathways for girls, and inspires STEAM learning and industry careers
- Ensures girls feel represented and safe in video gaming environments
From video gaming, to learning, to earning
Worldwide, only 35 per cent of STEAM students in tertiary education are female. At 15 years old, twice as many boys as girls expect to become engineers, scientists and architects.
Closing the gender gaps in digital literacy, access, and experiences is the first step toward ending the exclusion of girls and women from the global digital economy.
The UNICEF Game Changers Coalition curriculum is designed to attract and retain young talent by combining the excitement of video games with the powerful STEAM skills needed to create them, such as advance coding, creativity, collaboration and problem-solving.
Three Operational Pillars
The Coalition operates via three main pillars:
- Build Her Foundation
Spearhead an innovative STEAM curriculum aligned with girls’ needs and aspirations, supporting the transition from learning to earning. - Build The Game
Promote frameworks that create a safer and more inclusive gaming industry environment. - Build the Global Network
Establish mentorships, global game jams, internships, and experiential opportunities bridging the gender gap in digital skills and careers.
“Having industry specialists as our mentors have been life changing. They teach us to think smart, to be creative and innovative, and to keep pursuing our dreams in the STEAM fields.”
Akmaral Nurlibekkyzy, 18, Kazakhstan
Impact to Date
Since its launch in 2023, the UNICEF Game Changers Coalition pilot programme has engaged over 640,000 girls, parents, and teachers in eight countries (Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, Malaysia, Morocco, South Africa, India and Kazakhstan), building STEAM skills through practical training and in-person game jams.
Together with partners, the Coalition is set to reach 1.1 million in 12 countries by 2027.
Partners
In 2024, UNICEF and the Global Video Game Coalition (GVGC) formalized a partnership to expand career pathways in the video game and tech industries for adolescent girls worldwide, aiming to reach 1.1 million people across 12 countries by 2027, as part of a broader effort to equip 26 million girls with future-ready skills. The GVGC became a foundational partner of the initiative, helping transition the Coalition from its pilot phase to its current stage of growth and scale. Members of the GVGC include Electronic Arts, Roblox, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Ubisoft, Video Games Europe and Entertainment Software Association.
In mid-2025, the Game Changers Coalition continued to grow with the addition of new partners. The crypto company Bitget joined the Coalition through its Blockchain4Her initiative, aiming to directly reach 300,000 people in 2025 and support the expansion of the STEAM curriculum to include blockchain and Web3 literacy. The Micron Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the tech company Micron Technologies, has also partnered with UNICEF to enable the expansion of the Coalition to its eighth country of implementation, Malaysia.
UNICEF Game Jam
The first UNICEF Game Jam (August – September 2025) was a virtual celebration of creativity and digital skills through video game development.
Organized by the UNICEF Game Changers Coalition and partners, it brought together young people under 21 years old from eight participating countries: Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, and South Africa.
UNICEF invites partners to join the Game Changers Coalition and support transformational change for girls worldwide.
For partnership inquiries, contact: [email protected]
