Young Girls Gain STEAM in Gaming Hackathons
UNICEF calls for increased investment in girls' rights, leadership, and well-being
From 2016-2020, less than 6 per cent of global development aid was targeted to work on adolescent girls. Increased investments in girl-centred programs are urgently needed to bridge gender gaps in education, digital literacy, and life skills training.
Through the Game Changers Coalition, UNICEF is collaborating with the gaming and technology industries to equip girls with 21st-century STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) skills such as coding, design, teamwork and storytelling through game development.
The training will provide this and coming generations of girls with the tools they need and want to become coders and designers. With these skills, girls can become the leaders of a more inclusive, diverse, and safe digital future for all.
It's important to prove not only to the guys [that we can do it] but to prove it to ourselves.
Since the launch of the Game Changers Coalition, UNICEF has led a pilot programme in six countries — Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan and South Africa — and engaged over 10,000 girls, parents, and teachers.
I thought game design was a very interesting area of study and that it was very cool to get help like this. In general, I was most interested in the fact that [the course] was specifically for girls. That is, the target audience is girls, and the whole program is designed to empower girls in STEAM.
The Game Changers Coalition is building upon UNICEF's Skills4Girls program, which has already reached nearly 6 million girls in over 20 countries worldwide.
The Game Changers Coalition reinforces a practice of interdisciplinary teaching methodology focusing on learning by doing and “trial and error” while promoting extra-curricular activities to Cambodian traditional schooling.
The game jams provide a unique chance to strengthen intergenerational bonds, enabling parents and family members to recognise their daughters' inherent strength and potential.
The transformative potential of embedding games into conventional STEM programs is huge. The Game Changers Coalition will allow us to combine our work in the most marginalized communities with digital skills building, gender equality, and racial and social issues all at once.
Through the Game Changers Coalition, UNICEF calls for investment in girls' rights, leadership, and well-being.
To find out more and join us in redesigning the future of gaming, click here.
