Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China. Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Trump (is) continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG. “European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data,” he added. Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues. However, Trump has declared that he was “not satisfied” with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world’s top two economies could still slug out an economically pain...
The 2017 edition of Africa Code Week exceeded expectations by empowering 1.3 million youth across 35 countries with basic coding skills.
This number, according to organisers, indicated a 203% increase over the 2016 iteration, which saw nearly 427 000 youth trained across 30 African countries.
Launched in 2015 by SAP EMEA, in partnership with the Cape Town Science Centre and the Galway Education Centre, Africa Code Week is an initiative that brings together hundreds of schools, teachers, governments, businesses and non-profit organisations with the aim to empower young people across Africa with digital literacy skills.
Over the next 25 years, Africa’s working-age population will double to one billion, exceeding that of China and India. In the meantime, the digital skills gap in the continent is widening, and coding, according to SAP, has the power to put millions of young Africans on the path to successful careers and empower them to build sustainable growth in a where companies are currently struggling to hire qualified IT talents.
Claire Gillissen-Duval, director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP and global project lead for Africa Code Week, explains “Participation in the Southern African region increased by nearly 142%, with more than 116 800 youth trained in total.
We also saw unprecedented collaboration between our public and private sector partners, as well as from NGOs such as Code For Change that leveraged their participation in Africa Code Week 2017 to scale coding classes across 100 secondary schools in SA over the next 12 months.”
The initiative, which took place in October, is now actively supported by UNESCO YouthMobile, Google, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, 15 African governments, over 100 partners and 100 ambassadors across the continent.
In 2017, Africa Code Week and UNESCO joined the #eSkills4girls initiative launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to overcome the gender digital divide. The latter awarded 20 grants to 20 organisations, improving digital skills and employment perspectives for 8 259 girls and women in emerging and developing countries.
“With an average ratio of 43% female participation in coding workshops, Africa Code Week 2017 has created a huge appetite for digital skills development among Africa’s girls. Female representation in African companies in STEM-related fields currently stands at only 30%, requiring powerful public-private partnerships to start turning the tide and creating more equitable opportunities for African youth to contribute to the continent’s economic development and success,” says Gillissen-Duval.
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