Empower women to attain true knowledge economy

“South Africa needs to step up in women empowerment in ICT if meaning development is to be achieved”, Edzai Zvobwo, Chief Genius at MathsGenius Leadership Institute (MGLI) stated at the GSMA Mobile360 Connected Women North America event held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Edzai was sponsored for the trip by Pattern Matched Technologies™, a South African technology company that specialises in the intersection of the telecommunications and finance industries through various customised solutions.
The Atlanta event which was hosted by the veteran South African broadcaster Siki Mgabadeli focused on closing the gender gap in STEMI (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation) under the theme “Accelerating the female mobile economy”. His presentation was entitled “Empowering the future female global workforce” which focused on girl child empowerment in maths and science as a way of supplying human resources in the engineering and telecommunications space.
The GSM Association (GSMA or Groupe Speciale Mobile Association) is an association of mobile operators and related companies devoted to supporting the standardising, deployment and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system. The GSM Association was formed in 1995. The GSMA organises the large annual events in the mobile industry among them, the GSMA Mobile World Congress and Mobile360 whilst Connected Women is the arm of GSMA responsible for female empowerment in the industry. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations.
In his speech, Edzai advocated for sustainable, attainable and transformative growth strategies to ensure access and retention of women in the STEMI careers specifically within the telecoms industry. Edzai highlighted best practices on strategies to get more girls into STEMI careers (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation), specifically mentioning hackathons and how companies and communities can leverage on that model to make it sustainable and replicable and use it as a channel to usher in a new era of learning through technology.
Edzai who founded MGLI has made considerable strides in the empowerment of the South African Girl Child through maths and science intervention projects. The intervention programmes take a 3-pronged strategy of information dissemination (involves motivational talks in schools, community places, radio, TV, social media…etc), Training (Training teachers, parents and kids on maths success strategies) and support (online, telephonic and through the use of printed materials like books and pamphlets).
Pattern Matched Technologies™ with its close association with Edzai and the Maths Genius programme was proud to be able to sponsor Edzai’s participation at the Connected Women event whose participants included a host of influential game changers within the ICT industry from SME’s to large corporations in North America, Europe and the Middle East. The representatives were mostly C-level and above in their respective companies.
The Mobile360 event saw the convergence of different players in the mobile space and some players like Coca-Cola who are looking to expand into the “Internet of things” revolution.
For the full speech follow this link: http://www.gsma.com/connectedwomen/empowering-the-future-global-technology-workforce/

For a full line-up of the speakers follow this link: http://www.gsma.com/events/connected-women/accelerating-the-rise-of-the-female-economy/speaker2014

Author: Pat Mareya from MathsGenius Leadership Institute (MGLI).
More Info link: http://www.gsma.com/connectedwomen/empowering-the-future-global-technology-workforce/
Twitter: edzaizvobwo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mathsgenius-Leadership-Institute/178902912170274
Images: For high res version/s of Two image/s please contact: MathsGenius Leadership Institute (MGLI).

Edzai Zvobwo, Motivational Speaker & Chief Genius at MGLI presenting Photo: GSMA

Edzai Zvobwo, Motivational Speaker & Chief Genius at MGLI presenting Photo: MGLI

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