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ICRW Finds Intel Technology Program Valuable for Girls

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Girls leave Intel Learn program with digital literacy and critical thinking skills
Tue, 12/11/2012
By Gillian Gaynair

In a new report, ICRW concludes that the Intel Learn technology education program proves valuable to girls, equipping them with essential digital literacy, collaboration and problem-solving skills to compete in a global economy. Intel tapped ICRW to assess the program's impact on girls.

Regina's parents' business cultivating cucumbers in Russia had not enjoyed much success since they founded it three years earlier. That started to shift however after Regina took part in a technology education program and shared what she learned with her family.

At 15, the girl became instrumental in helping her parents further develop their business. Regina credits Intel Learn - an innovative technology education initiative recently assessed by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) - with equipping her with skills to help her family better manage and grow their business.

"I can execute cost estimates such as income and expenses, salary and cultivable area," Regina said, adding that the Intel Learn also familiarized her and fellow students with economics. "This program can also influence future economic growth of our country."

Intel tapped ICRW earlier this year to assess the impact of Intel Learn, with a particular focus on girls and young women in low-income settings. Renee Wittemyer, director of social impact for Intel's Corporate Affairs Group, said ICRW was uniquely positioned to carry out the assessment, "given its foundation of research on girls and women as well as its work in the space of technologies and innovation."

Ultimately, ICRW found Intel Learn to be a valuable program that equips girls - who make up half of the participants - with essential digital literacy, collaboration and problem-solving skills needed to compete in a 21st century global economy. Intel will use the findings to inform its ongoing strategy and focus on girls and education, Wittemyer said.

"The strategies Intel Learn uses are key not only to recruiting and retaining girls in the program, but also to empowering them," said Allison Glinski, an ICRW gender and development specialist who co-authored the report. "Girls leave this program confident, and with an ability to make thoughtful decisions as well as act on them. These are all skills that can help open up new economic opportunities for them in the future."

With an increasing number of corporations investing in girls' education in underserved communities worldwide, Glinski added that elements of Intel Learn's approach can serve as a guide for business leaders eager to make a difference in girls' lives, particularly through technology.

Established in 2003, Intel Learn helps underserved youth ages eight to 25 develop digital literacy, critical thinking and collaboration skills. To date, it has trained more than 1.75 million youth, about 875,000 of whom are girls and young women. The program takes place in 16 countries.

For its assessment, ICRW reviewed program documents and evaluations and interviewed country managers from 10 of the Intel Learn country programs. Experts applied ICRW's framework for measuring women's economic empowerment to Intel Learn's approach to teaching technology education.

Fundamental to the program's approach is to create an environment that increases students' access to technology and to make technology relevant to their lives. ICRW determined that Intel Learn's ability to do this, as well as to ensure girls' participation, give them a voice in the classroom and cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurialism, were key factors in the program's impact on girls. "These are important lessons on how to enrich the lives of girls and women through technology education that goes beyond teaching basic computer skills," Glinski said.

Indeed, according to Hagit Yafee, an Intel Learn country manager from Israel, girls develop "a new sense of agency" after participating in the program. Instead of just staying at home, getting married and having children, they now have dreams to get an education, do other things," Yafee said. "It is now about what they want, not what society expects of them."

Read the report: The Intel Learn Program Through a Gender Lens

Intel Blog: Investing in Skills Development: Girls and Digital Literacy

Bridging the Gender Divide

Bridging the Gender Divide
How Technology Can Advance Women Economically

Kirrin Gill, Kim Brooks, Janna McDougall, Payal Patel, Aslihan Kes
2010

Intention and innovation can generate real economic benefits to women in the developing world. In a groundbreaking study, ICRW examines technology initiatives that have enabled women to develop their economic potential, become stronger leaders and more effective contributors to their families, communities and domestic economies. Specifically, these efforts helped women increase their productivity, create new entrepreneurial ventures and launch income-generating pursuits. The report also offers innovators practical recommendations on how to design and deploy technologies that women can’t afford not to use.

(1.42 MB)

We encourage the use and dissemination of our publications for non-commercial, educational purposes. Portions may be reproduced with acknowledgment to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). For questions, please contact publications@icrw.org; or (202) 797-0007.

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The Intel® Learn Program Through a Gender Lens

The Intel® Learn Program Through a Gender Lens

Kirrin Gill and Allison M. Glinski, with Gillian Gaynair
2012

ICRW conducted an assessment of the Intel® Learn program, an education initiative that provides technology education to youth around the world, in order to understand its impact on female learners. The program equips learners with skills in digital literacy, collaboration, creativity, and critical problem solving. ICRW’s assessment found that the strategies and components of the Intel Learn program have successfully targeted girls’ needs and interests, provided girls and women with necessary skills and resources, empowered them to have control over their resources and make decisions, and set them on a path for economic empowerment. Thus, the program offers important lessons on how to enrich the lives of girls and women through technology education.

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We encourage the use and dissemination of our publications for non-commercial, educational purposes. Portions may be reproduced with acknowledgment to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). For questions, please contact publications@icrw.org; or (202) 797-0007.

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Invisible Market

Invisible Market
Energy and Agricultural Technologies for Women's Economic Advancement

Kirrin Gill, Payal Patel, Paula Kantor, Allison McGonagle
2012

This research explores what it takes for technology initiatives, specifically in the energy and agricultural sectors, to reach and economically benefit women in developing countries through market-based strategies that have the potential for achieving scale and financial sustainability. It builds on ICRW’s landmark paper, Bridging the Gender Divide: How Technology Can Advance Women Economically, which made the case for how technologies can create pathways for strengthening women’s economic opportunities.

Through a field-level investigation and interviews with experts, the authors examine how women’s use of technology and their involvement in the development and distribution of a technology can not only advance women economically, but also can benefit enterprise-based technology initiatives by expanding their markets and helping them generate greater financial returns.
 

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We encourage the use and dissemination of our publications for non-commercial, educational purposes. Portions may be reproduced with acknowledgment to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). For questions, please contact publications@icrw.org; or (202) 797-0007.

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Hillary Clinton, Others to be Honored at ICRW Gala

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ICRW recognizes investments in technologies that improve women’s lives
Mon, 05/14/2012
By Gillian Gaynair

ICRW on May 23 will celebrate organizations investing in innovative technologies that give women in the developing world better access to energy and more opportunity to compete in the global economy. Speakers will include actor and author Ashley Judd, whose humanitarian work around the globe centers on gender equality, poverty alleviation, public health and human rights.

The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) on May 23 will celebrate organizations investing in technologies that boost women’s access to energy – and, in turn, allow them a better chance of competing in the global economy. 

To be held at the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C., the ICRW Champions for Change Awards Gala will honor the ExxonMobil Foundation, Thunderbird Emerging Markets Lab (TEM Lab) at Arizona’s Thunderbird School of Global Management and the Uganda-based Solar Sister organization. ICRW also will recognize Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with its first-ever Leadership Award for her longstanding commitment to empowering the world’s women and girls. Melanne Verveer, ambassador-at-large at the U.S. Office of Global Women’s Issues, will deliver the evening’s keynote address, and actor and author Ashley Judd, a member of ICRW’s Leadership Council, will present the awards. 

“We’re celebrating how technology has changed the way the world works and lives. Still, many of the world’s poor, particularly women, have limited access to technologies that can help them enhance their economic opportunities,” said ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou. “Our awardees have all moved the needle in terms of supporting the development of innovative, inexpensive technologies that can help women in low-income countries progress economically.” 

Indeed, the ExxonMobil Foundation has been committed to analyzing how a variety of technologies – from mobile phones to foot-pedaled irrigation – can buoy women worldwide. Most recently, in 2011, ExxonMobil supported ICRW to take an in-depth look at an untapped market – rural women in the developing world – for agricultural and energy technologies. The report, “Invisible Market,” is forthcoming, and is part of a series of ICRW publications focused on innovation and technology. 

Among the technology-driven businesses ICRW examined for its latest report is Uganda’s Solar Sister organization – another honoree – which provides sun-powered lanterns sold by women to women. Solar Sister was an ExxonMobil Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative/Ashoka Changemakers grant recipient in a 2010 challenge titled “Women/Tools/Technology: Building Opportunities and Economic Power Challenge” and inspired by ICRW’s “Bridging the Gender Divide” research. 

TEM Lab – which also will be honored at the gala – is also linked to ExxonMobil and Solar Sister. Early last year, a team of students from TEM Lab spent five weeks in Uganda consulting with Solar Sister. Their mission was to diagnose business problems and identify ways to strengthen the organization to benefit the women who buy and sell solar lamps. Together with Solar Sister, the student consultants created a training curriculum for how to introduce and market the lamps, among other endeavors.

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW’s senior writer and editor.

Connectivity How Mobile Phones, Computers and the Internet Can Catalyze Women's Entrepreneurship

Connectivity How Mobile Phones, Computers and the Internet Can Catalyze Women's Entrepreneurship
India: A Case Study

Anju Malhotra, Anjala Kanesathasan, Payal Patel
2012

This study examines how access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are transforming the economic opportunities available to poor and low-income women in India by promoting their entrepreneurial activity. What types of initiatives support small and medium enterprises for women, and through which ICTs? What factors shape a positive connection between ICTs and women’s business success? What barriers have been lifted and what opportunities realized? What types of impact are ICT-based initiatives having on women, their businesses and beyond? What promising pathways are being shaped, and what channels have yet to be explored?

The larger goal of this research is to identify how technology can be leveraged to create and transform entrepreneurial opportunities for women across the globe. The insights presented here are intended to inform programs, policies and investments that encourage women to start, strengthen and sustain businesses by adopting and using ICTs. Recommendations aim to provide direction for stakeholders—development actors, governments, and especially the private sector—on how they can support women’s entrepreneurship through ICT platforms, products and services.

(1.43 MB)

We encourage the use and dissemination of our publications for non-commercial, educational purposes. Portions may be reproduced with acknowledgment to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). For questions, please contact publications@icrw.org; or (202) 797-0007.

Terms and Conditions »

Only an SMS Away

Submitted by Anjala Kanesathasan on Friday, February 24, 2012
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Mobile phones can jump-start Indian women’s entrepreneurial opportunities

A new ICRW report illustrates how putting a mobile phone or computer in the hands of a woman entrepreneur in India can ignite tremendous economic growth.

Cheers to Cherie Blair Foundation

Submitted by ICRW Communications Staff on Tuesday, November 29, 2011
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ICRW partner releases new report on mobile communications and women

Congratulations to our partner, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, which today launched a new report, “Women Entrepreneurs in Mobile Retail Channels: Empowering Women, Driving Growth.”  This latest endeavor is another example of the foundation’s commitment to providing insight into how the mobile communications industry can benefit women entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

Could Cell Phones Benefit Women Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries?

in
Fri, 09/30/2011
Triple Pundit
By Andrea Newell

Triple Pundit, a new media company for the business community, quotes ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou in a piece about the potential for mobile phones to aid women's business ventures in low- and middle-income countries.

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ExxonMobil Foundation Funds Study by Cherie Blair Foundation for Women on Mobile Phone Use by Women Entrepreneurs

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Research on mobile technology to begin in the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria and Indonesia
Tue, 09/20/2011
  • Groundbreaking study part of commitment to create economic opportunities for women through technology
  • ExxonMobil grant to help women entrepreneurs enhance business through mobile technology
  • Investment of nearly $50 million on women’s economic opportunities by ExxonMobil and ExxonMobil Foundation programs has helped tens of thousands of women

NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2011 – The ExxonMobil Foundation today announced a $1.5 million grant for research into how mobile phone technology can enhance women’s economic opportunities and entrepreneurship in the developing world. The grant to the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women will be highlighted at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting.

The study, to be conducted in Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indonesia, aims to identify various mobile services that can help women entrepreneurs enhance their businesses, and what barriers exist to expanding access to these services.

“We know that mobile technology has great potential for placing women in low-income countries on a higher economic trajectory,” said Cherie Blair, founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. “Mobile phone use doesn't just help women earn more money, it can also bring great benefits to businesses and therefore to the wider economy as well.”

Mobile phone services are often cited as a significant tool in economic development.There are 300 million fewer female than male subscribers worldwide, and a woman is 21 percent less likely to own a phone than a man in low- and middle-income countries.

“Studies like this will help us understand how technology can best support women in the developing world," said Suzanne M. McCarron, president of the ExxonMobil Foundation. “Success of women entrepreneurs is vital to building strong communities. Expanding the use of mobile technology for women will help raise living standards, leading to more prosperity for them, their families and their countries.”

"Our research shows that technology can be transformative for women, if we engage them in the process," said Sarah Degnan Kambou, president of the International Center for Research on Women.  "This partnership does that and will help take women entrepreneurs farther, faster, as a result."

The announcement builds on commitments made by ExxonMobil at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in 2009 and 2010 that were focused on accelerating women’s economic advancement through technology. In the last six years, ExxonMobil and the ExxonMobil Foundation have invested more than $47 million to support the economic advancement of women. As a result, tens of thousands of women have benefited. Initiatives include:

  • Providing new irrigation technologies to women farmers in Benin which enable farming throughout the country’s six-month dry season.
  • Training women in Ghana to use agricultural technologies to increase crop yields.
  • Helping Ugandan women access solar energy for their communities while growing their own businesses.
  • Offering business training, mentoring support and networking opportunities to more than 11,000 women in the developing world.
  • Providing Indonesian women access to solar lanterns which enable them to be more productive after sundown.

In addition to investing in high-impact programs, ExxonMobil partners with leading academics and think tanks to support research and advocacy efforts that raise awareness about the critical role women play in building strong, stable communities.

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Media Contact: 
ExxonMobil Media Relations 972.444.1107
Mission Statement: 

About ExxonMobil Foundation

ExxonMobil Foundation is the primary philanthropic arm of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) in the United States. Globally, ExxonMobil and the ExxonMobil Foundation provide funding to improve basic education, promote women as catalysts for development, and combat malaria and other infectious diseases in developing countries. In 2010, together with its employees and retirees, ExxonMobil, its divisions and affiliates, and ExxonMobil Foundation provided $237 million in contributions worldwide, of which $110 million was dedicated to education. Additional information on ExxonMobil’s community partnerships and contribution programs is available at www.exxonmobil.com/community.

About Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women provides women with the skills, technology, networks and access to finance that they need to become successful small and growing business owners, so that they can contribute to their economies and have a stronger voice to their societies. Research by the OECD shows that women tend to invest 90 percent of their income back into their families, so their success is critical to the ability of their children to escape poverty too. And yet, women find it harder to obtain access to finance, the right training and good advice. The foundation is a response to these challenges. www.cherieblairfoundation.org

About the Clinton Global Initiative

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. Since 2005, CGI annual meetings have brought together more than 125 current and former heads of state, 18 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations, major philanthropists, directors of the most effective nongovernmental organizations, and prominent members of the media. These CGI members have made more than 2,000 commitments valued at $57 billion, which have already improved the lives of 300 million people in more than 180 countries. The 2011 CGI Annual Meeting will take place from Sept. 20-22, 2011, in New York City. www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

This year, CGI also convened CGI America, a meeting focused on developing ideas for driving economic growth in the United States. The CGI community also includes CGI U, which hosts an annual meeting for undergraduate and graduate students, and CGI Lead, which engages a select group of young CGI members for leadership development and collective commitment-making. For more information, visit www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

About International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)

ICRW's mission is to empower women, advance gender equality and fight poverty in the developing world. To accomplish this, ICRW works with partners to conduct empirical research, build capacity and advocate for evidence-based, practical ways to change policies and programs. www.icrw.org

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