The Asian and Pacific Training Centre for ICT for Development, in collaboration with the National One Village One Product Committee under the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development, and with support from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia, co-organized the national launch of Women ICT Frontier Initiative (WIFI) on 19-21 December 2016 at the Office of the Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
WIFI is APCICT’s flagship ICT capacity development programme for promoting women entrepreneurship. It aims to strengthen the capacity of current and potential women entrepreneurs in Asia and Pacific on utilizing ICT in support of their businesses. The programme also enhances the capacities of government leaders and policymakers to create an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs through appropriate policies and support programmes.
The inaugural launch of WIFI in Cambodia, which took place on 21 December 2016, was attended by around 150 representatives from government ministries, training institutes, civil society, women entrepreneur associations, international organizations, media and other relevant stakeholders in entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment.
Prior to the launch event, Training of Trainers (ToTs) in two tracks - for policymakers and women entrepreneurs - were be held on 19–21 December. The session for policymaker will focus on the importance of a gender-responsive government (including gender-sensitive policies and services) in order create an inclusive and accessible enabling environment for them. The TOT session for women entrepreneurs introduced the key concepts of women's empowerment and entrepreneurship; present challenges faced by women ICT; and the role of ICT in supporting women’s entrepreneurship. The TOTs will help expand the pool of national resource persons in Cambodia who can deliver WIFI training at the community level.
Following the ToTs, a community workshop, using localized WIFI training modules, was organized on 22 December at the National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia for local women entrepreneurs and students. Participants were also trained on using mobile applications for business that have been developed by the One Village One Product Movement of Cambodia.
The event was also attended by representatives from Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, and Pakistan that are interested in adopting the WIFI programme in the future. It was an opportunity for them to observe Cambodia’s WIFI implementation, exchange national experiences, and develop roll-out strategies in their countries.
About the Women ICT Frontier Initiative (WIFI)
Launched in June 2016, the Women ICT Frontier Initiative is a flagship ICT human capacity development programme of APCICT that aims to create socially and economically-empowered women through ICT-enabled entrepreneurship in Asia and the Pacific. Capacity building programmes target potential and current women entrepreneurs on how to use ICT in support of their businesses. It also supports policy makers and government officials on creating an enabling policy environment. More information is available at www.unapcict.org/wifi.
