In 2015, the MoITT initiated the first major ICT for Girls Programme through the country’s Universal Service Company (USF Co). The programme included the provision of hardware and training on the four Cs (Communication, Creativity, Collaboration and Critical Thinking) in 120 Women’s Empowerment Centres (WECs) maintained by the Pakistan Bait ul Mal (PBM).

It aimed to train 10,000 girls from underprivileged backgrounds every year on the four Cs, basic ICTs and coding skills to help them pursue livelihoods and help support their families through digital pathways. Each WECs was to be equipped with a lab of 20 computers and ancillary equipment, with course content and training for teachers being provided by Microsoft through their operating system and the use of MS Office applications. The first phase was initiated as a partnership between PBM, the USF Co and Microsoft, and began in 50 WECs spread across the country.

A second programme has been introduced more recently in Islamabad in partnership with the Federal Directorate of Education, through which 226 schools have been provided with ICT Model Labs. In addition to the equipment, 202 teachers have also been placed at these institutions, trained by Microsoft under the Train the Trainer program on 21st Century Super Skills. This initiative aims to enable over 110,000 girls studying in Islamabad to be computer literate to a standard equivalent to that available elsewhere in the world.

Partners of the ICT for Girls programmes have been the Federal Directorate of Education, PBM, the USF Co and Microsoft. More recent global corporate partners involved in these initiatives have been Facebook and Huawei. Facebook, for example, has trained master trainers through their landmark training programme “She Means Business,” a course designed around empowering women. Similarly, UN Women has also contributed with a training programme for master trainers designed to enable women to discover their inner potential and put it to use in their everyday lives.