Hundreds of Africa’s leading female voices in tech gathered in Accra last week for three days of high-level panels, lightning talks and workshops.

The Africa Summit for Women and Girls in Technology gathered over 250 industry, government, and civil society representatives from across Africa. The aim?  To devise the policy steps needed to close Africa’s growing digital gender gap and enable millions of African women and girls to benefit from access to technology and use their skills to build a better Africa for all.

Here are some of the highlights, as told by some of our delegates and partners:

1. The Summit kicked off with Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Communications sharing how important it is for everyone to be connected in order to fully participate in the workforce:
   

   Without urgent action, those who are unconnected will be left behind. #TechWomenAfricapic.twitter.com/1l4XcZVnCp

   — The Web Foundation (@webfoundation) October 9, 2018

2. We addressed the barriers that are currently keeping women offline:
   

   Women all over the world are opting out of being active online because of tech assisted violence. Doxxing, AI non-consensual porn, sex trafficking are all driven by a tech environment that is not safe for women and girls #TechWomenAfrica

   — Muthoni Maingi (@NonieMG) October 9, 2018

3. The UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation reinforced our call to have more women at the table when it comes to ICT policy:
   

   Who is involved in digital policy dialogues, and who needs a seat at the table? A key question related to #digitalcooperation is being tackled this week at #TechWomenAfricahttps://t.co/pB5dbXz6LN

   — High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (@UNSGdigicoop) October 9, 2018

4. Dr. Omobola Johnson, Honorary Chair of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and the former Minister of Communications for Nigeria, expressed the importance of closing the digital gender divide for society and the economy:
   

   “ICT for inclusion is not only about infrastructure – it’s about the economy, social development. It’s about closing the gaps.” – Dr @OmobolaJohnson, former Minister of Communications Technology in #Nigeria. #TechWomenAfrica#Africa#ICTs#DigitalTransformation#ICT4D

   — Jemila #DigitalSkills 💫 (@jabdulai) October 9, 2018

5. A4AI celebrated its 5th birthday, and Executive Director Sonia Jorge explained that the growing gender divide was an inspiration for starting the Alliance:
   

   “A4AI was inspired by the fact that there was a growing digital gender divide. Gender is at the heart of everything we do” –@SoniaA4AI says of her 5 year journey at the helm #TechWomenAfricapic.twitter.com/K1J2hlWazh

   — A4AI (@A4A_Internet) October 9, 2018

6. The last day of the Summit coincided with International Day of the Girl, and we were lucky to have the Ghana Code Club join us to talk about how learning to code has impacted their lives.
   

   The mighty, mighty coding girls from @ghanacodeclub are here with us on #DayOfTheGirl!#TechWomenAfricapic.twitter.com/AkgWS61TVz

   — The Web Foundation (@webfoundation) October 11, 2018

7. And for a fun round-up of the event, watch the video Olamide Egbayelo put together:
   

   The 2nd edition of the #TechWomenAfrica summit may have come and gone, but participants from across Africa left Accra with renewed purpose and zeal for the work ahead.

   I curated some of the experiences here and will be updating the playlist every day https://t.co/pmCAMzpNiL

   — Olamide Is Here (@Lammyng) October 15, 2018

8. If you couldn’t make the event and want to join the discussion, follow #TechWomenAfrica or catch up on the livestream:
   

   That’s a wrap for #TechWomenAfrica, but the conversations we started here are far from over.

   Use the ^ hashtag to keep this conversation going.

   Side by side, we are unlocking a digital Africa.

   Thank you to all of our partners and delegates who made this event possible! pic.twitter.com/EAFWB4PMuh

   — The Web Foundation (@webfoundation) October 11, 2018

Thank you to all of our partners who made this event possible. The 2018 Africa Summit on Women and Girls in Technology is a collaboration between the World Wide Web Foundation, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), Ghana Ministry of Communications, African Development Bank, Open Society Initiative for West Africa, Internet Society, Facebook, Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (Germany), Google, Swedish International Development Agency and UN Women.

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