GOW IN AFRICA
UNDP Egypt, Egypt ICT Trust Fund and Microsoft Egypt in partnership with
Telecentre Europe and Telecentre.org organized GOW in the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) region for the first time, between 21 and 27 March 2014.
The theme of the campaign in the region was employment, digital jobs, social innovation and
entrepreneurship for youth. Overall, Egypt, Morocco, Tunis, Algeria, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Saudi
Arabia, UAE participated. In addition, telecentres in Jordan, Tunisia and Sudan organized their own
activities under the umbrella of Get Online Week in the MENA region.
In Egypt, on the 21st of March to the 22nd of March, computer science students from nationwide
universities participated in a mobile application development marathon. Throughout the week, a
series of webinars on topics related to innovation and entrepreneurship were live streamed online by
different Egyptian innovators.
Training and awareness sessions on digital literacy and ICT were also held for several NGOs in Egypt
and across the region:
Tunis: Telecentre Bechni: (Computer for All)
Egypt: Telecentre charity for children (Fostat IT Center) Training for marketing
Jordan Telecentre: Mutah Station: Communication skills in work place
Yemen Telecentre: Awareness about safe Internet among school students
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GOW was a success, especially given that it was the first of its kind held in the region. Many young
people engaged online: we achieved 900 likes on Facebook in only 7 days, with a total of 55,000
posts and 3,200 people engaged on the page from all over the region. The Twitter reach #GOWMENA
was exponentially high +400,000, and several countries in the region also participated.