Push for emerging tech, AI training for women in La Francophonie

The Secretary General of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), Louise Mushikiwabo, has stressed the need for a concrete initiative aimed at training and integrating girls and women into emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. Speaking at a press conference at the close of the 46th Francophonie Ministerial Conference (CMF) in Kigali on November 20, Mushikiwabo said the proposed programme seeks to strengthen existing efforts around women’s education by placing a strong emphasis on digital skills and AI. “Yesterday, I requested the ministers to join us at OIF, the Secretariat, in putting together a programme dedicated to women in the area of technology, in training women,” she said, pointing out that La Francophonie has had the education of girls as one of its priorities. ALSO READ: Mushikiwabo urges reimagined approach to women empowerment Mushikiwabo explained that the initiative would build upon current training programmes led by the OIF’s Institute for Education in Senegal, in collaboration with the Francophonie university in Egypt. “Obviously, today we cannot do without technology. We cannot do without artificial intelligence. And so in the training programme for girls that already exists through our institute for education based in Senegal, with the Francophonie university in Egypt, we want to figure out a special programme to train young and not so young women in the areas of new technologies and artificial intelligence,” she stated. Beyond skills development, Mushikiwabo underscored the importance of addressing gender bias embedded in AI systems. “One of the things that I really care about is to make sure that artificial intelligence doesn't continue to carry the bias that we have against women in our societies today,’ she said. “And so, I'm hoping that with artificial intelligence and technology, we will be able to create or use existing algorithms that can help us take away the bias against women in our societies, especially in the Francophone world. So, that's the objective.” ALSO READ: Mushikiwabo re-elected La Francophonie’s Secretary General The need to address algorithm bias and representation During the opening session of the conference on November 19, French mathematician and ethical AI engineer Anna Choury also addressed the issue of bias in artificial intelligence and the broader responsibility of the tech world. Choury, who founded an AI company at 27, described her experience navigating a male-dominated industry. “There were no more women around me. I found myself in a monogenic, monochrome and monoclass world,” she said. “Just know that it is difficult to be a woman in a position of power, even in a world as young as tech.” She highlighted both the beauty of mathematics and the challenges of machine learning systems that reflect societal injustices. “We take an algorithm—completely stupid at first—and we provide it with data. We show it a piece of the world and tell it, ‘Go ahead, do the same.’ But we live in an unfair world, so artificial intelligence reproduces injustices,” she explained. ALSO READ: How Rwanda is regulating artificial intelligence With the rise of generative AI, Choury warned that cultural representation has become a critical concern. She cited the example of paediatrics, a field in which women make up 72 per cent of practitioners worldwide. However, for instance, she said that when asked to generate a story involving paediatricians, ChatGPT produced male characters in 84 per cent of cases—reflecting the skewed cultural representations found in online training data. “A major current issue, and that should not be underestimated, is cultural representation,” she said. “Not only so that our children grow without limits, not only so that the next generation of little girls have role models in tech and science, but also to succeed in generating enough data to counterbalance the dominant representations that are still stereotyped and degrading, and that we find in our algorithms.” She urged Francophone countries to produce and support diverse and positive content. “When we flood the world with our utopias, then our digital world could be humanist,” she said. Persistent gender gaps Despite progress across the Francophonie, OIF data shows that no member state has yet achieved full gender parity. Key challenges include: Despite notable advances, OIF data shows that no member state has yet achieved full gender parity. Current challenges include: 32 per cent of French-speaking women (ages 15–49) experiencing gender-based violence; persistent gaps in girls’ transition from primary to secondary education; nearly two-thirds of employed women remain in the informal sector without social protection – such as occupational hazards and pension benefits; women remain the minority in the scientific and technology sectors, with representing, on average, only 33 per cent of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates. The proposed initiative on emerging technologies and AI training are in line with addressing such disparities by expanding women’s access to digital opportunities and equipping them for the jobs of the future.

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Push for emerging tech, AI training for women in La Francophonie