The Digital Youth Summit (DYS) is a technology-focused annual conference in Peshawar, Pakistan. Starting in 2014, DYS has become one of the largest, longest-running premier tech conferences in Pakistan. DYS 21 saw over 8,000 visitors at its Peshawar venue & 29,000 plus people tuning in online.
KPITB (one of Code for Pakistan’s earliest partners) hosts DYS in Peshawar, where we have a large network of technologists. Also, the conference’s goal overlaps with Code for Pakistan’s mission of using technology for good, so it made sense for us to provide a helping hand in organizing the conference. Apart from all the behind-the-scenes workings, Code for Pakistan was also an official content partner for DYS 21.
Samina Rizwan (Country Head — CfP) was part of the panel on women entrepreneurship & leadership in Tech. Alongside Jehan Ara (Katalyst Labs), Madiha Hamid (Chefling Tales), Sidra Imran (MPA Sindh), Ruici Tio (Facebook), and Samar Hasan (Epiphany) hosting the panel.
Read Tweets about Women Entrepreneurship Panel
The panelists discussed the low percentage of women in tech, women-specific challenges, and the actions required to overcome these challenges. Samina elaborated on the ‘KP Women Civic Internship Program’, an initiative Code for Pakistan undertook with KPITB & other partners, to address the low participation of women in ‘KP Government Innovation Fellowship Program’. Women from three underserved districts of KP (Bajaur, Mohmand, and Charsadda) were given a preference. The purpose is to support women graduates who face challenges accessing career opportunities, due to social and cultural barriers, now work remotely.
“We recently ran a Hackathon event, in partnership with KPITB & The World Bank, only 20% of participants were women which is a low number, despite this, among the top three winning teams, one was an all-women team and another led by a female…” ~ Samina Rizwan
Read more about the GovTech Hackathon
Watch the video of the panel discussion
Given Code for Pakistan’s expertise with utilizing data for improving governance and civic services, we organized a panel discussion on ‘Designing for Good Governance; Growing Data’s Value’. The panelist included; Taimor Jhagra (Finance & Health Minister — KP), Amna Baig (ASP — Islamabad Police), Sohail Muneer (Advisor — Smart Dubai Government), and Dr. Hassan Akhtar (Advisor — AHKRC), hosted by prominent social media influencer, Junaid Akram.
The panelist touched upon the use of data in creating smart cities, making informed policy decisions, and protecting citizens, in a wide-ranging discussion.
Watch the video of the panel discussion ‘Designing for Good Governance’
As a precursor to the Digital Youth Summit event, Code for Pakistan organized GovTech Hackathon and Government Innovation Challenge. We invited the winners to DYS, to receive their prize money.
Digital Youth Summit was attended and addressed by Federal Minister of Science and Technology Syed Shibli Faraz, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, KP Ministers Kamran Bangash, Shahram Tarakai,Taimur Jhagra, and other notables.
The Digital Youth Summit is presented by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB), The World Bank Group, Multi-Donor Trust Fund, ST&IT Department, and Economic Revitalization of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (ERKP), and powered by Jazz.
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