Empowering Women Through Emerging Tech and AI in La Francophonie

The Secretary General of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), Louise Mushikiwabo, has emphasized the importance of a pra...

The Secretary General of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), Louise Mushikiwabo, has emphasized the importance of a practical initiative focused on training and incorporating girls and women into new technologies, especially artificial intelligence. During a press conference held at the conclusion of the 46th Francophonie Ministerial Conference (CMF) in Kigali on November 20, Mushikiwabo highlighted that the proposed program aims to enhance existing efforts in women's education by focusing strongly on digital skills and AI. "Yesterday, I asked the ministers to join us at OIF, the Secretariat, in developing a program dedicated to women in the field of technology, specifically in training women," she mentioned, noting that La Francophonie has always considered the education of girls as a key priority. ALSO READ: Mushikiwabo calls for a new approach to women's empowerment Mushikiwabo explained that this initiative would build upon current training programs led by the OIF’s Institute for Education in Senegal, in partnership with the Francophonie university in Egypt. "Clearly, today we cannot do without technology. We cannot do without artificial intelligence. Therefore, in the training program for girls that already exists through our institute in Senegal, along with the Francophonie university in Egypt, we want to develop a specific program to train young and not so young women in the areas of new technologies and artificial intelligence," she stated. In addition to skill development, Mushikiwabo stressed the importance of tackling gender bias embedded in AI systems. "One of the things I really care about is ensuring that artificial intelligence does not continue to carry the biases we have against women in our societies today," she said. "I hope that with artificial intelligence and technology, we will be able to create or use existing algorithms that can help eliminate the bias against women in our societies, particularly in the Francophone world. That is the goal." ALSO READ: Mushikiwabo re-elected as Secretary General of La Francophonie Addressing 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 industry. Choury, who founded an AI company at 27, shared her experience navigating a male-dominated field. "There were no more women around me. I found myself in a monogenic, monochrome, and monoclass environment," she said. "It's difficult to be a woman in a position of power, even in a world as young as tech." She discussed 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 these 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 gave the example of pediatrics, where women make up 72 per cent of practitioners globally. However, she noted that when asked to generate a story involving pediatricians, ChatGPT produced male characters in 84 per cent of cases—reflecting the skewed cultural representations found in online training data. "A major current issue, which 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 within the Francophonie, OIF data shows that no member state has yet achieved full gender parity. Key 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 a minority in the scientific and technology sectors, representing, on average, only 33 per cent of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates. The proposed initiative on emerging technologies and AI training aligns with addressing such disparities by expanding women's access to digital opportunities and equipping them for future jobs.

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