In partnership with UN Women, HP signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to expand digital learning opportunities for women and girls in South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Morocco. This collaboration builds a model of partnership where equipment and entrepreneurial online learning courses are offered in digital classrooms to more than 5,000 women under UN Women’s Second Chance Education Initiative with financial support from BHP Foundation.
According to Elisabeth Moreno, Vice President and Managing Director of HP Africa “Technology and education enable the expansion of learning beyond the classroom, encouraging creativity, collaboration, and participation. HP creates technology solutions that support engaging, personalized education experiences for students, parents, and educators”.
HP has already started to provide young entrepreneurs training, mentoring and access to facilities through the HP Life Centre. In collaboration with Ekurhuleni West TVET College in Katlehong, the technology-enabled hub was opened on 30 November 2018. The centre is designed to facilitate free online courses focused on business and IT skills learning, collaboration and entrepreneurship in a physical, face-to-face setting. To date, HP Life has reached 744,000 learners in 200 countries and territories.
Elisabeth Moreno, Vice President and Managing Director of HP Africa has a vision of using technology to assist in entrepreneurship and women empowerment in Africa. “4IR is a developing environment in which disruptive technologies and trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and artificial intelligence are changing the way we live, study and work. As new tools and technologies are developed, financial services can be provided with greater speed, accountability and efficiency” said Moreno. She reckons that the government should also create spaces to allow innovation to flourish.
Elevating the voices of women and girls is a way HP approaches its gender equity advocacy. In 2018, HP and Women Deliver launched “Stories of Advocacy,” a unique partnership to support its global Young Leaders Programme. This programme empowers youth advocates to catalyse gender equality action for girls and women in their communities.
