- Thursday, August 11, 2022
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The embracing of citizen
developers by the information technology (IT) industry could herald significant
changes to the development of Nigeria's digital future. But will this future
involve more women? Sub Saharan Africa Youth Lead at PMI, Joanna Baidu, said
citizen development could well be the opportunity to attract more women to use
their experience and build applications through cloud-based, low-code, no code
platforms.
One of the reasons the
International Girls in ICT Day was conceived was to draw attention to the
critical need for more inclusivity in the tech sector. The gender disparity in
the ICT workforce is glaring all over the world. Hence, this year the focus is
on creating safe and reliable access to the internet and digital tools for
women.
Inclusion in the tech sector has
been a long-standing conversation, generating varied opinions and perspectives.
It will take employers' eagerness to develop both grassroots and in-house
technical skills of women and men to fill the existing gaps in the sector.
Male dominance in the Nigerian
tech sector is evident from the underrepresentation of women in the top ranks.
Of the 93 tech firms surveyed by the ONE Campaign and the Center for Global
Development, only six had a woman in a top management position. Worse still,
more than one-third of the surveyed tech firms employed no women.
Furthermore, a youth survey by
the National Bureau of Statistics, reports that young men are almost twice as
likely to have a career in computer science and technology-related fields as
women in Nigeria.
According to the National Bureau
of Statistics (NBS), in Nigeria, women make up on average just 22 per cent of
the total number of Engineering and Technology university graduates each year.
According to the same source, women make up roughly a fifth of people working
in the information and communication technology sector.
Project Management Institute
(PMI) believes that structured citizen development programmes that open the IT
development field to everyone, including women, will help companies drive
inclusivity. The introduction of citizen development can help bridge the talent
gap and accelerate digital transformation in Nigeria because everyone can
contribute to tech solutions without necessarily learning to code.
On the back of connected devices,
the citizen development movement has spurred innovation in software development.
The low code, no code tech that anyone can use has companies turning to it for
fast app development and deployment. Moreover, the arrival of citizen
developers has alleviated the pressure on IT departments, leaving people with
more formal IT qualifications to focus on mission-critical and core programming.
Encouraging employee
participation in technology development must not come at the cost of security
lapses, data breaches, and governance risks. Citizen development efforts must
comply with security standards and be guided by a governance strategy that sets
requirements for secure applications to be created outside the IT function.
"On the positive side, more
technically aware and enabled people in the workplace will undoubtedly
contribute to reinforced awareness and safer operational procedures. This means
that organisations can capiltise on employee knowledge about company needs to
produce enhanced outputs," says Baidu.
The potential for well-governed,
corporate-driven citizen development is unlimited. Helping women develop new
skills and reducing traditional gender gaps through structured citizen
development programmes can advance a company's market performance and
profitability.
"Technology is an
increasingly important part of our daily lives. Movements like citizen
development must be supported and fostered across organisations and educational
institutions, so women and girls get an early start. The prospect of artificial
intelligence having the same gender biases as humans can turn into a reality if
we don't encourage more inclusivity in ICT," Baidu said.
To meet the demand for citizen
development training, PMI has introduced the PMI Citizen Developer suite which
offers several opportunities for safe, effective development of programmes.
They are the PMI Citizen Developer Foundation online course. This e-learning
training programme introduces governance around citizen development and
outlines best practices in citizen development methodologies; the PMI Citizen
Developer Practitioner online course provides professionals with the tools and
methodologies to manage projects involving low-code and no-code platforms to
solve the problems organisations face; the PMI Citizen Developer Partner
programme is an exclusive global ecosystem of low-code/no-code vendors and
delivery organisations. It provides partners with the opportunity to become
powered by PMI, by achieving and showcasing the PMI Stamp of Approval. It
demonstrates that they are aligned with PMI's global vendor-agnostic standards,
guardrails, and best practices. With three partner tiers to choose from, there
are options designed to meet the needs of any organisation.
Another is the Handbook for
Creators and Changemakers is a centralised resource that assists individuals and
enterprises in understanding best practices for implementing citizen
development at scale within an organisation.
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