Twenty youth trained in mobile apps development and SDGs to solve local social problems

From 15 to 19 July 2019, UNESCO Almaty held a YouthMobile workshop in Khujand, Tajikistan, guiding youth towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Gender Mainstreaming through developing Free and Open Source Solutions.

With innovative and practical mobile apps proposals to solve local social problems, 10 young men and 10 young women aged 16 to 25, were selected from 130 candidates who submitted their application online. Four trainers, two men and two women, conducted the training. The training agenda focused on introducing mobile applications development using Android Studio, with sessions on Sustainable Development Goals and Gender Mainstreaming.

The workshop aimed to equip students with skills to develop mobile applications that could sustainably solve local societal challenges.

Sergey Karpov, the Communication and Information specialist of UNESCO Almaty Office participated in the workshop and interviewed the youth during session breaks: “This workshop” he said, “is a great occasion for these young women and men to make their idea to tackle social problems in Tajikistan come true.”

Khurshed Gulov, a finalist of the previous Central Asian YouthMobile Contest, became the main trainer of the Khujand workshop. He stated the importance for programmers to develop products that target social problems: “We need mobile applications and programmers to make products, but not all programmers want to build products for our society. The participants at our workshop may become the kind that produces socially helpful apps.”

Nazifa, one of the young woman participants, would like to create an app that provides people with legal and right-based information through games: “My idea of the app is to create a knowledge game on raising legal awareness and on advocating citizen’s issues”. Amir Issamuddinov, volunteer at the Khujand Office of Civil Freedoms said he would like to develop a smart voice assistant in the Tajik language. Dallar Muroldi said he would like to code a voice map for blind people in Khujand.

Most participants said they will continue to develop their apps after the workshop: the finalized applications will also be available through the YouthMobile web page. All the source codes of the applications developed during the YouthMobile workshop will be available on Free and Open Source platforms.

Videos of the workshop are available at the following links: https://www.facebook.com/gulovkhurshed/videos/709386919516022/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl2u4zOPilc

The UNESCO YouthMobile initiative deploys projects worldwide to promote training in digital technology and to enable young women and men with the skills they need to solve local challenges.