UN Women 2024 community collaboration
Acting together to expand social impact and close the digital gap
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
Key leaders
The 2025 executive sponsors from Nokia and UN Women are enthusiastic about building upon the achievements of 2024 by continuing existing initiatives, expanding into new countries, and further amplifying the program's impact this year.
Nokia Program Sponsor: Raghav Sahgal, President, Cloud and Network Services
UN Women Program Sponsor: UNW Regional Director a.i. for the Arab States and Director Division of Management and Administration, Dr. Moez Doraid
Josephine Moss, UN Women Regional Coordination Specialist Arab States (l) and Nicole Arian-Markazi, Nokia Head Corporate Social Impact (r)
Sustainable development goals
The global Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development recognizes that “information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies”. Under Sustainable Development Goal 5, the international community has committed itself to enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.
Responding to this call, Nokia and UN Women have designed an innovative and sustainable collaboration model.
The partnership has demonstrated its significant potential by introducing a new model of collaboration to advance gender equality and women's empowerment through the private sector; one where Nokia is a sustainable development actor, leveraging its global human resources, specialist expertise, brand recognition and partnership networks. UN Women contributes its technical GEWE expertise, detailed knowledge of local contexts, and experience in coordination for development.
Collaboration streams
Two collaboration streams to strengthen communities through enhancing women’s economic empowerment in 2024.
Action for Employability and Entrepreneurship
The Action for Employability and Entrepreneurship workstream strengthened women’s capacities to enhance their employability, entrepreneurship and agency in the online sphere, through upskilling and opportunity creation.
2024 initiatives
- Jordan: Women refugees from Syria hosted in the Zaatari camp.
- Tunisia: Women survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) from diverse regions.
- Türkiye: Women-organised collectives and entrepreneurs in the Hatay province, impacted by the 2023 earthquake.
- Argentina: Women in underprivileged communities of Buenos Aires, Neuquen and Gran Chaco Region.
- South Africa: Women in underprivileged communities of Kayamandi province.
- Philippines: Women in underprivileged communities in Davao City, Davao Del Sur.
- India: Marginalised young women studying in Polytechnic and ITI’s in Madhya Pradesh.
Closing ceremony
Participants and Nokia regional initiative leads at their closing ceremonies.
Argentina
Jordan
Türkiye
Methodology used for the design of the initiatives
1. Understand needs
Regular discussion rounds convened between Nokia, UN Women and their Civil Society Organization (CSO) partners to share knowledge of the challenges to gender equality and women’s empowerment in the specific contexts.
Enabling sessions organized by UN Women and their CSO partners for Nokia volunteers to enhance their understanding of the diversity of women’s experiences in each country, particularly with regards to intersectionality of risk factors such as poverty, migration status and geographic remoteness that compound the impact of discrimination.
Surveys created by the Nokia data team to ensure each cohort was composed of participants with a consistent level of prior knowledge, thereby facilitating a coherent curriculum and training modality tailored to the specific interests and existing skills level of the participants.
2. Meaningful definition of success
Jointly agreed global success indicators have been identified to track the success of the program.
3. Accountable and invested business leaders
The Program is embedded in Nokia’s strategic ESG pillar with GLT members assigned as program sponsors, followed by the assignment of regional executive Sponsors.
4. Solution designed for context
Based on the insights gained from the needs assessment, a digital and soft skills training curriculum was developed by Nokia volunteers with a strong focus on upskilling and mentorship.
5. Rigorous tracking and course correction
Each country initiative had set clear objectives and activities to be achieved by the end of 2024, contributing to global measurement of success. UN Women and Nokia are collaborating on joint reporting that is evidence and results-based, to track progress towards the program’s goals. Weekly check-in meetings ensured that timely action could be taken as needed to respond to any challenges.
Nokia employees globally and locally have volunteered and contributed to the initiative’s success
Outcome
(Percentages based on the number of completed post-training surveys in total)
Percentage of women who report feeling more confident to apply for paid decent work and/or start their own business after completing the training.
Percentage of women who would recommend this training to other women in their community.
Percentage of women who agree that the training would help them find work or business opportunities.
Action for Transition to Workforce
The Action for Employability and Entrepreneurship workstream strengthened women’s capacities to enhance their employability, entrepreneurship and agency in the online sphere, through upskilling and opportunity creation.
2024 initiatives
- Jordan: Women refugees from Syria hosted in the Zaatari camp.
- Tunisia: Women survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) from diverse regions.
- Türkiye: Women-organised collectives and entrepreneurs in the Hatay province, impacted by the 2023 earthquake.
- Argentina: Women in underprivileged communities of Buenos Aires, Neuquen and Gran Chaco Region.
- South Africa: Women in underprivileged communities of Kayamandi province.
- Philippines: Women in underprivileged communities in Davao City, Davao Del Sur.
- India: Marginalised young women studying in Polytechnic and ITI’s in Madhya Pradesh.
Closing ceremony
Participants and Nokia regional initiative leads at their closing ceremonies.
Argentina
Jordan
Türkiye
Methodology used for the design of the initiatives
1. Understand needs
Regular discussion rounds convened between Nokia, UN Women and their Civil Society Organization (CSO) partners to share knowledge of the challenges to gender equality and women’s empowerment in the specific contexts.
Enabling sessions organized by UN Women and their CSO partners for Nokia volunteers to enhance their understanding of the diversity of women’s experiences in each country, particularly with regards to intersectionality of risk factors such as poverty, migration status and geographic remoteness that compound the impact of discrimination.
Surveys created by the Nokia data team to ensure each cohort was composed of participants with a consistent level of prior knowledge, thereby facilitating a coherent curriculum and training modality tailored to the specific interests and existing skills level of the participants.
2. Meaningful definition of success
Jointly agreed global success indicators have been identified to track the success of the program.
3. Accountable and invested business leaders
The Program is embedded in Nokia’s strategic ESG pillar with GLT members assigned as program sponsors, followed by the assignment of regional executive Sponsors.
4. Solution designed for context
Based on the insights gained from the needs assessment, a digital and soft skills training curriculum was developed by Nokia volunteers with a strong focus on upskilling and mentorship.
5. Rigorous tracking and course correction
Each country initiative had set clear objectives and activities to be achieved by the end of 2024, contributing to global measurement of success. UN Women and Nokia are collaborating on joint reporting that is evidence and results-based, to track progress towards the program’s goals. Weekly check-in meetings ensured that timely action could be taken as needed to respond to any challenges.
Nokia employees globally and locally have volunteered and contributed to the initiative’s success
Outcome
(Percentages based on the number of completed post-training surveys in total)
Percentage of women who report feeling more confident to apply for paid decent work and/or start their own business after completing the training.
Percentage of women who would recommend this training to other women in their community.
Percentage of women who agree that the training would help them find work or business opportunities.
The Action for Transition to Workforce workstream was tailored to address the opportunity observed in Saudi Arabia, namely to increase the number of women working in tech roles within the tech industry.
The concept was piloted in Saudi Arabia in 2022 with six women, repeated in 2023 with 14 women, and was expanded in 2024 with 22 Saudi women participating. In 2024 it was applied to Kenya with the creation of an adapted Learnership program.
Globally, women are graduating with qualifications in information communications technology at increasing rates, yet there is still a significant gap in their employment in STEM fields. The partnership aims to address this gap through initiatives such as the Nokia internship program, which builds the capacities of women STEM students and graduates to improve their employability in the tech sector.
Focus group discussion
UN Women conducted a focus group discussion at Nokia’s Riyadh office, to explore the motivations of Saudi women STEM students and graduates to work in the tech sector and to identify persistent challenges.
Key motivations expressed by the participants included the accessibility of initiatives aimed at supporting women in STEM; the support of family members and schools; the visibility of role models, particularly Saudi women role models; and a personal interest in technology and innovation.
However, participants also highlighted significant challenges, such as limited access to information about opportunities for women in the sector; public misconceptions about mixed-gender work environments; and inadequate workplace accommodations. The findings suggest the need for a multi-faceted approach to address these challenges and optimise women’s participation in the tech field.
Outcome
Percentage of women finishing the graduate program for Nokia Saudi who feel more likely to start a STEM related job post-training.
Outlook 2025
Building on the successful results of 2024, the scope for 2025 will focus on scaling:
- Expanding Geographic Reach: additional countries and regions where the curriculum can be adapted and implemented to empower vulnerable women through ICT.
- Institutionalizing the curriculum’s result-based approach: Work towards integrating the focus on impact, developed in partnership with UN Women, into Nokia’s broader corporate social responsibility and business development strategies, ensuring long-term sustainability.
- Enhancing Monitoring and Evaluation: Strengthen data collection and reporting mechanisms to capture long-term outcomes for participants as well as for Nokia and UN Women as development actors.
