By Alinoor Bosh, Northern Innovation and Empowerment Hub (NIEHUB) & Peter Ongalo, Caroline Mbaya, African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS)
To mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2026, the Northern Innovation and Empowerment Hub (NIEHUB), organized for a 3-day Hackathon in Garissa, culminating in a pitching competition and mentorship session on February 11, 2026.
The event dubbed “My First Tech Solution” envisioned nurturing girls’ leadership, innovation, and digital problem-solving abilities in Northern Kenya.
Empowering the Next Generation of Innovators
Sixty post-secondary girls from Garissa County attended, many of whom joined structured tech innovation for the first time. The hackathon offered a safe space for participants to develop app ideas to address local issues, including financial exclusion, climate risk, early marriage, GBV, and community safety.
Through NIEHUB’s “Big Sisters” mentorship, girls learned design thinking, teamwork, confidence, and public speaking. The hackathon fostered digital literacy and leadership, demonstrating technology’s power for social change.
The initiative supports Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 16 (Peace and Justice).
Innovation Showcase
After a two day training, the girls were challenged to identify community concerns, research root causes, and design problem-solving apps. By working in groups, the girls developed project concepts and implementation models, presenting their ideas to peers, mentors, and a panel of judges.
The wining team (She FUND) developed a smart fintech solution designed to promote financial independence for women and girls.
Why She FUND Ranked Highest
Projects were scored out of 100 across eight criteria. She FUND excelled in all areas.
Fatuma Dubow, the founder of NIEHUB, noted that the team clearly articulated the financial challenges affecting women and girls, including limited savings culture, low financial literacy, and a lack of structured investment guidance. Their solution directly addressed economic vulnerability and financial exclusion—critical issues within the local context.
Judges praised the project’s creativity in combining savings, micro-investments, and education in one app. The team presented a clear dashboard and logical user flow. The platform combines education, tracking, and investments on a single dashboard designed for Garissa’s women and youth.
The project demonstrated strong potential impact, with the capacity to improve savings behaviour, enhance financial literacy, and contribute to household- and community-level economic growth if further developed. The team also exhibited excellent collaboration, with all members actively participating in the presentation. Their pitch was confident, clear, and delivered on time.
In addition to She FUND, other teams presented impactful solutions, including:
- A Community Action model to End Early Child Marriage combined dialogue sessions with families, school-based engagement programs, and digital awareness campaigns, supporting prevention through community participation and education.
- A Safe Communities Initiative centred on GBV prevention, which included accountability mechanisms, community sensitisation sessions, and collaboration with local authorities to create safer environments for women and girls.
- A Climate-Smart Water Infrastructure Platform was designed to allow users to report water shortages directly to authorities in real time and to request solar-powered irrigation where needed, addressing both resource distribution and climate adaptation challenges.
- SafeLink Garissa, a digital GBV response and referral system
Each project reflected strong community awareness and demonstrated that girls in underserved regions can design practical, scalable, technology-driven solutions when provided with mentorship and opportunity.
Broader Impact and Strategic Partnerships
This initiative is just the beginning of a larger digital upskilling that is planned for learners in Northern Kenya. As one of the Hubs participating in the Joint SDG fund program Digital Platforms Kenya project (DigiKen) NIEHUB is expected to be a catalyst of strengthened digital literacy in underserved regions.
The Hackathon was supported by UN Agencies implementing the DigiKen; UNESCO, UNEP and UN Women, and their implementing partners the Green and Digital Innovation Hub (gDIH) and African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS). The Hub also received support from Oracle Academy and AfriQ Network Solutions.
The DigiKen partners hosted a virtual mentorship session for the girls to build girls’ confidence in STEM, teamwork, and leadership while reinforcing alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals on education, gender equality, innovation, and inclusive develop.
Florence Owino Program Assistant at UNEP Digital Transformation department, encouraged the girls to build solutions that would positively impact the environment, noting that innovations are not confined to big companies or big labs, but indeed ideas start from young people who ask “what is the problem and how can I solve it”
Jackline Kiambi, Gender Analyst atthe UN Women, reminded the girls that they had a distinct advantage from any other generation, to be growing up with Tech as this gives them an edge to maximize on creating new solutions. She also encouraged the girls to learn how to protect themselves on the internet even as they sought to monetize their ideas in the digital economy.
The team go to hear from Asha Mohammed an Alumni of the UN Women’s African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGGCI). Having been a recipient of Digital Skilling mentorship, she was now one of the “Big sisters” mentoring the younger girls at NIEHUB. Irene Mwoga, Regional Coordinator for Digital Transformation Program – Africa from UNEP was happy to note that the Hub had established a mentorship system through the big sisters, and hoped that it would be the beginning of a lot of great ideas.
The Girls also got a chance to hear from Dr. Eunice Omwoyo, who herself is a woman in STEM having attained a PhD in Physics. The girls were surprised to learn that Dr. Omwoyo did not excel in the sciences early on in her educational journey. She encouraged the girls who may not feel that they excel in the sciences to embrace a different mindset, noting that “STEM does not depend on gender. It depends on how curious and inquisitive one is”
Looking Ahead
The My First Tech Solution Hackathon for Girls marks the beginning of a growing innovation pipeline for girls in Northern Kenya. NIEHUB aims to support the continued development and potential scaling of promising solutions, such as She FUND, to translate ideas into real-world impact.
When girls in underserved communities are given access to technology, mentorship, and platforms for expression, they become powerful drivers of change. Continued investment in initiatives like this not only expands opportunities for thousands more young women across the region but also drives lasting transformation for their communities, showing that supporting girls in innovation is an investment in the future for all.
The hackathon demonstrated that innovation talent exists everywhere—even where access to opportunity does not. By investing in mentorship, exposure, and structured innovation training, NIEHUB is building a pipeline of future scientists, technologists, and social innovators in Northern Kenya.
