I need to understand one block, which is the investment, the second block is the curriculum, and the practitioners, the teachers. How do we get girls to learn? There’s no need for Malala Yousafzai to stand up and say, "There’s 130 million girls who don’t have access to education," if ...

It’s true. Nobody can tell you where is money going in girls’ education, so I decided that this week, wherever I’m going to go, I’m going to tell them, "Stop talking about girls’ education, to either fund girls’ education or do something about it."

You go to government, remember, we’re talking about macho government who don’t understand girls’ education is important, literacy numeracy, getting the girls into a school. They don’t understand the social issues, so 45 years now... I’m nearly 50 years old.

You ask them, "Why do you think girls are not learning? Why do you think STEM education, why do you think girls are not going into classes? Why do you think girls are dropping out?" Nobody can answer you. Where is the money going? The classrooms? Is it for curriculum? ...

40 years, Audrey. Nearly 50 years, girls’ education hasn’t worked because I was one of them. I’m 44, so girls’ education, nobody in the world cannot tell you why girls’ education is not working. There’s investment, there’s awareness, and Michelle Obama, Malala, all of them, "Let’s invest on goal number ...

We need the blockchain. Right now, it’s very important that if we can get a blockchain platform on girls’...The reason why we need the blockchain platform because even girls’ education...Let’s take girls education. Very simple topic.

If we create our own blockchain platform -- and I think this is what we need to do, urgently -- to create a blockchain platform on SDGs.

The reason why I love blockchain is because you can bring so many people to create their own blocks without nobody claiming credit for it. Remember, these African presidents, they like claiming credit for things they haven’t done.

The other interesting thing I think we can also do is -- one of my thinking right now is that I’m trying to speak to some people here -- hopefully by the end of the week, we can get something. Is to focus on the blockchain.

That’s true.

Exactly.

They need to understand the potential.

It’s more the technology...

African government, they haven’t been to Taiwan. I don’t want them to see Taiwan as just like a funding country...

The reason why they cut ties, sometimes, is because they’re scared. There’s no representative for you. Because I know Taiwan. I know how to talk about Taiwan in a more scientific and technologic way. That’s what I do.

No, but you have me now. Don’t worry.

[groans]

Yeah, it’s just empowering. I think one of the things we should think about is to have even a hackathon, or an event in Taiwan, or somewhere in Africa. Ethiopia is good or Swaziland, where we have an event, and where we invite Africa data champions -- I know them ...

Nobody has ever done that. We have some data conferences now and then, but it’s just telling. It’s not like teaching them.

Like in Uganda, in some countries, they see data information, fake news, all of this, because no one has done a workshop or training, even send them to Taiwan for five days for you to teach them about...

The biggest issue for us, in Africa, is how do we make sure the national statistics of government -- all the national statistics in 54 countries, Africa -- how do you educate them to understand data collection, number one? Number two, how do you have them open the data so ...

One of the biggest work right now we’re thinking about is how do you get Africa connected in the next 12 years to the SDGs. Citizen data scientists, that is why we organize hackathons, to help them understand how do you collect the data.

This is fascinating. I don’t know if you know, but I sit on the board of the World Wide Web Foundation?

I know, but I’ve been saying this to people. I’ve been saying Taiwan. They say, "Taiwan." I said, "Yeah, Taiwan."

The data exists but what doesn’t exist is, who’s going to teach them? Who’s going to teach people Excel? Who’s going to make the open data for people? Who’s going to help them understand what data is? They own information. We don’t have these sorts of schools.

We want to create...We have 75 people who are data scientists in Africa today, so when they come to Africa, they want to talk about data collection, but Africa has got a data, plenty of data. They have metadatas everywhere. Africa is data. Everywhere. I was data when I was ...

What is good about what you’re saying is important because the Europeans and Americans what they do, and this has been the big mistake they’ve made for the last, I will say 15 years, they haven’t educated data scientists. They haven’t created a pipeline for data scientists.

17th.

I think that’s a good idea.

The money is not yet into the African government bank account, but what they do, they will find a partnership with UN Women, or iamtheCODE, or things like that to help those people with specific projects. That’s how the Japanese, very serious people, that’s how they work.

Japan, they don’t like big publicity, but they are doing, for example, they invest into small organizations, and then they will let everything spread slowly, like TICAD, they have a big fund for Africa, but they don’t give the money.

They’re countries where you can really find a small partnership, and iamtheCODE could be the route for you, a small route. Usually, they don’t like doing...The way Japanese work in Africa, I think that’s how you guys should work.

We’re setting it now. We have really amazing people but I think you need to speak to Philip Thigo. I don’t know if he’s here. I’m going to see today. He’s from Kenya. The president of my country is great. The president of Ghana is also good. He’s here.

We’re not scared because we don’t get any funding from China. [laughs] It’s a bit political but people like Jeff Sachs, they don’t have a good brand in Africa. Their aid is very top-down, talking down to Africans, and so now you have Africans, people like us who are coming ...

Taiwan is a country that Africa likes, but the Chinese government have scared them a lot about Taiwan, and so many African governments are scared in taking Taiwanese money because they’re scared of Chinese withdrawal.

I think they will be interesting in your program, but for Swaziland, I know people in Swaziland, but Swaziland, Lesotho, all those small countries are very interesting in partnering.

They give them superpower. They don’t call it disability. They call them superpower, and so they are smart, and so right now, they want us to do a hackathon with the smartest people in the room.

This is the foundation. It’s called the ADHD Foundation, and so they help children with ADHD, and they’re based in the UK. They’re super amazing. They just won an award, and so they help children with ADHD.

Why did you choose Swaziland? You can choose my country, Senegal.

From Swaziland?

Really?

I know the minister of ICT in Swaziland.

I know Swaziland.

In Tanzania?

In where?

We have key Africans in Kenya who are really amazing, super amazing. From the data collection to the visualization of it. You absolutely need to speak to them, and if you do any funding or anything, you can see the impact because they are there for them.

Their organization is built around the data. It’s the data...how do you measure all the impact of SDGs or how do you create your national roadmap. I know at Taiwan you guys are being advancing in doing that.

They are the data people. I don’t know if you know, but what iamtheCODE does on the data side is tracking the data for some of the part of the data.

Addis Ababa. There are key organizations right now who are working on SDGs. I was going to show you this. There are key organizations, hundred percent you should speak to, and then I’m happy to make the connections for you.

Which country?