Company supporting women and girls within information and communication technology wins Grace Hopper Award

One of the most important ways to support the involvement of women and girls in information and communication technologies (ICT) is to set positive examples, including those for business organizations that strive to encourage girls in a stereotypically male-dominated field. At the Grace Hopper Award Ceremony on 10 June, UN Women focused on this private sector contribution and presented Sweeft a special award in support of diversity.

Sweeft’s business model combines application development, digital marketing and web development. The company is already a signatory to the UN’s Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs): Equality Means Business, and more than 80% of its management are women. Backing women and girls in ICT, Sweeft is also involved in “Georgia’s 500 Women in Tech” project from UN Women, which promotes the employment of its participants. Co-sponsored by USAID, it additionally runs an Acceleration Payroll Programme, helping women deepen their knowledge of software and digital marketing, promoting women’s involvement in exchange programmes and sharing the international experience with them.

The award will help raise awareness of women’s empowerment initiatives and enable Sweeft to share their experiences with other business organizations. “Receiving the Grace Hopper Award is a great development incentive for Sweeft and the women who work for us. I think this is a good motivation for those start-ups who want to develop in the field of technology” – said Nini Mosiashvili, Head of Marketing and Communications at Sweeft.

The Grace Hopper Award was established last year at the initiative of UN Women, the USAID Economic Security Program and TBC Bank, another signatory of the WEPs. The initiative was created to support organizations and projects that are taking active steps to promote women, gender equality and diversity in technology. This year, the Grace Hopper Award was supported by the Gender Equality Council under the Parliament of Georgia, Visa, UGT and Majorel Georgia.

The Award was presented with a total of six nominations, and it is noteworthy that it was awarded to Tamta Kapanadze under the category of “supporter of women’s empowerment in the information and communication sector.” Tamta herself has been able to pursue a career in technology thanks to another UN Women project, and she is now actively working to promote the involvement of other women and girls in the industry.

Increasing the involvement of women and girls in information and communication technologies, including supporting the Grace Hopper Award, is part of the UN Women “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia” project, funded by the Government of Norway.