Pakistan has become the first country in South Asia to launch the full national UN Women Gender-Responsive AI School. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), working with UN Women Pakistan and supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), launched a programme to promote ethical, inclusive, and gender-aware artificial intelligence.
The school trains policymakers, government staff, parliamentarians, academics, civil society groups, businesses and community leaders. Participants learn AI basics, ethics, governance, prompt engineering, privacy, bias and how to use AI for fair development.
Pakistan is also the first in the region to complete the full national Training of Trainers track. Since 2024, the wider UN Women AI School has already trained more than 5,000 people across Asia and the Pacific.
UN Women Pakistan Country Representative Jamshed M. Kazi said the country is setting a new regional standard by including the executive, legislative and judicial branches along with civil society and the private sector. Only about two dozen of nearly 140 national AI policies worldwide currently mention gender issues. This school aims to change that.
At the launch, MoITT and UN Women signed a Memorandum of Understanding to make the school a lasting national programme. Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja stressed that women and girls must participate in and lead Pakistan’s digital future. KOICA officials said the effort will build digital skills and create more chances for women.
The move supports Pakistan’s National AI Policy and helps ensure artificial intelligence benefits everyone fairly.