With plans to eventually set up a center to teach children to code, she said many of her female friends shied away from IT development because it was male-dominated. Only four out of 40 students on her degree course are women, she pointed out. Across Latin America, the participation of girls and women in technology and science has lagged far behind men, experts say.

Participants build an electrical circuit based on a button battery during the recent WiSci camp in Peru [...] The camp is designed to expose the girls to a range of careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) fields, while the simulation exposed them to another very important option that could use more women with science and technical backgrounds: public service and diplomacy.

In the Middle East, governments and non-state actors alike have tried all forms of diplomacy to solve the challenges they face, with mixed results: shuttle diplomacy by the United States between the Israelis and Palestinians worked for a time, great-power diplomacy over the Syrian civil war largely hasn’t, and direct negotiations with unsavory groups like the Taliban have moved in fits and starts.