As the Obamas get ready to leave the White House on January 20th, their legacy has become a topic of interest nationally and internationally. Michelle Obama, the United States’ first black First Lady, has spearheaded and organized numerous successful initiatives in the past eight years [...] While the First Lady’s initiatives domestically should not be understated, it is her most recent program that has, and will continue to have, the largest global impact.

Globally, boys tend to be favored over girls. This is particularly true in the developing world, where data show discrimination against girls deprives them of an education and makes them vulnerable to harmful practices. [...] Developing countries that allow girls to complete their secondary education will earn an economic dividend of $21 billion every year, the UN report says.

In what became one of this year’s most crucial announcements for global women’s economical empowerment, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, Chairperson of the NAMA, declared that NAMA will be organizing the first edition of Women Economic Empowerment Global Summit in Fall 2017, during a NAMA–UN Women roundtable held on the sidelines of the second day of ‘Investing in Future’ (IIFMENA) conference in Sharjah. 

Some 6,000 Nigerian girls will receive training in digital skills in early 2017 from an international foundation that uses technology to empower underprivileged youth and women in the developing world. “Our mission is really to create a rich learning community where the appropriate use of technology affords opportunities for youth and women living in developing economies,” said Youth for Technology Foundation President and CEO Njideka Harry in an interview.

The United Nations is due to welcome a new honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls: Wonder Woman. [...] The announcement is due to be attended by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson and, said Comic Book Resources, some “surprise guests”, who the comics site speculated would include the actors who have appeared as Wonder Woman over the years...

Exposure to technology itself allows young women a chance to develop technical skills, and open new career horizons. Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA), a randomised control trial, spearheaded by the Population Council throughout Bangladesh over the last three years, has proven that such models can work in delaying child marriage.

A filmmaker has teamed up with a friend she met in high school in Brooklyn Heights to produce a portrait of a girls’ school in Anupshahr, India, a community that doesn’t believe in educating women. “Break the Branch,” by director Samantha Cornwell, filmed in conjunction with music and theatre teacher Melanie Closs, is described as a “lyrical, ethereal portrait of a rural Indian girls’ school in lush, sensuous color.”

Maylis and her three friends are ambitious young computer programmers who study together in the northern city of Saint-Louis, and are part of a growing push to get girls coding in Senegal and several other African countries. Coding clubs have been set up for girls between the age of five and 24 as part of a #RewritingTheCode campaign started by the charity Theirworld.