A program to honor women in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector and offer free ICT courses to women has been launched by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) and the National Council of Women of the Philippines (NCWP).

The “Gawad Hiraya,” the will honor exemplary women in the field of ICT and  provide training opportunities to women in the Philippines through the help of the NCWP.

Nominations for the awards are now open, with the deadline set on March 19, 2024. The selection committee for Gawad Hiraya is led by retired justice Andres Reyes.

“Today, with this memorandum of agreement, we'll seal that effort that we have planned for so long. Among the courses, which are the first --not only in the country, in the region, but the world– is that we are offering signature courses for women,” CICC Executive Director, Undersecretary Alexander Ramos.

Under the partnership, the CICC is tasked with creating cyber analyst courses under a learning management system, curating these courses specifically for NCWP members and women in the Philippines, developing a credible certification system, and building a website to validate their certification.

On the other hand, the NCWP is tasked with promoting secure digitalization in its relevant sectors, onboarding its members to participate in the cyber analyst certification courses, monitoring and promoting learners under the cyber analyst program, and recommending to the CICC commendable women in the field of ICT for Gawad Hiraya.

The United Nations’ (UN) theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress” which called for the achievement of the UN’s sustainable development goal 5 on achieving gender equality and women empowerment by 2030.

According to the "Women in Cybersecurity" 2022 report released last year, women held 25 percent of cybersecurity jobs globally in 2022, an increase from 20 percent in 2019 and 10 percent back in 2013.