Speaker Bio
Frederike Wagner works as senior policy officer and deputy head of the division ICT sector, creative industries, culture, and sports at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). She is furthermore responsible for the political initiative Make IT Alliance. This is the Ministry’s partner network of companies and institutions from the digital economy. The Make IT Alliance initiates and implements cooperation projects with the objective of promoting digital transformation in partner countries of German development cooperation, thus tackling local challenges with digital innovations.
German development cooperation aims at improving women's economic participation through digitalization, thus also minimizing the gender digital divide: for instance, through digital skills development for the advancement of innovative business models, as well as through connecting women to the digital ecosystems. In this context, BMZ especially promotes the improvement of access to digital technologies.