China’s Alibaba Cloud has launched a new Tech for Change initiative that aims to help tackle global social and humanitarian challenges.

Announced during Mobile World Congress, Alibaba's cloud computing division is calling for joint efforts by other businesses and entrepreneurs to take on issues in education, economic development and the environment through technology.

For its part, Alibaba Cloud will provide partners with access to its tech expertise, global computing resources and talent development programs.

Educational support

One of the first initiatives under the scheme is a collaboration with iamtheCODE to support young women coders in marginalised communities get the education they need to forge careers in tech. Support will include access to free online training and cloud computing resources.

It’s hoped the partnership will help get more than one million women into coding by the year 2030.

“Through the Tech for Change initiative, we want to bring together creativity and innovation to tackle critical problems and challenges faced by humanity such as equality in education, healthcare for the underprivileged, sustainable agriculture and wildlife protection,” said Alibaba Cloud chief machine intelligence scientist Dr Wanli Min.

“By making technology more accessible and affordable, we can inspire creativity and nurture the next generation of game-changers who will make our world a better place.

“As an advocate for applying technologies for the social good, we believe that affordable cloud infrastructure and accessible intelligent technologies have the potential to enable smaller organisations to make huge differences in creating a better world for all humankind.

“We are calling for everyone to join forces and be part of the Tech for Change global community.”

You can find more details about the scheme here.