Celebrating Women in Tech: Kristin Chloe Pascual

This series of portraits celebrates young women working with the openIMIS Initiative from across the world in diverse technical roles. Women make up less than a third of the global tech workforce, with even fewer women at senior levels. In line with BMZ’s Feminist Development Policy, openIMIS actively seeks to address this gender gap.

Country: The Philippines
Title & Organisation: Project Manager and openIMIS Regional (Asia) Hub Coordinator, AeHIN
Education: BSc Development Communication (Major in Science Communication) and master's in Community

About AeHIN: AeHIN is a network of digital health advocates in South and Southeast Asia that was established in 2011 to support digital health development in the region. AeHIN helps to build digital capacities by strengthening the foundations of national health information systems, including governance, management, architecture, and standards and interoperability.
AeHIN and openIMIS: AeHIN manages the regional Knowledge Hub for openIMIS in Asia. Activities include the hosting of webinars, conferences, and workshops on digital health to promote the use of openIMIS as a digital solution for improving the management of health insurance and health financing schemes. AeHIN also actively collaborates with universities to embed openIMIS as a learning tool for health informatics projects and courses.

How did you become interested in working in IT?
“To be perfectly honest, I did not plan to have a career in IT. Having studied for a degree in development communication, I worked at a private IT company in a communications role, and this really ignited my interest in IT. My role at AeHIN focuses on partner engagement, so this suits my skills well. I have now been working in digital health for nearly ten years, and at AeHIN I manage the openIMIS Regional Knowledge Hub and am also on the openIMIS Implementers Committee, which I really enjoy.”

Are there areas where women are underrepresented in Tech? 
“Women are better represented in the tech space nowadays, but my personal observation is that women are really underrepresented in senior leadership roles. More can be done to ensure women’s equitable participation in digital tech, such as ensuring applications from women are prioritised when advertising new roles. At AeHIN, most Secretariat members are women. To increase women’s participation, including in advisory roles, the network is consciously trying to recruit more female Council members.”

What are the challenges and advantages of being a woman working in digital tech? 
“I think, in the Philippines, women studying and working in science and technology (STEM) is seen as a good thing. But cultural influences – particularly patriarchal attitudes – also play a role. When men are recruiting, do they favour applications from men? I wonder too whether women are promoted at the same rate as men within organisations in the digital space. At AeHIN, I think we could organise more regional knowledge sharing on the topic of gender equality in the future.”

What are you most proud of in your work?
“I am most proud of the digital health communities of practice, including the Asia Regional Knowledge Hub which AeHIN has helped to build and strengthen. This network has grown from less than 1,000 members ten years ago, to more than 2,400 members today. We facilitate cross-country knowledge sharing and this has created a domino effect whereby countries are inspired by the digital health transformation of their neighbours. Many countries in the region are now progressing from drafting their national digital health strategies to establishing digital health programme management units with dedicated staff and budgets.”

What could openIMIS do to promote more women working in tech?
“Every time there is an openIMIS meeting, it is important to ensure a gender balance, inviting women to share their insights and lived experiences. Another idea I had was to pair more senior women with junior women working in the tech space. It would be good to have a more structured approach to mentoring younger generations in general. At AeHIN, we have a female board member, and she has been sharing her extensive digital health experience with younger women – women helping women.”