Background

In the last 30 years UNESCO through its ANSTI Project has promoted the training of women in science and engineering in Africa through capacity building, mentoring and development of gender disaggregated data to inform policy. This is in recognition that many African countries still lag behind in capacity-building initiatives, gender equality and equity and systematic operational frameworks to advance and sustain change. The continued partnership of ANSTI and UNESCO led to the formation of the Gender in Science, Innovation, Technology and Engineering (GenderInSITE) campaign funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).

The GenderInSITE initiative aims at addressing the under-representation of women in SITE education and training, research, skills and professional development and creating the awareness of stakeholders and decision makers in using the gender lens to enhance gender mainstreaming at all levels. The joint UNESCO ANSTI-GenderInSITE project’s strategic goals are to enhance capacity in self-driven national STI policy reform and evaluation in line with AU-STISA and the SDGs; strengthen gender equality perspectives in science, policy design and; promote women in science and; enhance opportunities in gender mainstreaming and gender responsiveness of STI in Africa.

Building gender responsive SITE policy systems and governance strategy in Africa

Building the capacity of women and mainstreaming gender in policy formulation and implementation is vital to achieving universal sustainable development goals post 2015 and national visions of many African countries. There is need to invest in the development of strategies for design and implementation of policies geared towards elevating women’s status in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and research. This aforementioned argument gives impetus for undertaking this project.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• Assess (map) the policy environment for development and application of strategies in the integration of gender in SITE at institutional and regional levels to inform evidence-based gender responsive SITE policies;

• Facilitate the training for TOT on gender responsiveness in SITE policy formulation/review, implementation, monitoring and evaluation;

• Strengthen capacity of mid-career women in gender analysis of national STI systems and governance strategies; to enhance STI policy design and implementation; and development of gender SMART indicators for monitoring and evaluation;

• Develop communication strategies to address and rectify unequal gender impacts of SITE and develop guidelines for gender integration in STI and advocacy..

Time frame

This project was launched in May 2015 and has two phases;

Phase 1 is expected to be completed by the end of December, 2015.

Phase 2 to be completed in June, 2016

Partners

Stakeholders comprising academics, policy makers, private sector, development partners and young (social and natural) scientists are providing technical advice and support to the project. These institutional and individual partners represent the four regional economic communities (ECOWAS, SADC, EAC and CAEC) from Botswana, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Other key collaborators include: Third World Academy of Science (TWAS), Academy of Science South Africa (ASSAf), UNESCO Regional Chair on Women, Science and Technology in Latin America, Regional Program on Gender and Public Policies – PRIGEPP in Argentina and Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD).

The expected results/outcomes of the project are:

• Capacity enhanced in review, implementation and M&E in robust policy systems and governance strategies for enhanced SDGs by mobilising sustainability science based on evidence;

• Set of indicators developed for progress monitoring and evaluation of gender responsiveness of national STI policies and governance;

• A critical mass of African advocates created to provide leadership on gender responsive STI policy and governance for sustainable development in Africa;

• Synergy developed among Africa Experts to undertake joint national and regional actions in knowledge gender for enhanced South –South collaboration;

• Online tool for gender in SITE assessment to inform policy developed.

Contact

Peggy Oti-Boateng (PhD)

Senior Programme Specialist for S&T in Africa

UNESCO, ROSA, Harare, Zimbabwe

p.oti-boateng@unesco.org

Prof Hubert Gijzen (Phd)

Regional Director,

UNESCO, ROSA, Harare, Zimbabwe

h.gijzen@unesco.org

Tonya Blowers

OWSD Coordinator

ICTP Adriatico Guesthouse, 7th floor

tblowers@owsd.net