Experts discuss challenges to gender mainstreaming in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in the East African Community

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Experts discuss challenges to Gender Mainstreaming in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in the East African Community

25 February 2010, Addis Ababa - The under-representation of women in STI sector has not been well documented and the underlying causes of this problem well-studied. In an effort to address these barriers and issues, some African countries have developed and implemented programs, structures and policies on gender mainstreaming, and equity in Science and Technology. However the level of implementation is still low.

Addressing in Africa barriers to the education, training, recruitment, progression and retention of women in the STI sector, from secondary school age-level, to university, to late career, is a key strategy for meeting the increasing demand for a skilled workforce and for achieving gender equality in all fields of STI towards accelerating economic growth and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

It was in this context that the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MoHEST) in collaboration with the Information Communication Technologies (ICT), Science and Technology Division (ISTD) of ECA, facilitated 2-day workshop on “Gender mainstreaming in Science, Technology and Innovation” from 25-26 February, in Mombasa, Kenya.

The main objective of the workshop was to provide an overview of the status of effective gender mainstreaming strategies and measures in STI policies, programmes, projects and structure in the East African Community, and to develop effective Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan (GMAP) for Eastern Africa. The focus was also aimed at developing an African convention on gender mainstreaming in STI that would solve the unique problems embedded in the African continent.

In his opening remarks, Hon Asman Kamana, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of Kenya (MoHEST), noted that it is increasingly important that Government policies support STI to integrate Gender perspectives in decision making processes in such a way that both women and men share the STI benefits and opportunities unfettered by the chain of historical inequalities and lack of access. He advised that “correct measures at policy development and implementation levels need to be taken to address gaps and to achieve gender equity in STI promotion in Africa”.

Ms Aida Opoku-Mensah, Director, ICT, Science and Technology Division of ECA, in her welcoming address remarked: “ although a small proportion of African women enjoy fairly high levels of income and have access to education, training, and other societal resources, the desired positive impact of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) will not be realized for African women if access to the transformative role of these technologies is restricted to this small, privileged group”. She also highlighted that “ in term of science education, the number of students in S&T fields, at both secondary and tertiary levels, in Africa is woefully inadequate. This overall skills shortage is much greater in the case of female technologists and scientists”.

She concluded that there is an urgent need to reveal the situation through a systematic collection of gender-disaggregated data as an essential first step in identifying the gaps in the pipeline and informing decision-makers towards effective gender mainstreaming in STI policy formulation and implementation at national and sub-regional levels.

The keynote Speaker, Prof Shaukat Abdoulrazak, Secretary of the National Council for Science and Technology of Kenya, emphasized that there is a need to develop and implement gender sensitive strategies to attract and retain girls and women by demystifying science. After illustrating his speech with the situation in Kenya, he concluded that “if women are not given an equal opportunity to become scientists and engineers then a country denies itself its full complement of scientifically creative minds”.

More than thirty Directors of research institutes, scientists from Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda participated in the event.

The workshop was a follow-up to the recommendations of the first Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology (CODIST).