After more than a decade of deliberate efforts to narrow the gender gap and promote gender equality in science, technology and innovation, reports indicate that there are still significantly fewer women than men in scientific fields in Africa, especially in leadership roles. Addressing gender equality and inclusion in research remains an issue of social justice and socioeconomic progress in Africa, write Lorenza Fluks, Roshin Essop, Nazeema Isaacs, Pilela Majokweni and Lyn Middleton.
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Gender equality in science is essential for women, sustainable development and research excellence. However, women are vastly underrepresented in scientific fields. As they advance to higher levels in their careers, their representation in science, technology and innovation decreases at a greater rate than that of men, and is frequently described as a “leaky pipeline”. Further, gender integration in research content is also still lacking. Science granting councils can play an essential role in bringing about gender transformation by guiding knowledge production and building research infrastructure through intentionally integrating gender equality, inclusivity and intersectionality considerations in their operations and grant-making practices.
The HSRC-led Gender Equality and Inclusivity (GEI) project within the Science Granting Councils Initiative aims to strengthen the capacities of science granting councils in advancing gender equality and inclusivity across various council functions. Through a participatory action learning and reflection process, we implement several parallel activities to support council representatives in 13 public funding organisations across Southern, Eastern and West Africa. Project activities, foregrounding participation and peer learning, include workshops, online accompaniment and technical support for council-led change experiments, science communication of project activities, and an online webinar series. The first phase of the project (2020–2023) followed a gender action learning process and targeted support for councils to develop GEI action plans. The second phase (2023–2025) hones in on the grant-making cycle as a critical tool offering several entry points for advancing GEI concepts, while closely aligning with councils’ core mandates of shaping their countries’ science landscape.
The GEI actions carried out by participating councils cover a range of areas, as outlined in a recent article by Ingrid Lynch and the project team, “Catalysing gender transformation in research through engaging African science granting councils” in the South African Journal of Science. These include, firstly, establishing organisational structures for gender equality and inclusion, for example, developing gender policies. Secondly, councils initiated activities to shift informal organisational norms, practices and power dynamics that maintain gender inequality. These activities included introducing gender champions to the council and offering GEI training for staff. Thirdly, councils undertook specific actions to address unequal access to resources and research opportunities, such as targeted funding calls, which prioritise female principal investigators. Lastly, councils implemented activities that encourage collective responsibility for, and active involvement in, addressing gender equality and inclusion in the broader science, technology and innovation community to change the systems and practices that marginalise women. Activities relating to the latter involve engagement and forging partnerships across various stakeholders, such as government ministries, science academies and higher education institutions, to generate support for GEI activities.
Currently, councils are undertaking multiple activities funded by the National Research Foundation in South Africa and the German Research Foundation to integrate GEI in grant-making. These include capacity-strengthening initiatives across various actors involved in the grant-making process, crafting monitoring and evaluation plans, policy development and integration, and data collection and analysis.
What have we learned so far?
Context is important: The GEI project underscored that GEI initiatives must be rooted in local cultural, socioeconomic and political contexts. Each council faces unique challenges that shape how their national science, technology and innovation systems develop, and how their organisations interact with these systems. Simply adopting GEI policies and strategies from other countries may not be effective. The project illustrated how councils can be engaged in tailored processes to co-create GEI actions that fit their specific environments.
We need to create spaces for joint reflection and peer learning: The implementation team recognises that the expertise and insights of members of science granting councils regarding GEI are invaluable. When these perspectives are shared through collaboration and peer learning, they enhance regional GEI knowledge and visibility on a global scale. Since the project’s inception, we have prioritised opportunities for members to share experiences and collaboratively solve problems. By doing so, councils maintain the power to drive the initiatives they prioritise for their councils, and countries, rather than follow an implementer-driven approach. This approach has been well-received, with many participants noting that peer learning helps them teach and learn from one another. Maintaining reflective spaces allows councils to pause, assess their progress and determine their next steps.
Resources are needed: While councils have tapped into the importance and value of building strategic partnerships to bridge capacity gaps and collectively address GEI, sustainable, successful GEI initiatives require dedicated funding and ongoing support from leadership. Many councils are small, and members often juggle GEI activities and other council tasks. Some councils identified valuable GEI initiatives they could not pursue due to funding shortages in the first phase of this project. Therefore, during the second phase, funding from the National Research Foundation and the German Research Foundation for actioning GEI initiatives is invaluable. For lasting change, it is crucial to prioritise GEI and allocate sufficient human and financial resources across all leadership levels. While more significant investments are essential, even smaller, well-targeted actions can raise awareness and advance GEI issues within councils.
GEI should be integrated into research and capturing change: Applying a GEI perspective in research enhances quality, relevance and the impact of scientific investments. However, this is still a developing area in the project. Further, the project has highlighted a need to develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks suitable for capturing the complexity of gender transformation. Both of these aspects related to gender transformation are receiving more focused attention during the project’s second phase. In this regard, some councils are exploring how to better integrate GEI into research design and methods, and some are developing monitoring, evaluation and learning plans.
So far, the GEI project has made strides in advancing GEI with science granting councils in Africa through various project activities, collaborative learning and strategic partnerships. By fostering spaces for peer reflection and experience sharing, science granting council members have enhanced regional knowledge and global visibility of GEI issues. This collaborative approach has empowered councils to learn from one another, leading to more informed and contextually relevant GEI actions.
Furthermore, establishing strategic partnerships has strengthened organisational capacity, allowing councils to overcome resource limitations and amplify the impact of their initiatives. Collaborations with national academies, university gender departments and gender ministries have proven essential in building a robust gender infrastructure.
Finally, the GEI project underscores the importance of integrating GEI into research content and assessing the effectiveness of GEI actions, ensuring that future initiatives are evidence-based and responsive to the unique challenges faced by different communities. Together, these efforts contribute to a more equitable and inclusive environment within the science, technology and innovation sector.
Authors:
Dr Lorenza Fluks (senior research specialist) and Nazeema Isaacs (PhD trainee) from the HSRC’s Impact Centre, Roshin Essop (senior researcher) from the HSRC’s Public Health, Societies and Belonging division, Pilela Majokweni (chief researcher) from the HSRC’s Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators, and Prof. Lyn Middleton (associate professor) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
