Actions for gender mainstreaming aimed at SDG 5 needed

Grant-making data from the 15 Sub-Saharan African countries that are members of the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI), showed that only about one-third of research awards went to women, and that men often received larger grants than women.

This is resulting in “persistent inequalities” in who receives funding, the size of grants they receive and the impact on knowledge production stated in a study titled ‘Perspectives on Gender in Science, Technology, and Innovation: A review of Sub-Saharan Africa’s science granting councils and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals’ published in the journal Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics on 11 April 2022.

The study assessed gender policies and practices across the Science Granting Councils (SGC) as potential change agents or catalysts in supporting gender and science, technology and innovation (STI) as well as achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender equality (SDG 5).

The authors are Jose Jackson, Amy Jamison, and Michael Conteh of the Alliance for African Partnership at Michigan State University (MSU) in the United States; Petronella Chirawu from the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association, or SARIMA, in Pretoria, South Africa, and Jane Payumo at MSU’s AgBioResearch.

The study used desktop research, focus group discussions and bibliometric analysis to investigate publication data from 2008-17 from the 15 African members of the SGCI. The five-year initiative, funded by the governments of the UK, Canada and South Africa, aims to strengthen the capacities of the science-funding bodies on the African continent to support research and evidence-based policies that will contribute to economic and social development in the region.

The 15 Sub-Saharan countries are Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe in Southern Africa; Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda in East Africa; and Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal in West Africa.

Gender-related funding programmes limited

The study provides evidence of uneven progress in promoting gender equality in the operations of the Science Granting Councils (SGC). This includes funding research and promoting the integration of gender dimensions in research content and curricula.

The researchers found that more men than women were employed across most levels of the SGC. More men also held senior and decision-making positions, and most of the SGC had limited or no gender-related funding programmes to promote gender and STI or to eliminate the barriers that women scholars face.

A few of the SGC were designing and implementing gender-specific funding instruments targeted at supporting women researchers at masters and doctoral levels, the study pointed out.

The needs assessment and benchmarking analysis showed that SGC employed more men (64%) than women (36%). Those in Southern Africa had more women overall (42% women) compared to the SGC in East and West Africa (32% women).

Almost two-thirds of research awards (62.8%) went to men, and men often received larger grants than women.

“This resulted in persistent inequalities in who received funding, the size of the grants they received, and in the knowledge production, collaboration and the impact on their country’s gender-related research,” the researchers say.

Gender and diversity take a back seat

Compared to other goals, the SGC placed slightly less emphasis on SDG 5. Most SGC required applicants to consider the relevance of their work to national imperatives, the sustainability of the project after an award as well as the impact on the environment, but the role of gender and diversity appeared to be less of a priority, according to the study.

“While policymakers and organisations have put increasing emphasis on integrating gender into STI policies and initiatives as a means to achieve gender equality for all women and girls, inequality remains a key challenge to continental sustainable development.”

The study also shows that all SGC emphasised national commitment to gender, and the importance of gender in STI, but acknowledges a misalignment between policy and practice at the structural and institutional levels.

More international research collaboration observed

A steady upward trend on gender-related research outputs was observed for the 15 SGCI countries. Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania were the top five contributors of gender-related papers published from 2008-17, while Namibia contributed the fewest.

The study indicates that more than 95% of all gender-related publications for SGCI participating countries involved multiple authors and institutions. The majority (65%) was due to international collaboration, followed by domestic collaboration (22%), and regional collaboration (8%).

This data shows that internationalisation of research is growing, which, in turn, “suggests an increase in the pool of researchers and a change in the balance of research focused more on collaborative teams among African researchers and their partners and not on lone scientists”.

Information about patterns of collaboration in the SGC participating countries indicates that scientists within Africa rarely collaborate with each other but seek more international partnerships outside of Africa, according to the researchers.

Make STI attractive to both men and women

A comparison of the institutions indicated three common objectives for gender mainstreaming: increasing the number of women in STI and promoting full use of human capital to contribute to higher research performance, including authorship and collaboration along with appointing more women in leadership positions in STI research, policymaking, and policy implementation.

It also includes the integration of gender dimensions in research content and curricula, which implies considering the inclusive biological, social and cultural characteristics of sex and gender throughout the research, teaching and curriculum development process to address the needs of women and girls as well as boys and men, and to make STI attractive to both women and men.

The study findings suggest that SGC need to strengthen actions toward mainstreaming gender if they are to achieve success with SDG 5.

According to the findings, gender-related initiatives in the SGC are still in their infancy but are gaining traction. “Although countries are showing some progress in their commitment to gender, there is still a lot of work to do at the national and institutional levels to effect change, especially within the STI space,” the researchers point out.

There is a need for an in-depth understanding of the barriers to women in STI in Africa and the role of confidence-building, mentoring, and role modelling as tools for advancing women in STI.

Bibliometrics provide a wealth of data

Besides indicating the need for a greater understanding of STI indicators as they relate to gender and the relevance of gender data for insights and decision-making, the researchers call for regular monitoring and evaluation of regional collaboration on gender-related research to assess their impact on gender, STI and SDG 5.

Bibliometrics need to be used to map the state of publication gaps and identify potential gaps in gender-related research and encourage increased publication and citation behaviour among African scientists.

“Overall, despite some of its limitations, the bibliometric analysis provided a wealth of information that, when used with other STI indicators, can help reveal the trends and developments in STI research, such as gender-related research,” according to the study.

The researchers also point out that the “regular monitoring and evaluation of outputs and impact of gender-related research and-or gender disparity using bibliometrics guided with an expanded thesaurus of this evolving interdisciplinary field are encouraged to help shape policies for additional support and facilitate knowledge sharing and experiences in this area”.

Further research linking increased gender-related scholarly activity and its contribution to STI advancement and economic transformation is a “worthwhile activity”, the researchers concluded.