70 African women scientists awarded

From Africa News: 70 African women scientists awarded
As discussions of drought and famine in the Horn of Africa continue to dominate global headlines, it is clear that ensuring the continent's food security will require mobilizing the best minds from every discipline, including women agricultural researchers.

African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) is committed to building the capacity of African women scientists who are conducting pro-poor agricultural research. AWARD has announced the 70 winners of its 2011 AWARD Fellowships. These outstanding researchers were selected from among an impressive cadre of 785 applicants from 11 African countries, bringing the total number of women in the program to 250.

“These talented women are conducting critical agricultural research that is desperately needed to feed Africa’s people and help mitigate crises like we are seeing in East Africa right now,” said Vicki Wilde, AWARD Director. “We are recognizing and supporting these women today with an AWARD Fellowship.”

The fellowship will help these top scientists strengthen their research and leadership skills, and enhance their contributions to poverty alleviation and food security across the continent. While the women come from diverse agricultural disciplines, they share a common passion to help smallholder farmers.

“My parents paid for my primary education by selling a cow or a goat, so I know from experience that livestock is the cornerstone of people’s livelihoods in rural Africa,” said Dr. Lillian Wambua, a molecular geneticist at the University of Nairobi’s School of Biological Sciences and one of this year’s AWARD winners. “Diseases are the greatest challenges to livestock farmers. As an AWARD Fellow and upcoming researcher, my goal is to use my scientific skills to engage with like-minded researchers in finding lasting solutions to secure healthy herds.”

Wambua is one of 2,200 female scientists from 450 institutions to have applied for one of the 250 available fellowships since AWARD began in 2008. AWARD Fellows benefit from a two-year career-development program focused on mentoring partnerships, science skills, and leadership development. The fellowships are awarded on the basis of intellectual merit, leadership capacity, and the potential of the scientist’s research to improve the daily lives of smallholder farmers, especially women.

“USAID is pleased to support African women scientists via AWARD, as an integral component of the U.S. government’s commitment to reducing gender inequality and recognizing the contribution of women to achieving food security,” said Kurt Low, Office Director for the Regional Economic Growth and Integration Program at USAID/East Africa. “By drawing on some of the best minds in agricultural research, AWARD provides a shining example of the contributions that women can make to poverty alleviation and food security in sub-Saharan Africa.”

AWARD addresses many of the barriers, including a lack of role models and mentors, which prevent African women from playing a more active role in agricultural research and from considering a career in agricultural science.

Recent research conducted in 15 African countries by AWARD and Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) shows that between 2000 and 2008, the number of African women professionals employed in the agricultural sciences grew by 8 percent per year, while the number of African male professionals grew by 2 percent per year. However, women still represent less than one quarter of Africa’s scientists holding positions in institutions of agricultural research, and less than one in seven (14 percent) leadership positions is held by a woman.

Evelyn Asante-Yeboah is one of seven Ghanaians to win the prestigious fellowship. Asante-Yeboah, an assistant manager at the Ghana Forestry Commission’s Resource Management Support Centre, expects that the skills she gains through AWARD will help advance her research into climate change. “Agriculture accounts for almost half of Ghana’s GDP and export earnings, but we don’t always see trees as being valuable agricultural products that need protection,” said Asante-Yeboah. “I’m researching on-farm tree management and its contribution to climate change. Being an AWARD Fellow will help me increase my contribution to fighting hunger and poverty in Africa.”