Strengthening higher education capacity to promote gender inclusive participation in Science, Technology and Innovation

Despite global Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) initiatives to ensure achievementof Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 5 on gender equality, and those gearedtowards supporting greater engagement of women especially in research for development,fewer women are still employed in the Science, Technology and Innovations (ST&I) sector.The Forum for African Women Vice Chancellors (FAWoVC) is exploring interventions topromote women in higher education, and ST&I. A baseline study of the ST&I ecosystem fromfour African countries, reveals that higher education is still skewed against ST&I. Femaleparticipation is still low and steeply declines at the graduate and academic leadership levels. Inpromoting female engagement, the policy framework at national and institutional level needsto target the overall education pipeline and create an environment that supports students inScience, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and females in the R&D employmentsector.