The Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) initiative of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) began collecting gender-disaggregated data on professional agricultural scientists by highest degree and institute type for about 60 countries in the early 1990s. In 2005, CGIAR Gender and Diversity Program (G&D) and ASTI partnered to conduct a major benchmarking survey involving 125 institutions in 15 key SSA countries. This was the first study to provide detailed data on African women agricultural scientists. (This study was used to benchmark the AWARD Fellowship)

The Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) initiative of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) began collecting gender-disaggregated data on professional agricultural scientists by highest degree and institute type for about 60 countries in the early 1990s. In 2005, CGIAR Gender and Diversity Program (G&D) and ASTI partnered to conduct a major benchmarking survey involving 125 institutions in 15 key SSA countries. This was the first study to provide detailed data on African women agricultural scientists? It found that women scientists in SSA are less represented in high-level research and management positions in research organizations compared to their male colleagues. As a result, women are not represented or involved in decisions to influence agricultural policy, research and innovation.

Total number of female researchers in the African countries covered by the AWARD Fellowship in full-time equivalents (FTEs)

The process identified a deeply felt need for soft skills and leadership training. Importantly, it also stressed the need to strengthen and support women’s scientific research skills so that they are better able to deliver gender-responsive, pro-poor research and development and occupy leadership positions as competent scientists and not as token appointees.

To plug the gaps identified, a two-year non-residential career-development fellowship program was created. From 2005 to 2007 G&D ran a pilot fellowship program for crop scientists from three East African countries, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

With impressive outcomes from the pilot, the AWARD Fellowship launched in 2007 with seed funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The cohort of fellows for the pilot was drawn from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Growing up and out

The AWARD Fellowship has evolved to be a prestigious and sought-after accolade among women scientists with a steady increase in global demand. As shown in Figure 1, AWARD has continued to receive an overwhelming number of applications for the 493 slots over the past decade. The outstanding gains made by AWARD Fellows, some of which are captured throughout this report, fuels interest in our work.

The Africa Agriculture Status Report 2017 highlights the need for a more holistic and multisectoral approach in tackling the challenges faced in agriculture, for inclusive agricultural transformation. In the report, Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, 2016 Africa Food Prize Laureate and former President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), noted that inclusiveness is a choice that countries need to make:

“Economic transformation may be inevitable as the world changes, but inclusiveness is a choice and countries need to take specific actions and make specific policy choices and investments—to enable rural people to seize the opportunities and deal with the threats.”

Appreciating the need for inclusive agricultural transformation, AWARD made that conscious choice and in its strategy 2017-2022, AWARD is extending its operations beyond the individuals to the institutions and to the agricultural research environment.

AWARD Fellowship Applications

Number of applications for the AWARD Fellowship over the years (Source: AWARD Data)

The strategy was developed to help AWARD better align itself with the current needs of the African agricultural research sector. In 10 years of implementing the fellowship, we have learned valuable lessons. AWARD data and ASTI studies indicate the need for continued development of leadership capacities of women scientists in agricultural research and development. Further, the imperative to address gender responsiveness in research institutions in which fellows work has been highlighted as a contributor to achieving self-driven, inclusive growth in support of gender-responsive agricultural research and development. This informed the development of additional programmatic initiatives to execute our mission. Four initiatives now form the core of AWARD’s programmatic activities:

• AWARD Fellowship is a career-development program investing in the continent’s leading women agricultural scientists to ensure a growing cohort of capable, confident and influential African women scientists is available to lead critical advances and innovations for the agricultural sector.
• Gender-Responsive Agricultural Research and Development (GRARD) supports African research institutions as they seek to produce research that responds to the needs and priorities of a diversity of men and women across the agricultural value chain. GRARD also supports African research institutions to build and effectively leverage the talents of more diverse and inclusive teams.
• Gender in Agribusiness Investments for Africa (GAIA) identifies, spotlights and supports the growth of agribusinesses with the potential and commitment to bridge the gender gap in African agriculture.
• AWARD Training designs customized learning experiences focused on building the leadership, mentoring, scientific research and technical gender skills of Africa’s agricultural research workforce and decision makers.