Jackson Jose C, Payumo Jane G, Jamison Amy J, Conteh Michael L, Chirawu Petronella
Alliance for African Partnership, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States.
Southern Africa Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA), Pretoria, South Africa.
Front Res Metr Anal. 2022 Apr 11;7:814600. doi: 10.3389/frma.2022.814600. eCollection 2022.
Africa's focus on science, technology, and innovation (STI) has grown over the last decade, with emerging examples of good practice. There are however numerous challenges to sustainable development in Africa; for example, inequalities within and among African countries are rising and enormous disparities of opportunity, wealth, and power persist. While policy makers and organizations 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. STI funders such as the Science Granting Councils (SGCs) in Africa are key players in national innovation systems. They advise and facilitate policy and program development, disburse funds, build research capacity, set and monitor research agendas, manage bilateral and multilateral STI agreements, and assess the communication, uptake, and impact of research. They, therefore, have a major role to play in enabling countries to achieve SDG5. This study assessed the current actions in gender mainstreaming across the SGCs and the status of gender research and collaboration in participating countries. Our findings provide evidence of uneven progress in promoting gender equality in the operations of the SGCs, including funding research and promoting the integration of gender dimensions in research content and curricula. All SGCs emphasized national commitments to gender, and the importance of gender in STI, but acknowledged that at the structural and institutional levels there was a misalignment between policy and practice. As expected, more men than women were employed across most levels at the SGCs and held positions of seniority and decision making. Most of the SGCs had very limited or no gender-related funding programs to promote gender and STI or to eliminate the barriers that women scholars face. 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. These findings suggest that SGCs need to strengthen their actions to mainstream gender if they are to achieve success with SDG5.
在过去十年中，非洲对科学、技术和创新（STI）的关注有所增加，并出现了一些良好实践的例子。然而，非洲的可持续发展面临众多挑战；例如，非洲国家内部和国家之间的不平等现象正在加剧，机会、财富和权力方面仍存在巨大差距。虽然政策制定者和组织越来越强调将性别平等纳入科学、技术和创新政策及举措，以此作为实现所有妇女和女童性别平等的一种手段，但不平等现象仍是非洲大陆可持续发展的一项关键挑战。非洲的科学资助委员会（SGCs）等科学、技术和创新资助者是国家创新体系中的关键角色。他们为政策和项目的制定提供建议并提供便利，发放资金，建设研究能力，设定并监督研究议程，管理双边和多边科学、技术和创新协议，以及评估研究的传播、应用和影响。因此，它们在使各国实现可持续发展目标5方面可发挥重要作用。本研究评估了各科学资助委员会在将性别平等纳入主流方面的当前行动，以及参与国性别研究与合作的现状。我们的研究结果表明，在科学资助委员会的运作中，包括在资助研究以及促进将性别层面纳入研究内容和课程方面，在促进性别平等方面取得的进展并不均衡。所有科学资助委员会都强调国家对性别平等的承诺以及性别平等在科学、技术和创新中的重要性，但也承认在结构和体制层面，政策与实践之间存在脱节。不出所料，在科学资助委员会的大多数层级中，受雇的男性多于女性，担任高级和决策职位的也是男性。大多数科学资助委员会用于促进性别平等与科学、技术和创新或消除女学者所面临障碍的与性别平等相关的资助项目非常有限或根本没有。这导致在获得资金的人员、所获赠款的规模以及知识生产、合作以及对本国性别相关研究的影响方面持续存在不平等现象。这些研究结果表明，科学资助委员会若要在实现可持续发展目标5方面取得成功，就需要加强其将性别平等纳入主流的行动。
