The African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) has opened applications for African women professionals who work at the nexus of gender, climate change, and agrifood systems.
The step is part of an initiative to support gender equality in climate change adaptation for African smallholder farmers.
A statement from AWARD to the Ghana News Agency, explained that the fellowship, dubbed: ‘Accelerating African Women’s Leadership in Climate Action’ was a career development fellowship that aimed to increase both the number of African women leading climate action and the development of climate solutions designed to address the needs of women and men smallholders.
Women, it said, remained a minority among those making high-level decisions in environmental policy fields, holding only 15 per cent of 712 environmental sector minister positions as of 2020.
At the same time, gender inequalities in access to resources, opportunities, and decision-making power at the farm level typically left women smal
lholders especially vulnerable to climate change with fewer tools at their disposal for adaptation.
The new fellowship is, therefore, open to women climate change professionals in Ghana, Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, and Senegal, as some of the countries most impacted by climate change yet most dependent on small-scale agriculture.
Dr Susan Kaaria, Director of AWARD, said: ‘Yawning gender gaps throughout African agrifood systems is compounded by climate change, and yet women are also powerful, under-utilised agents of change.
‘We’re excited about the potential for this fellowship to grow a pool of African women climate change professionals, who can become effective leaders and forces for change, developing innovations for women smallholders to better cope with climate change.’
The new Fellowship, according to the statement, is under the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) programme, a £110 million framework research programme aiming to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resi
lience to climate change and natural hazards.
CLARE is primarily funded by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of International Climate Finance.
Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) contributes 15 per cent of funding to the research pillar and serves as the main delivery partner, supporting projects and collaboration across the programme, it noted.
The fellowship is targeting 300 participants in total, including100 women climate change professionals who will be supported through immersive training and mentoring to advance their technical capacity, leadership, networking, and outreach skills.
Each Fellow would be paired with a mentor with extensive experience in climate action, and they will further nominate a junior scientist, a mentee to maximise the reach of the initiative.
The fellowship, the statement said, would leverage AWARD’s long experience in designing and delivering successful career development and leadership programs.
A recent external eval
uation showed more than 95 per cent of beneficiaries found AWARD’s programmes and support met their needs in terms of advancing their career progression goals.
Source: Ghana News Agency
