Increase the scientific and technological capacities of African women

The scarcity of women in the field of science and technology is a situation that is found all over the world in both developed and developing countries. Women scientists’ networks are aware that this lack of representation has serious consequences on the global development.

It is in Africa where the scientific and technological gender gap is the widest. Furthermore, the continent is losing its best female scientists, who are emigrating to other regions. This is why the Women for Africa Foundation is a specific program to support and increase the scientific and technological capacities of African women so that they can acquire the necessary training and innovative spirit with which they will cope with the major challenges of the 21st century.

The Women for Africa Foundation is a Spanish private, non-profit entity created in February 2012 by María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the former Vice President of the Government of Spain with the aim of promoting equal rights and opportunities for women, contributing to the progress of the continent.

The priority areas are : Health, Energy, Water and Climate change and Food Security.

The selected candidates are enrolled in a 6 months scholarship program of internship in following ‘Severo Ochoa’ Centres of Excellence, whose prestige is unanimously recognized throughout Spain and internationally, thereby ensuring excellence in scientific research in various fields. the associated research centres are:

1. the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO, www.cnio.es), 
2. the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, www.icfo.eu), 
3. the Spanish National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB, www.cnb.csic.es) and the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII, www.isciii.es), 
4. the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT, www.icmat.es ), 
5. the Centre for Genomic Regulation (www.crg.es), 
6. the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (www.barcelonagse.eu).

Each of the seven centres will host 1 senior women researcher for a six-month fellowship. Applications will be subjected to a rigorous selection process, evaluating the academic merits and leadership of the applicants as well as the scientific quality and expected impact of their research projects. Selected candidates will receive training and integration in a dynamic, multidisciplinary and highly competitive working team, where they will be able to develop their research projects and acquire complementary skills, empowering them to transfer their research results into tangible economic and social benefits.

Dr. Liz Kizito, Senior Lecturer/ Head of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Uganda Christian University, is one of the selected candidates.

• She will be hosted in Spain at the Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona. 
• She coordinates the PAEPARD supported consortium: Improving productivity and market of indigenous vegetables 
• and she collaborates with the Dutch funded project Indigenous African vegetable systems for better livelihoods in Kenya.

Selected candidates:

Here is the overview of the Final Beneficiaries of Visiting Senior Research Fellowships of the 2ND EDITION OF SCIENCE BY WOMEN PROGRAM

• Dr. IFEOMA ENWEANI, . She is presently attached to the Department of Medical Laboratory Science of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria
• Dr. Yemisi Adesiji is a Nigerian senior lecturer in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Osogbo and acting as the head of department of Veterinary Microbiology at the University of Ilorin
• Dr. Chiaka Anumudi is a Nigerian senior lecturer, who obtained her Ph D in Zoology (Cellular Parasitology) at the University of Ibadan
• Dr. Sarra Arbaoui is a Tunisian reasearch assistant within the High Agronomic Institute of Chott Mariem, Tunisia
• Dr. Elizabeth Kizito has a doctorate degree in Plant breeding obtained from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala and she is currently a senior lecturer and head of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Sciences at the Uganda Christian University, Mukono.
• Dr. Nobanathi Maxacato, a young South African doctor, obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Pretoria in 2012. She is currently a lecturer and research fellow in the University of Johannesburg where she teaches Chemistry for Somatology, for chemical engineering, for food and biotechnology and for environmental health
• Dr. Atnuke Adebanji is a Nigerian senior lecturer who works at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Kumasi, Ghana. Since 2012 she is a member of the West Africa Climate Change and Land Use (WASCAL) programme.
• Dr Elizabeth Kaase-Bwanga holds a PhD in Economics - Rural Economy and Policy analysis, from the Makerere University of Kampala, Uganda where she is a senior lecturer specializing in Gender and Development Strategies, Feminist Economics and Gender Planning and Monitoring & Evaluaton in Local Development