From Africa Recovery, Vol.12#4 (April 1999), page 31

Annan calls for more science education for more females

Noting that the brain drain of Africa's best and brightest to the industrialized world has increased, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that if Africa is to surmount its shortfall in human resources and scientific progress, it must begin by affording girls and women "complete and comprehensive equality" in education.

In the speech read by his Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Mr. Nitin Desai, to the UNESCO meeting on the development of science and technology (S&T) in Africa held in New York on 9 February, Mr. Annan said the promotion of S&T is "a cornerstone of the kind of economic progress that Africa needs if it is to compete in the 21st century." From communications to biotechnology, scientific innovation is the driving force of growth and development, he said. "And if Africa is to take part in this progress, nothing less than a transformation in priorities and policies is needed."

Mr. Annan's remarks come against a backdrop of disturbing statistics: only an estimated 67 per cent of girls of primary school age in sub-Saharan Africa are in school, only about 23 per cent enter secondary school and less than 3 per cent continue to tertiary levels of education.

The gender discrepancy is even greater in science and technical education, where textbooks do not relate to the daily life of girls and women, and socio-cultural biases discourage women from pursuing courses and careers in science and technology. Only a small percentage of girls enrolled in tertiary education pursue courses in S&T, ranging from as low as 3 per cent in Chad to 28 per cent in South Africa, which has a relatively better developed scientific and technological culture.

No African country can afford to leave women out of these areas of education if they are to achieve a critical mass of scientists and technicians. Women not only make up 50 per cent of the population, they also play the multiple and critical roles of mothers, producers (especially in agriculture) and custodians of family health, nutrition and general well-being, and are best placed to apply the benefits of S&T in everyday life.

Mr. Annan praised the significant contribution in promoting girls' education in S&T made by UNESCO, which has designated women as a priority target group. In order to promote women's education in S&T in Africa, UNESCO has provided $250,000 for a special six-year project which aims to increase girls' access to science and technical education and promote the adoption of appropriate policies. The project, started in 1996, is producing guidelines and materials for teacher training, booklets for children to demystify science, comic strips for adolescents, posters and videos, as well as setting up science camps for girls and designing hands-on science experiments for girls.

UNESCO is also funding two chairs on women in S&T, one at the University of Ghana and the other at the University of Swaziland. In addition, it supported the creation in 1997 of the Helena Rubinstein Awards for Women in Science. Four prizes, worth $20,000 each, are awarded every two years to women scientists who have made their mark in medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, botany, agro-food and environmental research. The latest winner in Africa is Ms. Grace Oludanni L. Taylor of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, for her work on the metabolism of lipids.

In January this year, UNESCO organized a regional forum on women, science and technology in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Over 60 specialists from 42 African countries, many of them women, attended the meeting. They drafted an action plan emphasizing the promotion of women in science and technology professions and the importance of their gaining access to science and technical education. The plan includes proposals to review textbooks so that they no longer present demeaning stereotypes of women. It also recommends scholarships and special funds for girls opting for science and technology education.

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