On 27 April 2026, the narrative surrounding women in STEM underwent a groundbreaking shift, as UNESCO launched a continental report titled “Investing in Women in Science: The Economic Impact of Public Funding in Africa”. The event marked a decisive transition from general advocacy to evidence-driven policy discourse, bringing together Member States, regional institutions, and partners in a shared recognition of women in science as a central pillar of Africa’s development agenda.
Opening the event, Dr. Rita Bissoonauth, Director of the UNESCO Office in Ethiopia, emphasized the urgency of shifting from advocacy to evidence-based policy action in science and innovation, noting that
no scientific progress can be truly sovereign if more than half of our population remains underrepresented in the production of knowledge.
Dr. Rita Bissoonauth, Director of the UNESCO Office in Ethiopia
The message delivered to an assembly of institutional leaders, including H.E. Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, Special Envoy of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Women, Peace and Security; Ms. Doris Mpoumou, UN Women Special Representative to the AU and UNECA; and Dr. Helen Nigussie, Associate Professor of Genetics and Bioinformatics, was unambiguous: gender parity in science is no longer a matter of social inclusion; it is a prerequisite for sovereign economic survival.
For the first time, an original econometric model developed by Prof. Adama Sow Badji and her team at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop has quantified the stakes with striking precision. The data reveals a powerful multiplier effect: a 10% increase in targeted higher education investment for women yields a 12.8% boost in national GDP and a 14% expansion of the tertiary sector, while the cost of inaction currently drains an estimated $105 billion annually from sub-Saharan Africa’s economy. These losses are not accidental. They are the direct result of entrenched structural barriers, from the systematic absence of gender-disaggregated data in national planning frameworks to the persistent reality that nearly one in two women scientist globally faces sexual harassment, with documented consequences for career progression and scientific contribution. Africa’s scientific productivity is therefore constrained not by a deficit of talent, but by institutional inertia.
The launch culminated in call to dismantle these barriers through three strategic pillars: Governmental Accountability, institutionalizing gender-responsive budgeting and performance metrics within national STI frameworks; Institutional Reform, enabling women to own intellectual property and advance into senior scientific leadership, with academic freedom structurally safeguarded within the Peace and Security architecture; and Private Sector Synergy, catalyzing co-investment to bridge the gap between women-led research and venture capital, particularly in high-growth digital domains.
Through its Women in Science (WiS) Initiative, UNESCO is committed to serving as a continental coordination platform that transforms fragmented national pilots into a coherent, digitally monitored, and accountable movement, fully aligned with Agenda 2063, STISA 2034, and the 2030 Agenda.
Africa’s strategic future depends on its ability to leverage its full intellectual capital. Investing in women in science is not merely the most equitable course of action—it is the most economically rational one.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/advancing-gender-equality-science-sustainable-development-africa?hub=701
