Hosted by Unisa and the Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF), 2019 International Women’s Day was commemorated on 9 March at Turffontein Race Course under the theme Women, technology and innovation. The speakers included the former President of Mauritius, Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim; Minister of Science and Technology, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane; CEO of Microsoft SA, Lilian Barnard, and CEO of Petrolink, Lerato Motsamai. MP Thoko Didiza facilitated the programme.
In her address, Gurib-Fakim shared her reflections on why it is critical to mobilise science, technology and innovation (STI) in addressing the welfare of women, tackling Africa’s development deficits, and providing opportunities to millions of Africans seeking pathways out of poverty through improved livelihoods and halting environmental degradation on the continent.
She spoke of the global education gender gap that has seen impressive declines around the world, mentioning that in sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2014, 94% of the education gender gap was closed. "However," she noted, "in my country, Mauritius, a big catalyst for progress was triggered when free education began to be provided in 1976."
"Today, we meet at a consequential time in Africa’s evolution. Across the spectrum of societal leadership—public, business, academia and civil society—we need to recognise the crucial importance of science, technology and innovation, and commit ourselves to the cause of excellence in science and technology for sustainable development."
According to Gurib-Fakim, Africa needs to promote a culture of innovation to keep her population in good health. "We need to bring about Africa’s institutional transformation and that culture can only be driven by an empowered African youth," she emphasised.
In the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), she said that with the rapid growth in artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, genetic engineering and big data analytics, it was clear that Africa needed to do more not to be left behind. The continent right now has about 14 million students in higher education, or 6.4% of global higher education enrolments. Less than one third are enrolled in the science and technology, engineering and mathematics fields. "We are literally in a race against time," rebuked Gurib-Fakim.
She clearly stated that to move faster in improving gender equality, Africa must include and provide greater opportunities for women, especially women scientists, and accelerate the enrolment of girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Gurib-Fakim explained how women entrepreneurs have the potential to drive innovative decentralised renewable energy business models. Increasing representation of women in the renewable energy sector could both make energy innovation work for women and accelerate efforts to reach the SDGs, she believes. Leveraging women as change agents for innovation is one of the most powerful and underleveraged solutions to deliver transformations at scale, break the cycle of negative development trends and achieve the SDGs by 2030.
"I believe now is the time to rededicate ourselves to achieving these goals by 2030. Because sustainable development takes time, we cannot afford to fail yet another generation. Our actions must be guided by the 'fierce urgency of now'. We cannot abdicate our responsibilities, nor shirk from our commitment to excellence."
In conclusion, Gurib-Fakim encouraged Africans to become producers and not just consumers of knowledge. "We should capitalise on the momentum that is being gained at the global level while recognising that all actions are local. We must become activists and not pacifists for generating Africa-centric development solutions," she concluded.
A world that is deprived of women participation in science, technology and innovation is a world that is poorer in terms of perspectives essential to addressing gender dimensions and the burden of infectious diseases, which often disproportionately affect women. That’s according to the Minister of Science and Technology, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane. She elaborated on significant inequality that persists, especially at the higher levels. Black women are less than 5% of the full professoriate. She said this represented a significant challenge for making the research system more inclusive, diverse and resilient.
Referring to 4IR, the minister explained that part of the responsibility of the Department of Science and Technology is to fund researchers. "We have realised that along the researcher’s pipeline, women mysteriously disappear. We realised that this is because our funding model is not adequate."
Technologies of 4IR have the potential to leapfrog countries that are technologically behind to be at the technological cutting edge. Kubayi-Ngubane strongly believes that these technologies can help to fast track gender transformation. She spoke of technologies such as virtual reality and internet that can help the country to overcome the problem of researchers who are mothers by creating virtual workstations.
A woman has to choose between continuing to conduct research and starting a family. "If they do decide to start a family, to keep up with research means cutting short the time for breastfeeding," Kubayi-Ngubane said, championing a work environment with facilities for mothers and their young ones. With the current funding model, mothers who are researchers are not able to travel with their children.
The event was not only thrilling with a fashion show themed Africa National Garment Parade, but it was also a great platform for women to share stories, plans and projects towards closing the gender parity gap, and to uplift women and girl children to make a difference in the continent as a whole.
* By Lesego Ravhudzulo, Journalist, Department of Institutional Advancement
Publish date: 2019-03-22 00:00:00.0