Female Research Empowerment and Academic Career Reinforcement in Senegal Higher Education

ongoing

Elevate-HER has been designed with a clear objective which is: to support female researchers’ career development contributing to sustainable growth and jobs in Senegal. More specifically, the project directly addresses the needs for Capacity Building in Senegalese Higher Education Institutions to provide women pursuing or willing to pursue a career in research in STEAM, with the necessary skill sets to guarantee their employability. Women in research face countless challenges: discrimination, unconscious bias, glass ceilings and cliffs, uneven opportunities compare to men. UNESCO’s data from 2021 reveals that only around 30% of the world’s academic researchers are women. However, the situation in Senegal is even worse with this percentage dropping to an alarming 15%. Although the percentage of female researchers in Senegal has been gradually increasing, the proportion remains too low: half of the world's average in 2022. Senegal needs to implement strong positive action initiatives to catch up with the world trend. Elevate-HER is a National project that aims at supporting Female Researchers in Senegal (FRS) Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), by: i) equipping them with Individual tailor-made Career Development Plans ii) paving the way for systemic changes at HEI level with the development of Institutional Career Development Programs and the Elevate-HER Gender Support Units. To operationalise this general goal, Elevate-HER breaks down into 2 Specific Objectives (SO): Specific Objective 1 (SO1): To empower female academics and research professionals by providing them with training on soft and digital skills relevant for Research as well as tailor-made mentoring sessions Specific Objective 2 (SO2): To equip Female Researchers in Senegal with new capacities and tools to facilitate their visibility, access and permanence of women to research careers, providing them with Individual Career Development Plans