Develop national policies to enable women thrive in the field of science and innovation – Prof.Marian Nkansah

AN Associate Professor at the Chemistry Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Marian Asantewah Nkansah has called for the development of national policies to enable women to thrive in the field of science and innovation.

Such a move, Prof Asantewah explained, would help make women who were already in the field find it a safe environment and also motivate young women.

The Associate Professor made the call in an interview with the media at a Women in Innovation and Research Conference organised by Heritors Labs (HL) Limited, a renowned product development company specialised in software and research last week Friday.

The Conference formed part of HLs’ central commitment to empowering women and fostering gender equality in the research, development and innovation domain.

Held on the theme “Breaking barriers, empowering women, and driving ownership: Putting women in the care of research and innovation ecosystem”, the conference was aimed at showcasing groundbreaking ideas, facilitating networking opportunities, and promoting inclusivity.

It was organised in collaboration with the Research and Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) Fund, with support from the United Kingdom (UK) Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

“As a country we do not have many policies that are geared towards making women, and science and technology thrive. There are general policies on science, but women specific we do not have them.

I therefore recommend that we will have women-specific policies so that the few women who are in these spaces will find it a safe environment to thrive, and then young ones will also see the need to come in”, Prof Asantewah explained.

She further underscored the need to organise structured mentorship programmes to mentor budding women scientists, innovators and researchers with expected deliverables that could be measured.

Expressing her view on gender stereotyping regarding women in research, science, and innovation, Prof Asantewah explained that it was mostly done based on unconscious bias due to the way individuals were brought up.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HL Limited, Mr Derrydean Dadzie who bemoaned the low number of women researchers in Ghana which stood at 26.1 percent according to a report by UNESCO in 2021 noted that the lack of partnerships was one of the reasons the works of women were not recognised.

He therefore called for investment in women, and a deliberate attempt to ensure scientific output that were led by women were given the needed boost in terms of, especially, financial support and policies.

The Conference was attended by women researchers in academia, from various institutes of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI).

HL Limited had been at the forefront of advancing research, development, and innovation (RD&I) in Ghana since 2022, and had launched a series of events and initiatives aimed at overcoming challenges and fostering development
Caption: Prof Asantewah speaking at the conference