April 11, Nairobi – The Gender Responsive Agriculture Systems Policy (GRASP) Fellowship, managed by AWARD, is a career development program that targets African women working in agriculture and food systems with interest in policymaking. The Fellowship, announced at the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021, opened its inaugural two-month call for applications on April 11, 2022, and closed on June 20, 2022.

“Through this Fellowship, we aim to grow a pool of confident and capable African women to lead policy changes to improve African women and men smallholders’ livelihoods,” said Dr. Susan Kaaria, Director, AWARD.

“This is the first time an AWARD initiative will focus squarely on policy, building on our successful initiatives to increase gender-responsive research and level the playing field to benefit women and men.”

Women make up about 46 percent of agricultural employment in sub-Saharan Africa, yet they often face discriminatory national policies. There is growing momentum for gender-responsive research and evidence-based policies. The African Development Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy for Agricultural Transformation on the continent, for instance, emphasizes the need for Africa to pursue policies that will enable the continent to transform its agricultural production.

The GRASP Fellowship will offer targeted training on leadership, mentoring, policy advocacy, and gender in agriculture policy.

“Partnering with governments, the private sector, and other actors, USAID aims to contribute to a 20 percent reduction in poverty and child stunting in the areas where Feed the Future works and mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact,” said USAID Administrator Samantha Power at the UN Food Systems Summit in New York on September 23, 2021.

The AWARD Policy Fellows will be identified through a competitive selection process that will include assessing their experience and leadership potential in gender, agriculture, and food systems policy development. Each Fellow will be matched with a mentor, a senior policy professional, and a Fellow’s mentee, a junior policy professional.

The Fellowship will support the AWARD Policy Fellows, their Mentors, and Mentees to form coalitions to collaborate on Policy Innovation Projects. Each AWARD Policy Fellow will receive modest catalytic funding to design and deploy gender-responsive policy projects to support evidence-based policy processes. More information is available on the GRASP webpage.