Dear friends,

I am excited to share some key highlights from our work in the past three months.

We have recently released a new publication, AgSpirations report, highlighting some of the gender-responsive innovations enhancing agricultural research and development in Africa. We invite you to interact with the AgSpirations report online or download it for further offline reading.

It is incredible the achievements that our AWARD Fellows and One Planet Laureate Candidates continue to create in their fields. Dr. Austin Phiri, a 2019 One Planet Laureate Candidate, is transforming the face of agriculture in Malawi. Through an innovative sorghum productivity improvement project, he seeks to increase crop productivity and enhance the smallholders’ resilience to climate change. Our country chapter in Malawi, MAWARD, is stepping up the fight against climate change through activities such as role modeling events for local secondary schools to sensitize the students about the benefits of tree planting. We are also excited that our country chapters are exploring collaboration options to facilitate inter-country engagements and knowledge sharing. The Nigerian country chapter— NiWARD partnered with the Zambian country chapter— ZaWARD to convene a webinar on women in agricultural research and leadership.

As the world commemorated the 2021 International Women’s Day, we ran a three-week social media campaign celebrating the AWARD Fellows leading agricultural research and development in their countries. The campaign culminated into an interactive dialogue on March 31, 2021, a partnership with the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN), to discuss women in science and leadership. The webinar sparked conversations on eliminating systemic barriers that perpetuate gender bias in science and the opportunities for reducing the persisting gender gap.

The AWARD webinar series has demonstrated the ability to create a space where scientific experts can share their experiences and propose possible solutions to improving Africa’s agriculture. Together with our partners at International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and African Women in Agribusiness Network (AWAN), we convened an interactive dialogue on making food systems equitable.

Our third webinar in the series focused on gender-responsive investments in Africa’s agriculture for inclusive food systems. In partnership with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD), we presented a strategic platform to foster a global collective action toward strengthening gender-inclusive private sector engagement in Africa’s agriculture and development.

We deepened our partnership with FARA by collaborating on a publication to highlight the significance of gender mainstreaming titled “TAAT Gender Mainstreaming Guide.”

COVID-19 presented an opportunity to pivot our training courses into online learning programs designed to maximize participant engagement and interaction through structured virtual interventions. We started off this year with a new special women’s leadership program, Women Leading in Times of Crisis, which we piloted in April/May and was attended by 22 participants from 14 countries.

Finally, we invite you to share with your networks about the upcoming sixth international conference for women in science without borders. The conference, which targets key stakeholders in STEM, will highlight the role of science in building a sustainable future for all through science, technology, and innovation.

Remember, you can stay up-to-date with our latest news and opportunities by visiting our website. We also share news updates and run online discussions on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram pages, and you can invite your colleagues and friends to subscribe to our mailing list.

Stay safe!