Digital Advocacy in the Age of COVID-19.
Africa Catalyst: Capacity Building for Women in Engineering Bodies in West Africa
In January 2020, Capacity Building for Women in Engineering Bodies in West Africa was initiated as a follow on from Capacity Building for Women in Engineering Bodies in Sub-Saharan Africa (2018 – 2020). Just two months after initiating this project, in March 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.
The main objective of this project was to build organisational leadership and outreach initiatives for gender diversity and inclusion in engineering in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This report explores WomEng’s proactive response to building the capacity of women in engineering bodies in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone during this multi-crisis. Rising to the challenge, WomEng adapted and redesigned capacity building initiatives to deliver relevant impact; ensuring women in engineering bodies transcend the crises to become resilient champions of change. WomEng provided thought leadership; leveraging best practice as well as forging ahead in new territory to support institutions as they navigated a “new normal.”
About GCRF Africa Catalyst
Capacity Building for Women in Engineering Bodies in West Africa
Capacity Building for Women in Engineering Bodies in West Africa builds on Capacity Building for Women in Engineering Bodies in Sub-Saharan Africa, a project undertaken between 2018 – 2020, in partnership with professional engineering institutions in eSwatini, Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Both project phases were part of the Royal Academy of Engineering GCRF Africa Catalyst Programme. The aim of this project, Capacity Building for Women in Engineering Bodies in West Africa was to strengthen the capacity of women in engineering bodies to raise the profile of gender diversity and inclusion in engineering within their region, leveraging WomEng’s skills and experience in developing and running women in engineering programmes across 22 countries. Capacity Building for Women in Engineering Bodies in West Africa worked in partnership with women in engineering bodies in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The initial project was similarly designed to the previous project phase in East and Southern Africa, then came the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the challenges the pandemic brought to women and the engineering sector, WomEng adapted and redesigned the entire project to meet the adjusted outcomes. WomEng, supported by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership provided training and development for women in engineering body members. This included executive leadership, diversity and digital advocacy training and execution of critical outreach programmes within partner countries.
The impact of this project was to improve the capacity of engineering bodies to promote gender diversity and relevance within engineering and among engineering professionals in Africa in a new digital normal where often these institutions lacked capacity, or understanding on the effective use of digital platforms for advocacy and outreach.
Impact was delivered through the following key outcomes:
Strengthen and build the institutional capacity of relevant stakeholders by building capacity through women in engineering bodies
Increase knowledge among engineering bodies about effective practices for improving gender diversity in engineering
Create resilience in advocacy approaches in a digital future
Support institutions to showcase the work women in engineering were doing in response to the COVID-19
pandemic