São Paulo – The UAE’s International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) has launched the first edition of its Arab Women Leaders in Agriculture (AWLA). The fellowship program is intended for women researchers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), in a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
Applications will be accepted through April 15 on the AWLA website. The program is designed to support female agricultural researchers in getting to leadership roles. Requirements include availability to travel and a valid passport.
The program will help create the first R&D Forum in the MENA region to approach the challenges of agriculture, and the region’s first platform for women researchers in this field. The program will select 20 to 30 researchers in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. The researchers will work in Jordan and Tunisia for a ten-month period starting June 1.
According to the AWLA website, female researchers in leadership positions average at 17% across the MENA region – the lowest rate in the world. This gap is even wider when it comes to research and agricultural extension organizations, although women make up over 40% of the labor force there. This means policies and investments in agriculture may not be as effective, since they do not fully reflect gender perspectives.
The ICBA created the program to help implement the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality and female empowerment, fostering and improving the capabilities of a new generation of female Arab researchers and leaders.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
