This year commemorates the 30th birthday of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, an international organization and a program unit of UNESCO, working with exceptional and dedicated women from Least Developed Countries.
However, the achievements of its female colleagues are exceptional by every measure.
A few members of the organization were in Doha last month for the fifth UN LDC5 Conference. Three women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, and Yemen shared touching and motivating stories of how they surmounted barriers to grow into the founding member’s national academies of science in their countries, department heads, and successful entrepreneurs.
Maryse Nkoua Ngavouka, 36, returned to Congo Brazzaville after receiving grants and fellowships in Italy to establish a power grid that supplies electricity to a small island that is otherwise cut off from the mainland and where people had to travel by boat to the chemist’s for tests during the Covid-19 pandemic. Maryse is presently an adviser to Brazzaville’s Minister of Science and Technology.
On the other hand, Prativa Pandey, 36, described how her studies in Nepal on converting citrus trash into health and beauty items enabled her to start a successful business.
Moreover, Fathiah Zakham, 44, shared an inspiring tale of how her home nation of Yemen sponsored her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Iraq and Morocco.
She expressed her excitement at returning to Yemen in 2015 to pursue her study on the growing infectious illnesses devastating her homeland. However, soon after her return, unrest erupted, forcing her to flee. Fathiah is currently a researcher in Helsinki, Finland, although she wishes to return home one day.
More than 150 Early Career women have been awarded fellowships and awards. These have raised their visibility at home and abroad, as well as opening doors for themselves and younger women who are inspired by their strength and success.
More than 9,000 female OWSD members are based in more than 100 countries. More than 360 female scientists have graduated with doctorates and 87 women have been awarded Early Career fellowships to establish research centres of excellence in their home institutes.
Over the past 30 years, OWSD has identified places in the scientific career pipeline where women are likely to get stuck or drop out. It is at these moments that women need the support and flexibility to stay on to complete their academic pursuits.
Although the average dropout rate for PhD graduates, male or female, worldwide is 20 per cent, since 1997 only 10 per cent of our doctoral fellows have dropped out. Also impressive is the fact that whereas the average completion time for science, technology, engineering, mathematics (or Stem) PhDs in the US is eight years, the average rate at OWSD is 4.5 years.
The challenges that women face in the field of Stem are well-known but they are worth repeating. In many parts of the world, the common expectations are that a woman’s place is in the home and not the laboratory; that women are the primary carers for children, the elderly, the sick and mobility-challenged.
There are pervasive notions that women’s work is to prepare the food, clean the home and educate the children; that women need not just the support of men, but often even their permission – to travel abroad or go to college. Women in many developing countries often do not have independent incomes to support their academic pursuits.
And because of childbearing duties, women are more likely to take leave from work for health-related and childcare related issues. And yet, there is much evidence to suggest that it is these very challenges that make women not just ideal but essential researchers in Stem fields.
The research projects that women propose are designed to solve the very problems that, in many cases, they have experienced first-hand and that affect most of their communities.
More than 150 Early Career women have been awarded fellowships and awards. These have raised their visibility at home and abroad, as well as opening doors for themselves and younger women who are inspired by their strength and success.
