Burkina Faso is one of the 13 participating countries in the Gender Equality and Inclusivity (GEI) project. They aim to promote gender equality, inclusivity, and intersectionality (GEII) through the removal of barriers to research funding. This series of posts highlights the work of each African council – to find out more, click here. 

Currently, only 20% of funded projects are led by female scientists, and only 1% of women innovators/inventors receive funding. This discrimination in research funding is because of gender disparities linked to current funding mechanisms. 

Chef du Service de Mobilisation des Ressources du Fonds de la Recherche et de l’Innovation pour le Développement Aminata Kabore says that, according to 2019 data, only 8% of women have access to grants. This is why they are taking action to reduce gender inequality and promote inclusion in the research sector. For now, they are looking at raising their funding for women-led projects to 30%.  

Through this project, they intend to use surveys and focus groups to identify and analyse the structural barriers to accessing funding and then develop a strategy to mitigate these barriers. Through this work, they will be able to develop gender-sensitive criteria for allocating research funding as well as building on the capacity of research funding. 

The council in Burkina Faso is working to help women researchers and innovators/inventors remove structural barriers by adopting a GEII lens. By 2025, they hope to increase the funding that goes to women from 20% to 30%. The government is committed to supporting its vision and promoting research and innovation for everyone. 

Funding for implementing GEII activities was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the National Research Foundation, South Africa.