As one of the 13 African countries participating in the Gender Equality, Inclusivity and Intersectionality (GEII) Project, Uganda is working on what they’ve called the GEAR Project: Gender Equity Awareness in Research. The Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), Steven Sebbale, says that a key challenge in Uganda is having a context of deeply ingrained historical, cultural, and social constructs around gender. This means it is a challenging research landscape for early career researchers, particularly women.  

The council recognises that women have unique needs, challenges, and duties that extend into their private lives that their male counterparts do not have. According to the UNCST, there are three challenges for early career researchers: 

1. Access: Access to funding is a challenge, and because of the structural system, funding tends to go to established researchers. 
2. Gender: Women researchers face unique challenges.
3. Granting systems: These tend to be gender blind. 
   

Access, Gender, and Granting Systems need to be addressed so that research is more diverse and robust. The hope is that their roadmap and work in GEII give women the extra lift they need and help to make GEII visible.  

Acting Head of the division for Corporate Affairs and International Collaboration at Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), Deborah Kasule, explains the interventions and support they’re providing for women to access grants. One of their new policies is to move away from experience-based criteria to make it more flexible for early career researchers, particularly women. They are also working on deliberate outreach efforts targeted at women, such as disseminating grant opportunities timeously so women have more time to work on research proposals.  

The Ugandan council hopes that through the monitoring and evaluation processes, they will provide women with much-needed agency in the research space so that no one is left behind and research outcomes are equitable.   

To learn more about the GEII project, click here.