The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Ghana, in partnership with Portia Limited U.K., announces the opening of Gender Summit Africa 2023.
With the theme “Africa’s energy transition pathways and vision of the Green New Deal through a gender lens,” this will be the 23rd summit and fourth Africa event in the series.
Gender Summit Africa ‘23 follows three previous events of its kind hosted on the continent in applying gender lens to a major societal challenge for science, with a focus on Africa’s energy transition, from dependence on oil, gas, coal, charcoal, and wood to renewable, reliable, and affordable low-carbon energy sources.
AIMS Ghana, the official host of the Gender Summit ‘23, kick-started the event in a hybrid format with online sessions from June 1-2, 2023 while the in-person sessions would be hosted in Accra, Ghana from June 8-9, 2023 at the Labadi Beach Hotel.
Decision makers, policy representatives, scientists, scholars and other stakeholders from diverse disciplines and sectors in Africa, Europe and beyond will convene to discuss evidence, frameworks, and strategies to help science meet the challenges of achieving greener, equitable, sustainable, and inclusive societies through decarbonisation efforts.
The AIMS Global CEO, Mrs. Lydie Hakizimana in her address during the opening of the summit, expressed her excitement at the opportunity Gender Summit – Africa ‘23 provides in preliminary steps to ensure that women are part of determining Africa’s vision of the Green New Deal (GND) and the process of transitioning swiftly to sustainable energy, which is yet to be clearly defined. As key stakeholders convene under the auspices of the summit, there would be deliberations on cohesive discourse on how energy transitions consequentially impact climate change.
In discussions, the worrying concern pertaining to energy solutions is that, in the context of UN Sustainable Development Agenda, the goals which are closely connected to the aims of GND, namely SDGs 7 (energy), 9 (industry and innovation), 12 (responsible consumption) and 13 (climate action) are ‘silent’ on gender in that they have no gender targets and no gender indicators. Research shows that environmental degradation caused by climate change has gender-specific impacts and that low-carbon transitions and climate mitigation efforts can involve power struggles and processes of exacerbating vulnerability, and critically, that the “greening” of energy systems may not make them any fairer, inclusive, or just, without recognition of and specific interventions to address gender concerns.
These issues and their African context will underlay the main objectives of the GSA 23 which will come to a climax on the 9th of June 2023.
This event will be streamed on YouTube via @gendersummit4411. Stakeholders can also follow @AIMSGhana on Twitter, for updates on the event.
About AIMS
The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, AIMS, is a non-profit pan-African network of centres to deliver excellent teaching, research, and education in mathematical sciences. AIMS is Africa’s first network of centres of excellence for post-graduate scientific training, research, industry and public engagement in mathematics and the allied sciences. Our mission is to enable Africa’s brightest students to flourish as independent thinkers, problem solvers and innovators capable of propelling Africa’s future scientific, industrial, educational and economic self-sufficiency. Founded in 2003, AIMS currently has five centres across Africa; South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon & Rwanda. About 70% of graduates from AIMS have continued their studies in prestigious universities worldwide in mathematics-related fields as well as in industry.
Since inception, AIMS has accepted a minimum of 30% women in every class, every year – a high proportion compared with other STEM master’s programs, not only on the continent but globally. (For comparison, the estimated enrolment of women in mathematics in tertiary education across Africa is only 10%.4) Recently, AIMS increased minimum enrolment for women to 40% of its master’s classes and intends to reach gender parity among its master’s students within five years. Additionally, AIMS has long been offering professional up skilling courses in STEM to secondary school teachers, recognizing the tremendous impact this can have on developing a gender-balanced pipeline of future STEM talent at both university and postgraduate levels across the continent.
AIMS Ghana is the third centre of excellence in the AIMS-NEI ecosystem, founded in 2012 under the able leadership of the late Professor Francis K. A. Allotey. AIMS Ghana has since graduated 500 students from 27 African countries, 33% of them being females. Laudable among the milestones of the Centre is its rise to the position of a UNESCO Category II Centre of Excellence in the year 2018.
African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
