Speaker
Description
Broadly, half of Africa’s market is female, yet 50.8% is still excluded. Inclusion builds nations, for example, Rwanda & Mozambique, while exclusion shrinks markets and community development. Dr. Naomi Lumutenga is the Executive Director and Co-founder of Higher Education Resource Services -East Africa (HERS-EA), an educational NGO registered in Uganda, whose goal is to increase women leaders in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to at least 50%. The presentation by Dr. Naomi Lumutenga will highlight the work done by HERS-EA targeting HEIs – the institutions that shape mindsets and produce most of the national and private sector leaders. HERS-EA’s innovative multi-tier model has been practiced for 10 years and delivered over 250 women leaders across East Africa, who lead differently. HERS-EA prepares women for leadership at all levels of community; women researchers receive training to conduct and publish research, and capacity development for personal development, resource mobilisation and institutional leadership. In return, they are tasked to identify neglected women-oriented issues, such as menstrual hygiene management, and to collaboratively mobilise resources, conduct and publish multi-disciplinary research to inform policy change. Increased research outputs accelerate leadership and promotion prospects for the women in higher education, while simultaneously supporting women elsewhere, by using data to highlight their issues. This low input-high output ecosystem of women empowering women has received global recognition, and it offers lessons for men and women who are ready to move from policy to practices that will finally move the gender equity dial.
