Multi-stakeholder approach needed to address low number of girls’ in STEM – UNDP

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Kumasi,-Ghana, Feb.14, GNA – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ghana has called for a multi-stakeholder accelerated approach to address the low number of women and girls in science.
It said it was time the country strengthened its partnership with the academia, businesses and private sector, for effective collaboration to promote gender equity in science policy and practice and to get men to support and uplift their female colleagues.
Dr Angela Lusigi, UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana, sharing her thoughts with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on International Day for Women and Girls in Science, said equal inclusion of girls and boys in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) ultimately benefited society as a whole.
She said the full and equal participation of women and girls in science was very necessary.
She added that the many challenges facing the global community, from combating climate change to improving health, required recognition of women’s untapped talent, potential and contribution in making the world more sustainable.
“While much has been done, a lot more needs to be done to increase female participation in science quantitatively and qualitatively.
“We need to break the societal and cultural barriers hindering women from entering the science field and seal the “leaky pipeline” that prevents them from staying and succeeding in the field,” she advocated.
This year’s celebration was held on the theme: “Bringing Communities Forward for Sustainable and Equitable Development.”
Dr Lusigi noted that despite an improvement in recent years, women remained underrepresented in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and in STEM.
According to the 2022 World Intellectual Property Indicators Report, women inventors accounted for only 16.5 per cent of inventions listed in international patent applications with men accounting for the remaining 83.5 per cent.
The report further indicates that only about 33.3 per cent of patent applications named at least one woman as inventor in 2021, while 95.9 per cent named at least one man as inventor.
She said in Ghana and across the continent, female scientists continued to spearhead ambitious interventions, which influence on solving society’s problems could not be denied.
Whereas many countries embrace the innovative capacity of women and could demonstrate the significance of having more women in science, most countries were lagging behind on how to elevate, advance and sustain female participation in the science field, she observed.