African leaders, stakeholders tasked on accelerating gender equality, social inclusion

African leaders, practitioners, and other stakeholders have been urged to position African-led empirical research as a driving force for accelerating gender equality and social inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa.
Gender experts ─ from the academia, policy, and grassroots movements ─ made this call during the recently held parallel session of the 69th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women titled ‘Accelerating Agenda 2030: Unlocking gender-responsive and innovative solutions in Africa through research’.

The session was organised by The Blooming Mum, The Winford Centre for Children and Women, and the Open University, United Kingdom.

Dr Basirat Razaq-Shuaib, founder of The Blooming Mum and the Winford Centre for Children and Women, highlighted critical data gaps and systemic barriers that continue to stifle gender equality progress in Africa.

Quoting the Nigerian National Beijing +30 review, she said, “Decisions are too often made based on anecdotal evidence, overlooking the transformative potential of inclusive and rigorous research.”

Dr Razaq-Shuaib noted that only about 30 per cent of researchers in sub-Saharan Africa are women, condemning the underrepresentation of women in research and higher education and the invisibility of African research in global decision-making processes. She critiqued the influence of foreign donor agendas, Eurocentric methodologies and the systemic invisibility of African research in global decision-making processes.

She challenged the participants to reposition inclusive, collaborative, empirical research as “a catalyst for accelerating gender equality in Africa, urging for methodologies and sustainable solutions grounded in local realities.”
Dr Osasuyi Dirisu, Executive Director, Policy Innovation Centre, underscored the need for intentionality in research that adopts gender-responsive approaches. She stressed the importance of embedding innovation in research design, ensuring gender-balanced teams, projecting gender-responsive impacts using data, and adopting scalable solutions.

The panel discussion, moderated by Laud Ebenezer Freeman, emphasised the disconnection between global policy aspirations and grassroots realities.
Dr Jane Doka of the Open University, United Kingdom, noted that this gap undermines the effectiveness of policies designed to empower women and girls. She advocated local ownership of research to ensure meaningful impact.

Caroline Kabugho, Chief Magistrate in the Judiciary of Uganda, echoed this sentiment, calling for increased funding for empirical research and the inclusion of male allies in gender equity efforts.

Ms Inimfon Etuk, founder of She Forum Africa, posed the question: “What is the true value of life for the African woman today?”

Ms Etuk celebrated the courage and resilience of African women but stressed the need for strategic engagement and the inclusion of lived experience driven research in policymaking.

“Business as usual would not deliver Agenda 2030,” she warned.

To avoid erasing local contexts in decision-making, Dr Laraib Niaz, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, emphasised the need to amplify African voices in global research. She also shared examples of successful participatory case studies in sub-Saharan Africa that empowered young women and girls with disabilities as agents of change through mentoring and vocational training.
While highlighting the widening gender financing gap, especially for women in rural and peri-urban areas, Ms Tolulope Babajide, Gender Network Manager at FSD Africa, cautioned against researching in silos. She noted that research publications are unused because they have not been disseminated in accessible ways for policymakers and practitioners.

advocated closer collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and private sector actors from the outset to ensure insights translate into solutions that benefit underserved women.

Concluding the discussions, Dr Margaret Ebubedike, researcher at the Open University, United Kingdom, advocated the disruption of traditional research methodologies by amplifying community voices.

Dr Ebubedike illustrated this with her work in the Lake Chad region, where participatory approaches positioning women and girls as co-creators of knowledge led to policy action addressing trauma and psychosocial support for young girls in conflict zones.

The event echoed a common resistance to global pressures to downplay gender equality efforts, ongoing international funding cuts, and the unjust narrative that transformative solutions cannot emerge from Africa.