KNUST-LISA FINAL REPORT: Building Capacity of Female Scientists in Data Analysis for Decision Making and Strategic Planning

The project aimed to address the paucity of female involvement, representation, and participation in middle to top decision-making positions in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) related careers. This global phenomenon is more pervasive in Africa, which led the African Union to adopt the Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy for Africa -2024. This strategy is expected to boost the participation of women as major contributors to Africa's growth and development in science, technology, and innovation. The project identified deficiencies in putting available/routine data to good use in government institutions, as reported in an information needs assessment report of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers, especially women, frequently pointed to weak statistical and computing knowledge as one of the major constraints to effective dissemination of research results. This has hindered the proper use of data for policy development and planning, thus constituting a major constraint hindering the transformation of research results into data-driven policy interventions, and consequently undermining the benefits that could accrue to national development. To address these challenges, the project provided training for a cohort of early to mid-career females in STEM on requisite skills and competencies required for proper data acquisition, analysis, dissemination, and policy development. The overall objective of the programme was to build data analysis and interpretation capacity for policy decision-making and strategic planning, develop leadership capabilities, and provide a mentoring platform for these women in STEM. An additional component on leadership was further introduced following the post-stage I evaluation. The project was organized by KNUST-LISA in collaboration with the Science, Technology, and Innovation Directorate of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and innovation (MESTI), the School of Public Health, KNUST, and some agencies of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. A two-phase residential workshop was conducted to train a cohort of 29 early to middle-career women drawn from government establishments in statistical data analysis for research and decision-making, policy development, strategic planning, and leadership. The expected project outcomes were classified as short and long term with outputs to measure success or failure. At the end of each workshop, participants were expected to demonstrate certain competencies, including data capturing and data cleaning, presentation and summarization of data, identifying and exploring various data types, and presenting analysis results in a report before an audience and/or publication. Long-term outcomes included the number of publications by participants, number of collaborative research between participants, and number of participants enrolling for higher degrees. In preparation for the project, some preliminary activities were required, including setting up a data capturing system at KNUST-LISA, identifying a pool of possible resource persons, making accommodation, transportation, and feeding arrangements, and disseminating the call for participation through various channels. A total of 140 applications were received, and the final cohort of 26 participants was selected for workshop I, with 24 participants attending the second workshop. Monitoring and evaluation activities were undertaken during the project, including pre-evaluation exercises, post-evaluation exercises, and daily evaluation of sessions, resource persons, and services. Results of the first pre-training needs assessment showed that 76% of the participants had never attended a statistical capacity-building workshop before and most of their knowledge of statistics was at the fundamental level.