What is WISAP all about? 

Advancing women in science and promoting gender equality in scientific education, research and careers are at the forefront of the South African National Development Plan.

The UNESCO 2022 Global Education Monitoring Report confirms the need to address the under-representation of women in science on the continent. 

Furthermore, the South African government is making efforts to strengthen its mandate in this area by promoting the participation of women in the STEM discipline.

It is in this light, as we mark Women’s Month, that the UWC Faculty of Natural Sciences is organising a Women in Science Advancement Programme (WISAP), which is aimed at building capacity and advancing women's research and career progression.

In response to UWC’s commitment to improving transformation, gender equity in academia and research, and in realising the full benefits of diversity and empowering female Natural Scientists; WISAP was developed to offer capacity-building training to upskill female early-career scholars at UWC with skills necessary for their progression in all academic fields in the Natural Sciences.

WISAP was developed from the foundation laid by the Women Advancement Forum International Exchanges, Research and Academia (WAFIRA) programme in 2023, delivered by African Gong in partnership with AIMS South Africa and UWC under the theme “Advancing African Women in Mathematical Science”.

The highlights for the WISAP workshop included: Purpose and values in research, research presentation and communication skills, and community engagement skills for capacity building and upskilling. The co-organisers of WISAP Dr Omowunmi Isafiade, Dr Chinyerum and Prof Fanelwa Ngece-Ajayi all agree that WISAP is UWC's answer to a pressing global issue: the underrepresentation of women in Natural Sciences.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research & Innovation, Prof Jose Frantz’s welcome address: “This Women in Science Advancement Program is an important program, not only for UWC, but an important programme for the country. Because we continue to talk about the lack of women in sciences. And you are sitting here today and I can't overemphasise how privileged you are to be here.

Our focus here today is on how transformative community engagement can be leveraged to address complex social cultural challenges.

To ground our discussion this morning, let's consider the pressing issue of food insecurity in South Africa. 

In Soweto, local women-led initiatives have made remarkable strides by integrating community-driven solutions such as community gardens and food cooperatives.

It is about harnessing that knowledge to create solutions that resonate within the communities you aim to serve.

This means that your research should be aimed at addressing the real issues and generating tangible benefits, not merely contributing to academic discourse.

This is the DVC for research and innovation saying that you must not only do research for publication.

Research should also be done to impact the communities that we are coming from.

Today, I hope that we will help you explore how to effectively apply transformative community engagement skills to ensure that your work is innovative and grounded in the social-cultural realities in the communities you engage with.

Your scientific expertise has the potential to drive impactful change. And it's this application that we'll focus on, I hope, throughout our discussions today. You have the opportunity to design and implement research that is not only rigorous but also actionable.

This involves engaging with communities to understand the unique challenges, collaborating with local stakeholders to co-create solutions, and ensuring that your work is both relevant and respectful of the social-cultural context. By bridging scientific inquiry with practical application, you can foster innovation that meets pressing needs and drives sustainable change.”

Prof David Holgate, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, said: “You can't reduce impact to a number. You can't even easily measure it, I don't think. But for me, the impact has two critical components.

One is quality, that what you do has to be good, that you must be good at what you're doing. But then the impact is linked to how you share that in a relationship. And relationship is a broad word, but I think it's an important word for us to embrace as people, but also as scientists in particular.” 

Professor Rachel Fanelwa, Deputy Dean of Research at the Faculty of Natural Sciences shares the recognition as the Best Mid-Career Researcher for 2024 at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). 

She reflects on the impact of her work, particularly in community engagement and emphasises the importance of mentorship, capacity-building for young researchers and the value of integrating academic research with real-world applications.

Prof Fanelwa Ngece-Ajayi further thanked the co-organisers and partners for making the day successful.