Challenges

There is a limited number of opportunities in postgraduate research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects available to women from the global South. These countries include all least developed countries (LDCs), as well as additional countries identified as science- and technology-lagging. Men and women in these countries lack access to the basic training, equipment, and resources needed to undertake scientific research at an advanced level and have limited opportunities to travel to institutes in other countries where more advanced training facilities and resources are available. Women face additional challenges because of cultural and social expectations, as well as the physical demands of childcare and related mobility issues. 

Toward a Solution

Through its flagship PhD fellowship programme, the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World aims to support women in tackling these challenges. The programme allows them to travel and study abroad, so that when they return to their home countries they will be able to share the knowledge attained and contribute to building local STEM capacity and serve as role models for other women wanting to take up research in subjects traditionally with lower female representation. OWSD PhD fellowships are offered to women scientists from science- and technology-lagging countries (STLCs) to undertake PhD research in the natural, engineering and information technology sciences at a host institute in another developing country in the global South where more advanced training facilities and resources are available for them to undertake PhDs of a high standard.

This South-South mobility encourages capacity building at both the point of departure and destination, as well as allowing OWSD to offer more fellowships to more women (tuition, accommodation and stipend costs are typically much less than in the North and the countries can be closer both geographically and culturally). Since 1998, OWSD PhD fellowships have been awarded to 551 women scientists.

The main outcome of the OWSD PhD fellowships programme is a significant contribution to the pool of women graduates with PhDs in STEM subjects from STLCs and capacity-building of individual women scientists (+363 women have graduated (354 PhD and 9 MSc-only)). This is achieved not only through the provision of financial support and access to better resources, laboratories and equipment, but also with innovative elements. The innovative elements include one-to-one support catering for the specific needs of women scientists, provision of targeted training which has demonstrably enhanced fellows’ skills in writing and research, as well as soft skills such as leadership and communication. Fellows have also reported an increase in their ability to work in multicultural environments, to work in teams and to adapt. Additionally, in 2014, OWSD launched a PhD conference support fund to provide additional support for PhD fellows to attend academic conferences.

The good practices developed by OWSD since 1998 with this programme are replicable and adaptable to different contexts and organisations. They can easily be extended more widely and adapted in similar situations or settings by taking into account the OWSD model and lessons learned, particularly in relation to the specific adaptations needed to fully support women and to ensure low dropout rates. In fact, the success of the OWSD programme has been confirmed year-on-year by the relatively low dropout rate (only 9.5 per cent of all fellows who have started their PhD to date have interrupted their studies). The ongoing need for the programme is also evident in the steadily rising number of applications (in 2017, the number of eligible applications was 100; in 2018 – 116; in 2019 – 162; in 2020 – 176; and it dipped only slightly, despite the ongoing pandemic, to 168 in 2021) that reached a record high in 2022, when the OWSD Secretariat received 207 eligible applications.

A number of conditions need to be met to ensure the replicability of the programme: namely an in-depth understanding and appreciation of the challenges faced by women scientists; an effective but also flexible administrative structure; a transparent financial policy; clear guidelines and a willingness to explain these to fellows; as well as investment in building relationships and negotiating fellowship terms with host institutes.

The main lesson learned is also the main strength of the OWSD PhD Fellowship programme: the personal, tailor-made approach to awardees contributes to the low dropout rate and the impressive completion rates. This was especially notable during the pandemic, where high flexibility enabled awardees to remain on track. Such an individualized approach was also underlined in the OWSD mid-term evaluation report, which cited one of the key strengths of the programme: the highly effective management of the OWSD fellowship programmes by the Secretariat. Feedback collected from fellows through interviews and survey data confirmed a very high level of satisfaction on the overall quality of OWSD support (rated excellent by 94 per cent of respondents).