Capacity Building in African Universities, Part I
The International Development Program (IDP) of the Carnegie Corporation has defined as one of its primary goals the providing of institutional support to selected universities and libraries in sub-Saharan Africa in order to improve the quality and sustainability of their services, to augment women’s educational opportunities and professional attainment, and to contribute to socioeconomic development in the countries where Carnegie works. In order to fulfill this goal, the Carnegie Corporation conducted a 3-day educational event with twelve gender focal points of African universities during July 13-17, 2003 in Accra, Ghana.
The gender focal points carrying out the work of institutional transformation at these universities need broader and more effective frameworks within which to do their work as change agents. The Center for Gender in Organizations supported this mission by planning, implementing, and following up on three modules that were part of a workshop for gender focal points of African universities. The modules provided the gender focal points with knowledge of institutional change frameworks and a deeper understanding of the institutional indicators of gender equity, thus enabling the possibility of strategic and systemic change which would augment women’s educational professional opportunities in African higher education institutions.
Dr. Evangelina Holvino, Senior Research Faculty at CGO, was the project lead on the grant. CGO plans to disseminate the work done and findings of the workshop by holding a learning seminar and publishing a CGO Insights briefing note.