Gender InSITE

The global development challenges we face are well known: poverty, lack of institutional capacity, environmental degradation, climate change and increasingly natural disasters, infectious disease, malnutrition, and gender inequality. Policy and other decision makers need to weigh difficult trade-offs at every step, and innovation is critical to countries’ ability to adapt to changing circumstances and contribute to the global knowledge bank.

Yet, in many countries only half of the best ideas are heard – or even voiced. Worldwide, women are poorly represented at decision-making and management levels in the Science, Innovation, Technology and Energy (SITE) sector. Studies over the last 20 years show that women and men are affected differently when SITE is applied to development. Applying a gender lens takes into account the vision, concerns and abilities of both women and men – and makes them more effective, often yield longer term solutions.

GenderInSITE is an international initiative which applies a gender lens to science, innovation, technology and engineering for development. It promotes the role of women in SITE and increases the number of policies and programs globally that take gender into account.