IITA women researchers in the Lab.
Increasing the number of women in research is all about improving productivity and efficiency, says IITA’s Director General Dr Nteranya Sanginga.
Addressing women staff members in Ibadan in March, Dr Sanginga said there is a need to increase the number of women in IITA because they are more productive then the men workers.
He cited as an example the unit involved in the threshing of crops such as maize, soybean, cowpea, and rice at the Threshing Building in Ibadan. Out of a workforce of over 100, only 30% were women, but in terms of output, they accounted for more than 70%.
“Another example that comes to mind is the IITA Women’s Group. They are involved in several charitable programs involving orphanages, community development, fund raising, and provision of scholarships.”
The Director General described the women in the workforce as a productive resource that was yet to be fully tapped.
Making the vision a reality
Dr Sanginga was not merely advocating an increase in the numbers of women; he envisioned more women in management positions in the Institute in the years ahead.
He called on women to come out of their shell and aspire for higher positions.
“You need to be excellent in whatever you are doing… You need to be innovative,” he said.
But as elsewhere, challenges abound that limit their potential performance.
For instance, young working mothers have to take care of children and husb ands…For many, taking on higher positions with more responsibilities would compromise these duties.
Another challenge is the cultural perception which views women as the weaker of the sexes, especially in the African context. For this reason, some women see some jobs, especially in research as “no go areas.” Things are changing, however, with more African women going into research. IITA’s Human Resources Service has always emphasized IITA as an equal opportunity employer to encourage more women to apply for positions.
This is why Dr Sanginga urged the women, “Apply for the positions… Don’t be shy.”
Delivery is key
As positive sentiment across several organizations to increase the quota of women grows, several organizations have different propositions to address this challenge of low populations of women.
In IITA, the key is for women to muster more courage than ever before and participate in project execution to ensure that IITA meets its delivery goals. “If we are able to meet our delivery targets, I will not hesitate to employ more women. But if we fail to meet our project execution targets, we will have no option but to downsize,” Dr Sanginga said.
In less than 2 years, IITA has doubled its annual budget and there are still prospects for growth. Dr Sanginga said the energy from the women is needed now to ensure that the Institute meets its obligations, emphasizing that “if you (women) take care of IITA, IITA will take care of you.”
Our say
In response to the call for greater participation of women and to be able to fill top management positions in IITA, some women called for policies that would enable them to further their education while at the same time keep their jobs and take care of their babies.
“We need to further our education,” Mrs Kafilat Odesola, IITA Scientist, said, emphasising that such opportunities would not compromise research, “because women can multitask and do a hundred things at the same time.”
Besides the challenge of furthering their education, women at the forum also voiced out other limitations.
However, Dr (Mrs) Bussie Maziya-Dixon, IITA Crop Utilisation Specialist, noted that climbing the corporate ladder would entail women setting their priorities right. “Women should know what they want. What you want to achieve at 30… What you want to achieve at 40 etc. I have seen a lot of women who come with the ambition to do a PhD. And the supervisor looks for funds because he/she knows that if he/she educates a woman, he/she is actually educating 20 people at a go. But in the middle of the program when the boyfriend comes and says we are getting married, she drops everything just like that. So my advice is: “know what you want as an individual and pursue it.”
Corroborating Dr Maziya-Dixon’s position, Mrs Bukky Adeyemo, Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director General (Corporate Services), encouraged women not to look at limitations if they wanted to be at par with the male counterparts.
“I remember working in IITA years back with my little children (2, 3 years old), and sometimes closing at 8.00 pm. But I was determined to do the job because that is what it entailed. So we just have to be determined and tackle the challenges that come,” she said.
Way forward
But more than rhetoric, the women staff set up a committee to map out an implementation strategy to increase the workforce of women, and advise on matters relating to staff promotions in IITA.
The committee, which has strong institutional backing, plans to raise the number of women staff by 50 percent over the next 3 years. At the moment, women represent 22 percent of Nationally Recruited Staff and 30 percent of Internationally Recruited Staff according to April 2013 recruitment figures from the Institute.
The committee met on 14 March and pledged to work with IITA management to ensure:
Gender balance for short term staff.
Training for women which could be in the form of mentorship, training, and seminars.
Women are given the opportunity to further their studies (possibility of study leave for female staff members).
Introduction of flexi-time for workers, particularly crèche workers. (The crèche could be open after working hours and on Saturdays).
Promoting IITA as a good family company to work for to potential female c andidates.
In the area of women taking senior management/leadership roles, the women promised to work with the IITA management in the following areas:
Mentorship/guidance counseling to women staff.
Heads of unit to encourage women to take on more responsibility that will enhance their careers.
There should be good dissemination of information among women on potential openings in the Institute.
Encourage career advancement.
Conduct empowerment seminars.
The women also went ahead to constitute committees that would implement the promised/pledged actions.
For more information, please contact: Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.orgAbout IITAwww.iita.org
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Its award-winning research for development (R4D) approach addresses the development needs of tropical countries. IITA works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is a non-profit organization founded in 1967 in Nigeria and governed by a Board of Trustees. IITA works on the following crops: cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, yam, cassava, and maize. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
Olamide Deborah Nwanze is a Senior Research Associate specializing in gender mainstreaming research to inform participatory and inclusive breeding, variety development, and seed systems policies regarding root, tuber, and banana (RTB) crops in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Headquarters, Ibadan, Nigeria. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Ibadan and holds an MSc and B. Agric in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. Olamide is a fellow of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development – Gender Responsive Agricultural Systems Policy (AWARD-GRASP) and the Gender Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT). She seeks to apply her gender-mainstreaming learnings, gender-responsive research, and policy development, and review expertise to facilitate women, youth, children, and vulnerable social group’s access to and adoption of agricultural Innovations that guarantee food, nutrition, income, and livelihood security in Africa. Her current roles include mentoring research fellows, development of guides and training manuals, implementation and adaptation of gender frameworks and tools, value chain actors’ engagement as citizen science partners, policy review and redesign, data management, and analysis. Her current research explores mixed methods and participatory and interdisciplinary approaches to capture and highlight gender dynamics, needs, preferences, and challenges stakeholders face within the agricultural livelihood value chain to prioritize gender-inclusive strategies in breeding programs, policy design, and implementation.
de Sousa, K., van Etten, J., Manners, R. Bello, A., Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., et al. 2024. The tricot approach: an agile framework for decentralized on-farm testing supported by citizen science. A retrospective. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 44, 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00937-1
Madu, T., Onwuka, S., Nwafor, S., Onyemauwa, N., Ejechi, M., Ofoeze, M., Ukeje, B., Eluagu, C., Olaosebikan, O., Okoye, B., 2024. Gender-Inclusive Consumer Studies Improve Cassava Breeding in Nigeria in: Frontiers in Sociology, volume 9, number: 1224504, doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1224504
Olaosebikan, O.; Bello, A.; Utoblo, O.; Okoye, B.; Olutegbe, N.; Garner, E.; Teeken, B.; Bryan, E.; Forsythe, L.; Cole, S.; Madu, T. 2023. Stressors and Resilience within the Cassava Value Chain in Nigeria: Preferred Cassava Variety Traits and Response Strategies of Men and Women to Inform Breeding. Sustainability 15, 7837. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107837
Okoye, B., Ofoeze, M., Ejechi, M., Onwuka, S., Nwafor, S., Onyemauwa, N., Ukeje, B., Eluagu, C., Obidiegwu, J.*, Olaosebikan, O., Madu, T.* 2023. Prioritizing preferred traits in the yam value chain in Nigeria: a gender situation analysis in: Frontiers in Sociology, volume 8, number: 1232626, pages 1 – 9, ISSN 2297-7775, 2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1232626/full
Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A. A., de Sousa, K., Ndjouenkeu, R., Adesokan, M., Alamu, E. O., Agbona, A., van Etten, J., Kegah, F. N.*, Dufour, D., Bouniol, A., Teeken, B. 2023. Consumer acceptability of cassava gari-eba food products across cultural and environmental settings using the triadic comparison of technologies approach (tricot) in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture,
Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A. A., Madu, T.*, Cole, S. M. 2023. Qualitative assessment on the positionality and preferences of dyads in relation to cassava-related activities: working with tricot trial citizen scientists https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138326 Type: Manual
Bouniol, A., Ceballos, H., Bello, A. A., Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., Owoade, D., Agbona, A., Fotso Kuate, A., Madu, T.*, Okoye, B.*, Ofoeze, M.*, Nwafor, S.*, Onyemauwa, N.*, Adinsi, L.*, Forsythe, L., Dufour, D. 2023. Varietal impact on women’s labour, workload and related drudgery in processing root, tuber and banana crops: focus on cassava in sub-Saharan Africa in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, pages 1 – 25, ISSN 0022-5142,
Bello, A. A., Agbona, A., Olaosebikan, O., Edughaen, G., Dufour, D., Bouniol, A., Iluebbey, P., Ndjouenkeu, R.*, Rabbi, I. Y., Teeken, B. 2023. Genetic and environmental effects on processing productivity and food product yield: drudgery of women’s work in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, pages 1 – 32, ISSN 0022-5142, 5
Cavicchioli, M., Zimbiti, T., Teeken, B., Nwanze, D.O., Liani, M., Parkes, E. & Bello, A. 2023. IITA-Gender Responsive Breeding Training Report. Genetic Resources Center, IITA-HQ, Ibadan, 21-23 September, 2022. Ibadan, Nigeria: IITA, (34 p.).https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131368
Agbona, A. Peteti P., Teeken B., Olaosebikan O. Bello, A. A., Parkes, E., Rabbi, I. Y., Mueller, L., Egesi, C., Kulakow, P. 2022. Data Management in Multi-disciplinary African RTB Crop Breeding Programs. In: Williamson, H.F., Leonelli, S. (eds) Towards Responsible Plant Data Linkage: Data Challenges for Agricultural Research and Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13276-6_5
Lora Forsythe, Pricilla Marimo, Sarah Mayanja, Olamide D. Olaosebikan, Esme Stuart, Bela Teeken, Benjamin Okoye, Tessy Madu, (2021). Cross-product Gender Analysis of RTBfoods Step 2 Gendered Food Mapping on RTB Products. Understanding the Drivers of Trait Preferences and the Development of Multi-user RTB Product Profiles, WP1. London, UK: RTBfoods Field Scientific Report, 30 p.
Teeken, B., Garner, E., Agbona, A., Balogun, I., Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A., Madu, T., Okoye, B., Egesi, C., Kulakow, P. and Tufan, H.A. 2021. Beyond “Women’s Traits”: Exploring How Gender, Social Difference, and Household Characteristics Influence Trait Preferences. Frontiers Sustainable Food Systems 5:740926. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.740926
Teeken, B., Agbona, A., Bello, A., Olaosebikan, O., Alamu, E., Adesokan, M., Awoyale, W., Madu, T., Okoye, B., Chijioke, U., Owoade, D., Okoro, M., Bouniol, A., Dufour, D., Hershey, C., Rabbi, I., Maziya‐Dixon, B., Egesi, C., Tufan, H. and Kulakow, P. (020. Understanding cassava varietal preferences through pairwise ranking of gari‐eba and fufu prepared by local farmer–processors. Int J Food Sci Technol.https://doi.org/10.1111/ijfs.14862
Bela Teeken, Olamide Olaosebikan, Ireti Balogun, Benjamin Okoye, Tessy Madu, Steven Cole, Abolore Bello, Elizabeth Parkes. (2020). Piloting the G+ customer and product profile tools for gender-responsive cassava breeding in Nigeria. Nigeria: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/13000
