 Over the past decade, African higher education institution, Universities in particular, have been very keen to mainstream gender into their core functions of teaching, learning, research and administration systems. As a result most have introduced gender courses into various faculties and departments. It is therefore not uncommon to find a university with half a dozen gender based courses, scattered in faculties as disparate as Agriculture, Law, Medicine, Education, Sociology, Theology, etc. However, these efforts have usually been ad hoc and based on the commitment of individual lecturers, deans, and vice-chancellors. Seldom has there been a concerted, well-synchronized policy and plan for integrating gender into the university as a whole.
In response to a felt need to bridge persistent gender gaps in tertiary education institutions in Africa, the Working Group on Higher Education (WGHE) of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), in collaboration with the Association of African Universities (AAU), have developed a Toolkit for Mainstreaming Gender in Higher Education in Africa and commenced training workshops for AAU member institutions using the Kit. Focus is on staff recruitment, student welfare, curriculum development and the general institutional culture, The Toolkit, which comprises ten modules and a literature review, provides practical guide on how to initiate a gender-mainstreaming program and establish helpful processes:
It is the hope of WGHE and AAU that the institutions that will benefit from the training workshops will take practical and proactive steps to mainstream gender in their core functions order to ensure sound institutional governance, human rights and equitable development and use of the most highly skilled human capital, towards the acceleration of the continents’ socio-economic development. |
Working Group on Higher Education in Africa 
Working Group on Higher Education in Africa
Mainstreaming Gender in Higher Education in Africa
