Arab Women Leaders In Agriculture Fellowship Programme Opens Call For Applications

DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 08th Mar, 2021) Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, UAE Minister of State for Food and Water Security, has announced the launch of the second (virtual) edition of the Arab Women Leaders in Agriculture (AWLA) fellowship programme for women scientists in the middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The announcement was made during an online event dedicated to the International Women’s Day today.

AWLA aims to help early- and mid-career professionals in agriculture to secure leadership roles by encouraging gender-responsive working cultures and creating platforms to showcase their intellect, capability, and contribution. AWLA’s fellows will help establish a unique research and development (R&D) forum for women scientists in the MENA region to address pressing agricultural challenges and take part in a regional networking platform for women researchers across agricultural disciplines.

Almheiri said, "Women are playing an increasingly prominent role in the scientific and entrepreneurial areas of food security – we see this in our own food security landscape here in the UAE, with women in senior roles at the cutting edge of crop research and agricultural technology. I am therefore delighted to announce the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture's (ICBA) second edition of its Arab Women Leaders in Agriculture (AWLA) programme, which will be producing the next crop of food researchers who are so important to drive our food security sector forward.

I look forward to seeing many more bright young women graduate from this important AWLA programme."

The call for applications will lead to the selection of a group of 20 to 30 researchers from the MENA region. The programme will be delivered online over a 10-month period, starting from 1st June 2021.

Dr. Tarifa Alzaabi, Acting Director-General of ICBA, said, "Women-led contributions to agriculture, both on the farm and in the lab, are essential components of global food security. In MENA, women make up over 40 percent of the labour force in the sector. They also contribute around 18 percent to the region’s overall GDP. Through our programme, we hope to encourage women to play a more active role in such areas as science and innovation for sustainable agricultural development and food security. This second (virtual) edition builds on the success of the programme in 2019-2020 which saw the graduation of 22 fellows from the region."

ICBA developed AWLA in 2016 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). The first edition of AWLA concluded in March 2020. The first cohort of fellows included 22 women scientists from six countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia.