Abstract

Building the capacity of African women scientists to raise their contributions to agricultural research and development is critical to ensuring food security in sub-Saharan Africa. The African Women in Agricultural Research and Development program developed a tailored capacity development program to contribute to this. We discuss the rationale and theory of change for the program, as well as the extent to which participants demonstrated science-related outcomes, including capabilities to: conduct research, conduct gender responsive research, fundraise, and to present research findings. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the program on a sample of 122 women. Results show increased capacity on each of the outcomes from before to after the program. Most participants (93 percent) indicated that program played a strong role in the changes they experienced. Qualitative analysis confirmed this in all the cases. Key lessons for the design and implementation of women’s science capacity development programs are highlighted.