Advancing Women's Leadership In Health R&D In Africa.

From Policy To Practice

📅Thursday 12 March 2026
🕑 02:00 PM GMT | 04:00 PM SAT/CAT | 05:00 PM EAT
💻 Free | 90 minutes | Zoom

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Africa is building a new era of health sovereignty. But who's at the table?

Women make up nearly half of all STEM graduates across African universities - the highest proportion of any region in the world. Yet they hold only about 30% of research positions on the continent, and even fewer occupy the leadership roles that set priorities, allocate funding, and shape the future of health systems.

This isn't a talent problem. It's a structural one.

This International Women's Day, join us for a candid, evidence-driven conversation about what it will take to move from policy commitments to real, measurable change for women in health R&D across Africa.

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What you'll hear

This isn't a lecture. It's a 90-minute conversation between some of the most influential voices working at the intersection of health, science, gender, and governance in Africa today.

Together, we'll explore four critical pillars:

Policy

How can continental and national frameworks move beyond gender-aware language to actually deliver gender-responsive R&D systems?

Investment

Where is the money going, and why does so little of it reach women-led research? What would a truly gender-responsive funding architecture look like?

Innovation

African women scientists are already leading groundbreaking work in infectious disease, reproductive health, and clinical research. What systemic conditions enabled their success, and what's still missing?

Regulation

From ethics review processes to regulatory harmonisation, how do the rules of the game need to change so that women aren't sidelined when it matters most?

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Meet the Speakers

Dr Fatou Wurie

CEO, Youterus
Dr Fatou Wurie is an award-winning scholar, sustainable development practitioner and health policy specialist with 17 years of experience at the nexus of technology, gender equality, and health. A Harvard DrPH and Oxford alumnus, she has served in leadership and technical roles with UNICEF, the WHO Foundation, and governments across Africa.
Julie Otieno

COO, Youterus
Julie Otieno is an operations executive with over 15 years of experience leading complex systems across corporate, infrastructure, and social impact sectors. A former advisor at Monitor Deloitte with an MBA from Cornell University, she brings a deeply executional lens to the question at the heart of this webinar: how do continental commitments on women in health R&D translate into funded, accountable, operational reality.
Fara Ndiaye

Deputy Executive Director, Speak Up Africa
Fara Ndiaye is co-founder and Deputy Executive Director of Speak Up Africa, an African-led, Senegal-based organization working with leaders and changemakers in Africa and beyond to solve Africa's pressing sustainable development challenges.
Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall

Chief Executive Officer, Pasteur Institute of Dakar
An internationally recognised epidemiologist and Medical Colonel, Dr Fall previously served as Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response at the WHO, coordinating global responses to major epidemics across more than 50 countries. His vision for African health sovereignty is driving a new era of innovation and local health production.
Dr Delese Mimi Darko

Director General, African Medicines Agency
Dr Darko leads the continental body mandated to ensure access to quality, safe, and efficacious medicines across Africa. With extensive experience in pharmaceutical regulation, she plays a pivotal role in harmonising regulatory frameworks across Member States - a critical enabler for African-led clinical research and health innovation.
Dr Stellah Bosire

Executive Director, Africa Centre for Health Systems and Gender Justice
Dr Bosire works at the intersection of health systems strengthening, gender justice, and advocacy, ensuring that women's voices are embedded in health policy design and implementation. She is a recognised leader in linking evidence-based research to transformative policy change.
Prof Coumba Touré Kane

Professor, Cheikh Anta Diop University; Researcher, IRESSEF (African Voices of Science Champion)
Prof Touré Kane specialises in microbiology and virology of infectious diseases including HIV, hepatitis, and COVID-19. A former Rector of the University of Sine Saloum (USSEIN) and Scientific Director of IRESSEF, her contributions make her a central figure in biomedical research in Africa.
Prof Nothando Ngwenya

Academic lead (Education and training), Africa Health Research Institute and African Voices of Science Champion
Prof Ngwenya holds honorary appointments at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, University College London, and the University of Oxford. She leads pioneering research on adolescent and youth health in Africa and is a leading advocate for training and mentoring the next generation of African scientists.
Martin Eigbike

Managing Partner, Gawani Africa
A strategy and policy advisor with over 20 years of experience across Africa, formerly at Dalberg Advisors and Accenture. His recent work focuses on strengthening health research capacity in low- and middle-income countries. He will connect the panel's key messages to the Regional Scorecard.

Why this matters - and why now

When women lead in health R&D, research is more innovative and solutions are better tailored to the populations that need them most. Yet structural barriers - opaque promotion criteria, funding rules that penalise career breaks, care responsibilities that go unrecognised - continue to hold back a generation of African women scientists who are ready to lead.

Africa is building a new era of health sovereignty. This conversation is about making sure women are at the centre of it.