SOFIA MAPURANGA The Women’s University in Africa (WUA) plans to establish a gender research centre in Marondera aimed at addressing the gap in the availability of gender aggregated data, Vice-Chancellor for WUA said last week. Research has shown that there was little or no information on gender aggregated data for most countries, especially in southern Africa. Speaking on the sidelines of the 6th World Women University Presidents Forum (WWUPF) in Harare hosted by WUA recently, Prof Hope Sadza said expectations were that construction of the centre would start next year.
“Plans are underway that the centre be established at our Marondera campus and expectations are that by the beginning of next year, construction of infrastructure should commence,” said Sadza.
She said the centre would benefit local and regional researchers in executing their work, especially those whose thrust was gender-related. “All the paper work for the establishment of the centre have been finalised and we would have commenced construction had it not been that we are not yet financially stable to kick-start the project,” she said.
Sadza said Sadc countries would be welcome to utilise facilities at the centre considering that lack of gender aggregated data was prevalent not only in Zimbabwe, but in the whole region. Speaking at the same occasion, Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) Vice-Chancellor Dr Primrose Kurasha called on leading women in universities to come up with strategic initiatives for spearheading change in their countries.
“The challenge is to come up with relevant chapters to address gaps within our countries, and hopefully, Africa spearheads the process to ensure strengthened university partnerships for the empowerment of women worldwide,” she said.
