Developing Public Engagement Capacity and Thought Leadership to Promote the Innovative Engagement of Early-Career African Female Researchers in Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Within Africa, there continues to be limited science public engagement, relegating relevant research toivory towers that remain inaccessible to the general public and many policy makers. In Kenya, for example, research by the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) found that Parliamentary Research Ser vice staff rely on newspaper reports and government briefings rather than evidence by local academics to inform their advice to members of parliament, yet fact-checking by the PesaCheck initiative shows that local newspapers often make unsupported claims. The failure of research to permeate outside of research institutions also results in low public understanding on societal issues, and as countries across the world respond to a global public health crisis of unprecedented magnitude, the need for an informed public has never been more crucial. It is clear that more attention needs to be paid in transmitting vital research to non-expert audiences. Further, as dominant expert voices on African issues continue to be typically male-including industry, public sector, and civil society leaders-there is a competing need to ensure that the voices of African women are not marginalised in the continent's national and regional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed project responds to these needs by strengthening the pipeline of highly trained and policy-oriented thought leaders who can employ a broad spectrum of communication skills to add to timely and credible discussions on the impacts of the pandemic on the region, informing evidence-based decision making and helping the public to better understand the big issues of the day. Specifically, we will develop a a virtual training module on public engagement and science communication targeted at early-career female African researchers in fields relevant to the COVID-19 crisis. Building on an extensive track record delivering in-person science communication workshops and leveraging co-funding from existing donors, we will adapt our content to an online format that will facilitate distance learning. An interdisciplinary cohort of 25 female doctoral and postdoctoral researchers under the age of 40 and based at accredited universities in East Africa will be competitively selected to undertake the intensive online course. Given the far-reaching scope of the COVID-19 crisis, the trainees will be selected to represent a range of disciplinary perspectives including epidemiology, zoonosis, virology, public health, macroeconomics, social protection, education, and ethics. In addition, the 25 trainees will be supported through intensive media outreach activities that put their training into practice to create tangible outputs such as blogs, op-eds, podcasts, policy briefs, and other media. This project is unique in that it strengthens the supply of evidence needed to inform the region's COVID-19 responses by promoting research translation upstream at the point of research production within academia, as well as increasing demand for evidence through creative and innovative content that has broad appeal and reach among diverse African audiences. By focusing on African researchers, we also encourage uptake of homegrown evidence that is tailored to our local content for improved health and policy outcomes in the region. Finally, by providing professional development, capacity support, and platforms to young African women, this project also helps position more African women as experts and thought leaders, challenging gender stereotypes, and helping to increase women's influence in decision making spheres locally. This in turn contributes to a scientific community that is more diverse, vibrant, and reflective of the communities it serves, which is crucial for recovery in the current COVID-19 crisis, and for building resilience against future pandemics in the long term. Expected Outputs  Build capacity for thought leadership and public scholarship on COVID-19 among African researchers, particularly young women, making timely and locally-relevant research accessible beyond the ivory tower in the current crisis, and developing a pipeline of expert interlocuters for future crises  Encourage public engagement with research and evidence for evidence-informed decision making by policy actors and members of society on the COVID-19 pandemic  Increase the visibility of female researchers and experts in all spheres of society, in order to challenge stereotypes and increase women's influence in African society