Today marked the end of the Women into a leadership training program organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and its partners is concluded over the weekend in Nairobi, Kenya.
A program to equip women within the African Statistical System, and in particular, the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) with the skills required to take a full part in developing themselves and leading their organizations on a program of statistical modernization.
The closing ceremony of the Women into Leadership Program was held in Nairobi, on February 11, 2022. The program is organized by the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom (ONS-UK) in collaboration with the African Centre for Statistics (ACS) at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
The trainees included 18 high-performing female middle managers drawn from the National Statistical Systems of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Lesotho.
UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ECA, Vera Songwe, deplored the fact that top leadership positions among national statistical offices (NSOs) in Africa are overwhelmingly occupied by men.
“The current percentage of women in leadership in Africa and more so in data and statistics stands at 16, which is worryingly low. We need to triple this number in the near future.”
Earlier in the week, director of the Africa Centre for Statistics at the ECA, Oliver Chinganya, explained that the Women into Leadership Program “aims to create more diverse leadership teams capable of spearheading change and modernizing statistics in Africa.”
Mr Chinganya noted that “women leaders, with diverse experience, ideas and perspectives, have led substantive reforms and improved the performance of National Statistical Offices (NSOs).”
The Women into Leadership Program provides training in leadership, communication, and negotiation, to help mould women into senior leaders. The programme aims to equip women within the African Statistical System, especially the National Statistical Offices (NSOs), with the necessary self-development skills and the ability to lead their organisations on a programme of statistical modernisation.