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International Day of Women and Girls in science, declared annually on 11 February by the United Nations, recognizes an important role of women and girls in science – not only as beneficiaries – but also as agents of change, towards achieving global sustainable development goals by 2030.   

Reaching gender equality and providing opportunities for women to participate in science-related activities is also one of top priorities of the EAF-Nansen programme. The long-term objective of the initiative is to strengthen national capacities - both human and institutional - of the programme partner countries, by enhancing individual capacity in ocean science and fisheries management, through for example, obtaining higher academic qualifications. As a result, the EAF-Nansen programme has initiated a series of calls for graduate students from the partner countries, already admitted to a Master’s or a PhD programme. The research work of successful candidates must however correspond to one of the thematic areas of the EAF-Nansen Programme Science Plan for possible collaboration. 

We are presenting below profiles of just three out of many young women who will benefit from this unique opportunity in 2022 and lead the way for more female scientists in the future: 

Hayat Ben-ayad (24 years old, Morocco) is a Master’s Degree student at the Faculty of Sciences at Hassan II University in Casablanca. As part of her studies, supported by the EAF-Nansen programme, Hayat is learning, among other things, how to use Geographic Information System (GIS) in order to analyse the data used for management decisions on Marine Spatial Planning. This, in a long-term, will help ensure sustainable human interaction with the ocean without depleting its marine resources and damaging ecosystems. The focus of Hayat Master’s project is on the occurrence and ecology of cold-water coral reefs off northwest Africa. She’s working with data collected during a research survey by the EAF-Nansen programme in 2020 in order to map cold-water Lophelia pertusa reef habitats with their associated rich fauna, and to look for ways of protecting these biodiversity hotspots from potential physical damage, caused by for example bottom fishing activities. The results of her efforts will be published as an article in a scientific journal, and will be presented at national as well as international conferences.

“Taking part in this Master’s project has significantly influenced my professional development,” says Hayat. “I’m particularly grateful to the supervisors of the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR) and the Moroccan Institute of Fisheries Research (INRH), for helping me enhance my current knowledge in marine biology and oceanography, together with the the use of GIS technics. Under their supervision, I also developed scientific writing skills. All these benefits make this experience one of the best life achievements so far,” she concludes.  

Ester Shoopala (27 years old, Namibia) – is a fisheries researcher, working on a hake programme at the National Marine Information and Research Centre at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources in Swakopmund, where she deals with data analysis and technical report writing. Ester’s work focuses on fish population dynamics (e.g. stock structure, growth, distribution), fish biology and stock assessment of marine species. As a future PhD student, with the support of the EAF-Nansen programme, Ester will be investigating the ‘stock structure analysis tools for some demersal species such as hakes, monkfish and kingklip in the Benguela region.’ This research corresponds to one of the themes of the EAF-Nansen Programme Science Plan.

The expected findings from Ester’s PhD project will likely improve the existing knowledge of the demersal species in the Benguala region (a large ecosystem area that runs from Angola through Namibia to South Africa), advance implementation of further management/assessment measures for these species, and contribute towards more sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources for the years to come.

“The EAF-Nansen studentship programme presents a unique opportunity to advance my current scientific knowledge in terms of academic writing, research skills and data analysis, to mention just a few,” explains Ester. “In brief, I strongly believe that this PhD programme will equip me with relevant scientific knowledge necessary to advance work in my research area and will offer career development,” she sums up. 

Bibiana Nassangole (31 years old, Mozambique) – is an ecologist at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Lúrio University in Pemba. Apart from lecturing, Bibiana does research on coral reefs, ecosystem mapping (including seagrass and fisheries management) and fisheries monitoring. Her future PhD project at the University of Aveiro (Portugal), through the EAF-Nansen studentship programme, will focus on the occurrence and distribution of soft corals, with the main objective to increase their global understanding. The lack or insufficient knowledge about the soft corals and recent threats related to climate change, overfishing and human activity call for further research on soft corals in Mozambique waters. Hence, the newly acquired knowledge will contribute to the development of appropriate management and conservation policies on coral reefs in the country. During the PhD project, Bibiana will use traditional taxonomic methods of collecting data (photographs and tissue samples), supported by genetic analysis such as DNA barcoding. In additional, she will work with the existing data collected from the EAF-Nansen programme cruise in 2018 off northern Mozambique, in which she also participated. 

“The EAF-Nansen programme has offered me a unique opportunity to undertake a Ph.D. degree, that will allow me to improve my background knowledge and grow professionally as a scientist,” says Bibiana. “The program will also support my in-depth research and participation in training and conferences where I will have an opportunity to share the results of my study. Overall, thanks to this PhD project, I hope to become an expert on soft corals and help advance the existing management policies on coral reefs in Mozambique waters,” she adds.

EAF-Nansen studentship programme is just one way of mainstreaming gender equity and promoting women empowerment. Most recently, the programme supported the launch of a ‘Gender Desk’ in collaboration with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries in the United Republic of Tanzania – one of the programme partner countries - as a way of advancing gender equality within the fisheries sector. Now other countries such as Senegal and The Gambia are following suit.  

Advancing gender equality and providing opportunities for an effective participation of women across all activities is also part of the Gender Strategy of the EAF-Nansen Programme. Strengthening partners’ capacities additionally fosters South-South collaboration, by creating networks to address issues of common interest. Estelle and Hawa met during one of the EAF-Nansen programme research surveys. Their relationship borne on board the Dr Fridtjof Nansen continues today far beyond the joint experience at sea: “Capacity development element of the EAF-Nansen Programme is very well-organised,”comments Estelle. “I didn’t know Hawa before; we met on board the R/V Dr Fridtjof Nansen in 2019 and we keep sharing and exchanging knowledge. The same goes for other colleagues.”