Women engineers ready to help actualise bottom-up plan

Promoting girls' engineering education creates a ripple effect, empowering future generations to contribute meaningfully to the nation's progress. [iStockphoto]

The commemoration of the 2023 International Day of Women Engineers comes at a crucial moment in Kenya's history - the unveiling of the country's largest-ever budget, amounting to approximately Sh3.679 trillion.

This is the first budget of President William Ruto's administration. It's theme of 'Bottom-Up Economic Transformation and Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation for Improved Livelihoods of Kenyans' undoubtedly, takes centre-stage.

In the pursuit of this agenda, the inclusion and active participation of women engineers will play a pivotal role. Considering that women, and more so women engineers bring invaluable contribution to the economy, now is the time to ensure their role is felt in implementing the bottom-up economic agenda.

According to the Kenya Kwanza manifesto, the bottom-up plan acknowledges that women are largely excluded from participation and decision-making in governance and political institutions. Furthermore, insights from the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report of July 2022 reveal that global gender parity is still distant, with an estimated 132 years required to achieve full equality.

Given these circumstances, it is imperative to recognise women engineers' unique perspectives, expertise, and contributions in catalysing transformative change and fostering a prosperous and equitable society in various ways.

Public resources must be allocated efficiently for the government's bottom-up economic model to succeed. This necessitates challenging societal stereotypes and biases regarding the role of women engineers and women in leadership. Women engineers serve as ambassadors for change, inspiring young girls to pursue STEM that have long been seen as men's fields.

Promoting girls' engineering education creates a ripple effect, empowering future generations to contribute meaningfully to the nation's progress. In the case of the bottom-up economic model, advancing STEM studies and increasing representation of engineers in government decision-making, advocacy, governance, and leadership roles will be a magical milestone.

With data from Engineers Board of Kenya and Institution of Engineers of Kenya showing women engineers are less than 20 per cent, advancing the uptake of STEM studies will propel this nation to another crucial aspect of having more engineers in the decision-making levels of government.

This approach can further drive women's involvement in economic development in sub-Saharan Africa where women researchers constitute a mere 18-33 per cent, according to UNESCO Science Report (2015).

Secondly, tapping into the knowledge of women engineers would advance the government's plans on projects such as housing and other infrastructure projects - which have the lion's share in the 2023/2024 budget.

Women engineers have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to design and implement innovative solutions that address local challenges such as renewable energy systems and efficient agricultural practices. Considering this, why not have more women at such levels? Why not leverage their experiences to implement crucial projects?

-Ms Kamanja is a Council Member, Institution of Engineers of Kenya