WCERE2018: In conjunction with the WCERE 2018 conference in Gothenburg, EfD arranged the workshop ‘Women in Environmental Economics for Development’ (EfD’s WinEED). Supported by funding from Sida, EfD invited 23 academics from the global south interested in the intersection between environmental economics and development research, to take part in the workshop and in WCERE.
‘This is the first activity we arrange for early career researchers as part of EfD’s work with equal treatment and gender. In most countries, women are underrepresented in senior positions in economics departments, and they face unique challenges. We believe EfD can play a role in supporting and encouraging talented and ambitious junior researchers to stay in academia. If the evaluation shows that participants have found this workshop useful and motivating, we will aim to build on it and arrange other activities in the future ’ says Susanna Olai, EfD Program Manager and coordinator of this workshop.
The purpose of the workshop was to support women pursuing careers in the domain of EfD, which is environmental economics applied to policy questions in developing countries. During the workshop participants had a chance to present and receive feedback on their research from peers and senior economists, take part in sessions on career development and to discuss ways to raise awareness of structural barriers to women in economics.
There might be issues that we face, most might not even be aware of ‘says Susanna Olai.
Other activities focused on how to build research collaborations and developing skills like scouting for research trends & funding. At the end of the workshop, participants were invited to suggest ideas on what EfD, its partners or other institutions could do that they felt would be useful to them. Many different activities were raised by the group, including mentor programs, exchange programs, building communities for research collaborations and training in how to raise their professional profiles online to increase visibility, to mention a few.
Watch the film from the workshop here
About the workshop:
The EfD's Women in Environmental Economics for Development (EfD’s WinEED) workshop was held on June 23-25, 2018 at Handelshögskolan, University of Gothenburg. 23 early career women based in low, lower middle and upper middle -income countries participated, selected from over 130 applicants. Participants came from India, China, Malaysia, Ecuador, México, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Bangladesh, South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Malawi. Workshop leaders were Pamela Jagger, Erin Sills and Jo Albers.