Gender equality is an important issue to discuss by also emphasizing the contexts of the Global North and South. The UNESCO Chair focusing on gender and/or race can enhance the pool of community involved in such work. As we look into leadership by female experts, given the fact that universities are involved in UNESCO Chair networks, it is worth making this as diverse as it can be especially when Global North and South are involved to conduct the work. This can be in terms of how knowledge is managed, career progression appraisal is managed and the critical internationalization of higher education is handled for chairs, founding co-chairs that have served right from the establishment of such communities, prospective co-chairs that are challenging pre-existing organization behaviour, managers, leaders and so on. New competency and qualification is worth valuing, without overlooking African occupational values. As we know, a decade for transforming education in Africa has been dedicated following the African Union theme of education in 2024. Three continental conferences were co-organized by UNESCO and the African Union Commission in late 2024, namely “Transforming Knowledge; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Higher Education” in respective order, by also involving several partners such as the European Commission, Italian Embassy and the US Mission to UNESCO. Given the fact that UNESCO Chairs are established within universities, it is worth making partnership on equal footing with Africa a priority and when legal loopholes such as business registration for business models in Social and Solidarity Economy which is declared as relevant in 2024 are challenging for Africans, fostering hubs in Global North universities to be the norm. Quota systems for African women can improve gender disparity in higher education leadership whereby the Global North and South are involved

Lul Admasachew,
Affiliate, UNESCO Chair for Global Health and Education,
Ethiopia

Gender equality is an important issue to discuss. The UNESCO Chair focusing on gender and/or race can enhance the pool of community involved in such work. As we look into leadership by female experts, given the fact that universities are involved in UNESCO Chair networks, it is worth making this as diverse as it can be especially when Global North and South are involved to conduct the work. This can be in terms of how knowledge is managed, career progression appraisal is managed and the critical internationalization of higher education is handled for chairs, founding co-chairs that have served right from the establishment of such communities, prospective co-chairs that are challenging pre-existing organization behaviour, managers, leaders and so on. New comptency and qualification is worth valuing, without overlooking African occupational values. As we know, a decade for transforming education in Africa has been dedicated following the African Union theme of education in 2024. Three continental conferences were co-organized by UNESCO and the African Union Commission in late 2024, namely “Transforming Knowledge; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Higher Education” in respective order, by also involving several partners such as the European Commission, Italian Embassy and the US Mission to UNESCO. Given the fact that UNESCO Chairs are established within universities, it is worth making partnership on equal footing with Africa a priority and when legal loopholes such as business registration for business models in Social and Solidarity Economy which is declared as relevant in 2024 are challenging for Africans, fostering hubs in Global North universities to be the norm. Quota systems for African women can improve gender disparity in higher education leadership whereby the Global North and South are involved

Lul Admasachew,
Affiliate, UNESCO Chair for Global Health and Education,
Ethiopia