Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim (Mauritian Creole pronunciation: [bibi amina fiːədos ɡəʁib fakim]) GCSK (born 17 October 1959) is a Mauritian politician and biodiversity scientist who served as the sixth president of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018. In December 2014, she was selected to be the presidential candidate of the Alliance Lepep. After Kailash Purryag resigned on 29 May 2015, both Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth and Leader of the Opposition Paul Berenger positively welcomed her nomination, which was unanimously approved in a vote in the National Assembly.

Quotes

• “We need more mentors and role models where access to education matters.”
• "I think we need to break that vicious cycle where negative stereotypes abound and deter girls’ engagement in science." Dr. Ameenah F. In Q&A: Break vicious cycle that deters girls in science
• “Eliminating gender inequality and empowering women could raise the productive potential of one billion Africans, delivering a huge boost to the continent’s development potential”.
• "Africa make a sizeable contribution to the continent’s economy. They are more economically active as farmers and entrepreneurs than women in any other region of the world. It is the women who grow most of Africa’s food, and who own one-third of all businesses”
• “increasing the gender parity and addressing the attainment of the SDGs in a holistic and comprehensive manner has the potential of positively shaping synchronous outcomes such as improving instant and child mortality rates, increase labour force participation rates and earnings or fostering further educational investment in children” Dr.Gurib-Fakim in her first address to the International Labour Conference.
• " If you're a scientist, you tend to really look at the perfection of the human body, the way it functions. If you look at nature as a whole. I'm still amazed at the perfection with which the entire ecosystem functions together."

"If women are left out of full participation in 21st-century aspirations, we will not achieve gender equality, nor realize our broader goals for growth, prosperity, and well-being, including scientific advancement."

• "When science is rejected as a career choice, it is often due to limited information and the dearth of positive role models to encourage young girls to participate."
• "Women must be empowered with knowledge, technology, financial resources, and land. Increasing access to financial mechanisms and removing legal barriers are among the many ways that women can stay in the workforce and achieve their fullest potential." Innovating Women's Leadership Across Sectors: A Conversation with H.E. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius
• Transfer of knowledge and expansion of ideas is a great contribution,[1]
• I've gone through the glass ceiling, and that's an important message to send to young women and girls. … 'Yes, it's possible if you are a woman.' [2]
• “That was a very important moment because it added a lot of credibility, as people were still looking down on herbal knowledge; they called it witchcraft… so that was very important also in opening doors for more research grants. That really put the spotlight on Mauritius.”Ameenah after winning the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science in 2007

“I thought the best way to add value to that piece of research was to bring in that component of validation… This is when we set up the laboratory for testing for anti-infectives because we are in the tropics and of course infectious disease is a very important component.”[3]

• I was determined that I will not sink, I will rather swim.”[4]
• My father said ‘so what are you going to do’? And I said ‘I am going to study chemistry, because that’s where my heart is’.”[5]
• “I think I would really like to keep on operating in that space where you can touch the lives of your people.”[6]
• “So I said ok if I can serve my country at the highest level, why not?”[7]
• It’s not easy for women; there is a lot of misogyny.[8]
• “My biggest success will be if I have touched the lives of so many youth to make them successful,” [9]
• If you index your dollar to raw material it will go down. If you index your dollar to knowledge, the growth will be exponential…[10]
• “The youth is our biggest asset and the sooner we add value to that asset the better it is going to be for the continent…[11]
• “Africa should own her agenda in terms of generating Africa-centric data, Africa-centric projects but we need to leverage collaborations and partnerships with institutions where these things are already happening,” [12]
• “There is plenty to do,” [13]
• “This is when you realize you are in a position where you can make a difference. You can be the voice for so many things.”[14]
• “The one thing I have to say to young people is embrace the idea that you have to take risks because no business school will teach you to take personal risks.”[15]
• while I talk about diversity -- diversity in the widest sense of the word. We've seen that whenever there was diversity, whenever there was openness, whenever there was dialogue, this was the time when societies have been most productive.
  • [16]
• We have to do away with this rote learning. We have to ensure that we drive this curiosity in the child, and they need to be curious. And if we want to move along the line for them to become great scientists, they need to become more and more curious in everything they do.
  • [17] Ameenah Gurib-Fakim response when asked about her passion for Science though negated by a counsellor who claimed it's saturated by boys.
• one must always follow your heart. And my heart was always in chemistry.
• Africa must be food secure, Africa must be energy secure, Africa must be water secure. If we want to get to that level of development -- Agenda 2030 is not very far away -- if you want to have success, we need to have an educated youth in Africa.
  • [18]
• So we need highly educated, we need female intuition, and we need to get them there. And this is where a great deal of effort has to be done to actually motivate them from a very young age, to tell that girl that she can do anything. And if the message comes from her father, if the message comes from her brother, it's even much more powerful. We need to tell her that anything is possible and she can do it. We need to build her self-confidence from a very early age, but more importantly, we also need to actually look at the books, because there are too many stereotypes.
  • [19][20]
• And I don't think you should take yourself seriously. You need to have trust in what you can do, have confidence in yourself and give yourself a set of goals and just work towards them.
  • [21]
• "We need to take the girls by the hand and make them believe that they can do anything. By building their confidence from a very young age, telling them that the sky is the limit, it will lead to more in the sciences."
  • [22]
• I am a strong believer in the transformational role of education in the life of an individual. I am such a product.
  • [23]
• So why capacity building matters for the African continent? Africa will be home to the youngest population on the planet and become the main source of human resource by 2050.
  • [24]
• Having a young population is a double edge sword.. a bounty and a bane.. Bounty ? if managed these talents can serve the country/ region.. A bane? If not carefully nurtured, we can witness more events like those that have triggered the Tunisian revolution.
  • [25]
• To achieve success as a woman implies many things. It starts from childhood. It starts with the family when I had a father who invested in me, in my education, in building my self-confidence.
  • [26]
• Also a woman needs to believe in herself, never turn bitter when you have been denied something that you feel you rightly deserved.. use that energy to build a new pathway and NEVER ever give up.. Just know that at the end of a very dark tunnel, there is light!
  • [27]
• I only feel that I contributing to a cause that I firmly believe in. The belief in that cause has cost me dearly but I am not going to be deterred and it is also my own way of giving back!
  • [28]
• Let us take each other by the hand, create a community of strong, confident women.. Let us rise together and not disparage each other.. Because if we donot show solidarity, we will all sink together… to tackle them.
  • [29]
• Invest in the youth of respective countries; create the necessary environment that will attract talents and encourage the 6th region of Africa (the diaspora) to come back and mentor the younger folks and who knows they may even think of staying behind.. thus reversing brain drain.
  • [30]
• Discrediting herbal medicine is a little hypocritical. All researchers know that nearly all modern medicine derives from it.
  • [31]
• Without science there is no development....

Scientists tend to stay in their ivory tower, not communicating. They do good work, but without partnerships there will be no development.

• • [32]
• More needs to be done, especially in the area of education.
  • [33]