Toyin Saraki Calls For Empowerment of Nigeria’s Young Girls At 2015 SHE Forum Africa

Toyin Saraki
Toyin Saraki
On the 1st of September 2015, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) participated in the 2nd annual SHE Forum Africa, where Founder-President H.E. Mrs. Toyin Saraki reaffirmed the foundation’s commitment to working towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and called for the empowerment of Nigeria’s young girls through education—whilst noting the recent 500-day marking of the abduction of the Chibok girls.

A platform to promote career advancement among female professionals and entrepreneurs in a traditionally male-dominated environment, the SHE Forum Africa 2015 is designed to provide women with insight into relevant skills for personal and professional development. Having taken place at the National Centre for Women Development in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, the forum was themed ‘Risk The Unusual: Make It Happen,’ and featured diverse speakers and accomplished women role models, as well as sessions for small-group dialogue and individual networking among highly motivated conference attendees.

As a keynote speaker in 2014, the WBFA Founder-President inspired the hundreds of attendees at the SHE Forum as she discussed the ways in which redefining feminism could protect women around the world from violence, while highlighting the need for young girls to be empowered to become change agents. Partnering with the SHE Forum on this year’s event, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa Founder-President, H.E. Mrs. Toyin Saraki, represented by Mrs. Dupe Hassan, spoke about her own efforts to ‘Risk the Unusual’ and shared the challenges faced by the foundation and the solutions implemented when the Wellbeing Foundation Africa began its effort to develop the Integrated Maternal, Newborn, and Personal Health Record into the frontline of the Nigerian health system.
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She stated, “By getting out of the comfort zone of ‘business as usual’, we were able to innovate and introduce an intervention that transforms data collection and the delivery of health information across the country. And WBFA remains committed to innovating and taking new approaches to healthcare, including our recent introduction of the Alaafia Universal Health Coverage Fund (AUHCF), which provides affordable health insurance for 5000 Kwaran residents, and our partnership with Johnson and Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to provide skills and drills emergency obstetric and newborn care training for health workers in Kwara State.”

According to Conference Host & Founder of the Friendraiser Community, Inimfon Etuk, “With the declaration of 2015 as the Year for action towards gender equality by the World Bank Group, SHE Forum Africa 2015 is coincidentally holding at a time of global migration from the MDGs to SDGs with heightening advocacy for increased gender participation towards achieving sustainable development at the forefront of global discourse… Consequently, this year’s theme is set to trigger the awareness towards improved Personal Development strategies. Specifically, it is targeted at bringing to the fore, and possibly demystifying those persisting stereotypes that tend to keep women within the bottom of the ladder.”
Addressing the ‘confidence gap’ in the workplace where women experience self-doubt that can hold them back from progressing at the same rate as their male peers, Mrs. Saraki urged women to believe in themselves, their equality, their value and their place in society, stating, “By risking the unusual, finding the power within your own voice, and standing up for the policies and values that you hold dear, I believe women across the African continent can be an unstoppable force for development and progress.”

As Mrs. Saraki further expressed, this confidence gap which affects women, can be curtailed by educating young girls, which will empower them and allow them to find their voice and carve their own path. However, as she stated in her speech, many girls in northern Nigeria are being kept out of the classroom due to the violence of Boko Haram. Out of the 57 million youngsters around the world who are not receiving a formal education, over 10 million live in Nigeria –the highest number in the world – many of whom are girls living in northern Nigeria. Being kept out of school not only prevents these girls from gaining an education but also keeps them out of political, economic, and social development process to the detriment of the country as a whole.

Referencing the Sustainable Development Goals and the journey that the international development community is poised to embark upon for the next fifteen years, the WBFA Founder-President concluded by reaffirming her commitment to work towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and urged all to work together to achieve global progress by the year 2030.

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