- Leaders from across Africa and the diaspora unite in push for gender equality
- Bank of Industry, Bring Back Our Girls, Ford Foundation, HP Inc., UK Trade Commissioner to Africa among supporters taking action
- #MeToo has yet to hit home in Africa, say campaigners driving dialogue in schools, companies and governments
- Early successes include Wikipedia profiles for notable African women, London Stock Exchange Advisory Group on activating African female entrepreneurship
- AWB launch event planned for UN General Assembly Week in New York on Sept. 26
19th September 2019 (Lagos, Nigeria) – Two years after the #MeToo movement heightened awareness of gender-based injustice, a major new campaign group argues that African women are still being left behind.
African Women on Board groups together some of the most powerful leaders in
business and government across Africa and the diaspora – both female and male –
to advocate awareness in schools, companies and governments. The campaign group
will launch during the UN General Assembly Week in New York on Sept. 26 at the
Ford Foundation, with speakers including Liberian Vice President Jewel
Howard-Taylor, Nigerian Stock Exchange CEO Oscar Onyema and Aisha Oyebode, the
co-founder of the “Bring Back Our Girls” support network for those kidnapped by
Boko Haram in Nigeria.
Even before its official launch, the group is making waves – working with
Wikipedia to profile notable African women, partnering with the London Stock
Exchange Africa Advisory Group to produce a report on activating female
entrepreneurship, and collaborating with the Ford Foundation for masterclasses
on women in politics, investment and financial literacy. The campaign has
reached into villages across the continent by partnering with schools to
recruit and train more girls in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics, the so-called STEM subjects that lead to better paid jobs and
opportunities.
The Lagos-based women-led independent non-profit is timing its official launch
around the UN General Assembly’s 7thAnnual High-Level Dialogue on
Financing for Development.
“No discussion on finance in developing nations is complete without an
examination of the gendered disparities experienced at the society level,” said
Nkiru Balonwu, entrepreneur and the Founder of African Women on Board. “We are
letting out a clarion call for a global movement by and for women of African
heritage where we can collectively mobilize to support African women and unlock
growth on the continent.Our mission is to advance narratives and improve
realities for African women and girls globally byfast-tracking women and girls
of African heritage into the leadership roles of the future.”
AWB seeks to ensure that African women’s narratives are informing development
models on the continent and beyond by referencing studies that prove how
detrimental the absence of diversity of thought and experience can be in
leadership, be it in the private or public sector.
“Research that shows that when you bring women on board, into the workplace,
driving our communities, then we see business growth and economic growth
without comparison,” said Emma Wade Smith, UK Trade Commissioner to Africa. “I
have come to the conclusion that the only way that we can really influence the
rules of the game, to change the dynamic so that we are all equally able to
achieve our full potential, is to make sure that we strive high, and we work
together, and that we’re inclusive so that we’re all able to drive the future
that we want to see.”
In addition to a suite of international programs, AWB will showcase African
women in all of their complexity and variety as a way of combatting the
relegation of women to stereotypes or into silence.
“African women’s voices, narratives and genius collectively make up an untapped resource with the potential to improve realities for themselves and everyone around them,” said Balonwu. “AWB is
providing an essential platform on the world stage whereby African women can finally be heard and their narratives conveyed.”
The meeting in New York will bring together female entrepreneurs, professors,
medical doctors, farmers, mothers, activists, artists and scientists of African
heritage. Discussion will be stewarded by some of the most formidable
visionaries and institutions from around the world including Liberian Vice
President Jewel Howard-Taylor, Nigerian Stock Exchange CEO Oscar Onyema, and
Bring Back Our Girls co-Founder Aisha Oyebode, as well as Dr. Joyce Payne,
Founder of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund; Hilary Pennington, Executive
Vice President of the Ford Foundation; Elisabeth Moreno, Managing Director,
Africa at HP Inc; Christine Soufrant Ntim, Founder of the Haiti Tech Summit;
Betty Irabor, Publisher and Founder of Genevieve Magazine; Derrick Ashong,
Emmy-nominated producer and founder of Amp.it; and Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe,
the Obi of Onitsha.
Beyond a celebration of their journeys and discussion of their contributions to
the advancement of global affairs, African Women on Board will announce an
international-scale project to showcase the success of African female leaders
from the past, present and of the future.
“Undoubtedly, when African women do well, the entire continent can prosper,”
said Balonwu. “And when Africa is strong, black people everywhere are
empowered.”
The event will be held on Thursday 26thSeptember at the Ford
Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York, with social media under the
hashtag #AWBatUNGA.
About African Women on Board:
African Women on Board (AWB) is a non-profit organisation run by African women for African women. Our goal is to amplify African female voices, support African female empowerment, and help to create a world in which African women and girls across all classes including those of the diaspora, are given the tools and resources they need to fully realise their potential. https://www.africanwomenonboard.org