Akin Fadeyi Foundation (AFF), a non-profit organisation, is set to launch “What Women Can Do” competition which would open the vast untapped potential of women as significant social actors in Nigeria. This is aimed at stimulating a gender-inclusive leadership conversation.
According to a statement, the event will kick off with media conversation and next week and will feature media and public policy actors and practitioners, including feature editors of newspapers and online news platforms, alongside women leaders and other distinguished participants.
According to the executive director, Akin Fadeyi, “this gathering will speak to and unearth the huge possibilities that remain unleashed in the country with the loud absence of the participation of women in the public space, especially after the just concluded party primaries
“It is also an affirmation of the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion programme thrust of our funders, the MacAuthur Foundation.
“What women can do” will speak to how leadership would be a lot more impactful when women are empowered to act as equal stakeholders in national development”.
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The ultimate objective of the programme will be to encourage women to endure in their leadership ambitions despite the present turns in Nigerian politics, to re-affirm their capabilities as equally endowed social actors and to stimulate public conversation on the need for gender parity in the access to power.
The Akin Fadeyi Foundation is motivated by the understanding that while Nigeria has never been in lack of high quality women who can play major progressive roles in politics, a number of the factors have skewed the system against women from earlier times, the statement said. Of the competitors who will make leadership pitches and speak to any topic of interest from agriculture to education, healthcare, power generation, science and innovation, ten finalists will be selected. The top five finalists will be rewarded with different gifts on basis of the strength, innovativeness, uniqueness and acceptability of their pitches. Another set of five finalists will go away with consolation prizes.
