Summary
Highlights
She offers recommendations for African philanthropies, including increasing resources for gender justice, providing more funding for policy advocacy and implementation, enhancing support for treatment, care, and support for GBV survivors, investing in education and reorientation within local communities, co-financing projects with governments, funding media and digital technology for awareness, and supporting feminist and gender centers to cultivate future feminist thinkers. She also calls for scaled-up, flexible, multi-year support for women's rights organizations and fostering regional peer learning among feminist activists.
The podcast introduces Her Excellency Eru V. Ad Fi, recognizing her as an accomplished woman, feminist activist, policy advocate, social change practitioner, and prolific writer. She explains that her journey into activism began by observing injustices faced by women in her childhood and rejecting the idea that women do not have choices.
Eru V. Ad Fi discusses the inspiration behind co-founding the Africa Women's Development Fund (AWDF) and establishing Above Whispers Media Foundation. AWDF was created to foster feminist philanthropy on the continent, focusing on amplifying women's voices and creating spaces for them to thrive. Above Whispers Media Foundation, founded later, aims to use social media for mentoring, information, and enterprise support for women, particularly older women, through initiatives like the 'Rapper Network'.
Eru V. Ad Fi emphasizes the devastating impact of gender-based violence (GBV) on women's lives, rendering them voiceless and preventing them from reaching their full potential. She calls for replacing the 'culture of silence and impunity' with a 'culture of zero tolerance' for all forms of GBV. She stresses that violence destroys lives and impedes national and continental development.
Several strategies are proposed to address GBV and achieve gender justice, including advocating for and implementing legal and policy frameworks (like Nigeria's Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act), promoting women's holistic socioeconomic empowerment, prioritizing girls' education, consistently engaging in awareness-raising to shift negative social norms, and increasing women's participation in leadership and decision-making roles.
Eru V. Ad Fi shares a powerful story from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when she, as the wife of the then-chairman of the Nigerian Governor's Forum, led Nigerian State First Ladies to pressure governors to declare a state of emergency on sexual and gender-based violence. This initiative resulted in 35 out of 36 Nigerian states domesticating the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, highlighting the effectiveness of multi-sectoral partnerships.
She outlines diverse stakeholders crucial in combating GBV, including governments, law enforcement, the judiciary, community and religious leaders, academic and medical institutions, the media, and families. She emphasizes the need for families to challenge gender stereotypes and for continued investment in women's rights groups, along with financial, human, and technical resources.
Eru V. Ad Fi discusses the challenges encountered, such as patriarchal norms, the manipulation of religion, the expectation of women's poverty and ignorance, and rising exploitation. A significant obstacle is the lack of access to justice, which prevents victims from becoming survivors. The culture of silence and impunity, inadequate institutions, and fragile communities with political instability further complicate progress.