"Women must take part in creating policies and legislation that reflect the society they want to live in"

Toyin Ojora Saraki

A brief introduction

Global advocate for women’s and children’s health and empowerment

 

As Founder-President of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki is a global advocate for women’s and children’s health and empowerment, with two decades of advocacy covering reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health; ending gender-based discrimination and violence; and improving education, socio-economic empowerment, and community livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa.

Mrs Saraki is the Emeritus Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM); special adviser to the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), was named by Devex as UHC Global Champion, is the Save the Children Newborn Health Champion for Nigeria; and is a Global Champion for the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood

A global advocate

Global Engagement

Blog

 

Global Advocacy

Global Programs

 

Gallery

See all photos

 

Speeches Section

Advocacy in Action

SPEECH FROM October 7th, 2025

Foreword by H.E. Toyin Saraki  As we mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month under the World Health Organization’s theme Every Story is Unique, Every Journey Matters, I am honoured to spotlight the newly released Devex feature, “New Index Aims to Help Countries Close Breast Cancer Care Gaps,” following my conversation with Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba during […]

SPEECH FROM August 12th, 2025

H.E. Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki Recognised as One Young World Counsellor. For Immediate Release – 12 August 2025 Today, on United Nations International Youth Day, the global community reflects on the indispensable role of young people in driving the Sustainable Development Goals through innovative, community-led solutions. Exemplifying this commitment, Her Excellency Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki, […]

SPEECH FROM August 8th, 2025

Celebrating a Defining Achievement in Strengthening Nigeria’s Maternal and Newborn Health Workforce Abuja, Nigeria – 1 August 2025 Last week in Abuja, Her Excellency Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki, Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and global advocate for maternal, newborn, and child health, delivered a keynote goodwill address at the high-level Dissemination Meeting of the […]

Across Nigeria today, the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation commemorated Global Handwashing Day 2025 under the theme Be A Handwashing Hero!, through coordinated #WBFA @DettolNigeria Hygiene Quest activations in schools, health facilities, and community settings, supported by our social impact partners @ThisIsReckitt @ReckittNigeria. These engagements reflect our continued investment in behaviour-centred hygiene education, local leadership, and health system strengthening.

Within our programming across Lagos State, Kwara State and Abuja FCT, the #WBFADHQ Ambassadors, Sanitation Angels, midwives, nurse educators, community health advocates, pupils, and teachers empowered through our Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education #PSHE Water, Sanitation and Hygiene #WASH Curriculum serve as peer educators and role models, advancing the daily practice of handwashing as a pillar of wellbeing. By linking school-based learning to family, community, and clinical environments, we are able to bridge the critical gap between knowledge and sustained behaviour, ensuring that the principles of hygiene, infection prevention, and dignity are upheld across every aspect of life, and embedding the culture of prevention at the core of maternal, newborn, child, adolescent and community health. 

Through todays #GHD2025 activations, WBFA continues to demonstrate that effective health promotion requires alignment between curriculum, community, and clinical practice. When hygiene is taught early, reinforced often, and supported institutionally, it becomes the foundation of resilient public health.

#GlobalHandwashingDay 
#BeAHandwashingHero 
#CleanNaija 
#SanitationAngels
#HygieneAmbassadors
#WASHWednesday
#WellbeingForAll
...

17 0

On this @UnitedNations International Day of the Girl Child, themed The Girl I Am, The Change I Lead, we celebrate girls’ courage to transform crises into change, and reaffirm our @WellbeingAfrica commitment to ensuring that every girl in every classroom and community has the tools, voice, and dignity to fulfil her potential.

Across Nigeria, our #IDG2025 #WBFA activations have marked the Day through purposeful school and community engagements advancing confidence, leadership, and health education among adolescent girls. These initiatives continue to strengthen our commitment to fostering equitable opportunities for girls to learn, lead, and thrive.

Through our Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education #PSHE and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene #WASH programming across schools, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa equips girls and boys as #HeForShe allies with life-saving knowledge, from health and hygiene to self-leadership and confidence, through our participatory Skills and Drills curriculum.

These actions are anchored in our Women, Girls and Gender Development Targets #WGGDT Strategy, guided by the Girl Declaration, the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council’s Recommendations, and the Nairobi Statement on #ICPD25, safeguarding the amplification of women’s and girls’ voices across every policy, partnership, and programme.

To round up our nationwide International Day of the Girl Child commemorations, we joined partners @SheForumAfrica, @PathfinderInt, the Embassy of Finland in Abuja @FinlandinNigeria, and @YouthSpaceAfrica for the IDG2025 Adolescents’ Town Hall and Mentorship Day, honouring resilience and leadership through dialogue, mentorship, and menstrual-health education.

As the new Girl Goals: What Has Changed for Girls? report by @UNICEF, @UNWomen and @PlanInternational reminds us, 122 million girls remain out of school worldwide, a call to action for all of us to make certain that girls’ rights are realised not in promise, but in practice.

#InternationalDayOfTheGirl
#TheGirlIAmTheChangeILead
#WellbeingForAll
...

36 3

This week at the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics @FIGO_HQ World Congress 2025 in Cape Town, the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation presented research from the Wellbeing Africa Institute for Research and Development on strengthening cervical cancer prevention through community-driven maternal health systems.

Representing #WBFA and #WAIRD, Zelia Bukhari, Director of Global Health Policy and Advocacy at The Toyin Saraki Global Policy and Philanthropy Office, researched and delivered the abstract Policy and Community-Driven Maternal Health and Cervical Cancer Prevention Initiatives in Nigeria.

The presentation demonstrated how WBFA’s #MamaCare360 midwife-led education and care platform has evolved into a trusted national mechanism for accelerating HPV vaccination uptake by embedding adolescent prevention within maternal health engagement and fostering intergenerational protection.

Alongside the oral presentation, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s e-poster, Midwives as Catalysts: How a Community-Based Antenatal Education Model Drove HPV Vaccine Uptake in Nigeria, is also on display in the FIGO 2025 Exhibition Hall. The poster invites delegates to explore and engage with WBFA’s MamaCare360, demonstrating the impact of community-trusted maternal health systems.

As trusted caregivers, WBFA midwives played a pivotal role in vaccine delivery and community acceptance, explaining the HPV vaccine in accessible localised terms, addressing maternal concerns, and supporting mothers to consent to and complete their daughters’ vaccination. Alongside this, midwives also reinforced the continuum of care by guiding mothers toward routine Pap smear screening, linking prevention efforts across the household.

This integrated approach shows how frontline-anchored delivery systems can achieve population-level impact, strengthen health literacy, and sustain behavioural change. By connecting maternal engagement with adolescent immunisation, the model demonstrates that a vaccinated generation of girls may reduce their lifetime risk of cervical cancer by up to 90%, contributing meaningfully to the @WHO 90–70–90 elimination targets.

#FIGO2025  
#WellbeingForAll
...

34 2

On Saturday 4th October in South Africa, the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation participated in the @FIGO_HQ 2025 Pre-Congress Workshop on Integrating Mental Healthcare into Maternal and Child Health Services, convened by the @University_of_Cape_Town’s Perinatal Mental Health Project. The session, chaired by Dr Simone Honikman, highlighted the global imperative of embedding mental health within routine maternal and child health systems, positioning emotional wellbeing as a foundational component of comprehensive, high-quality care.

Representing #WBFA and the Wellbeing Africa Institute for Research and Development, Zelia Bukhari, Director of Global Health Policy and Advocacy at The Toyin Saraki Global Policy & Philanthropy Office, presented the Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s validated Postpartum Mental Health Checklist.

A practical tool integrated within the Nigerian national Maternal and Child Health #MCH Handbook to systematically screen and support women for psychological distress and mood disorders following childbirth, this checklist is strengthening the continuum of care from pregnancy through the postnatal period, ensuring that no mother’s emotional health is overlooked.

Drawing upon @WHO’s 2022 Guide for Integrating Perinatal Mental Health into Maternal and Child Health Services and the Perinatal Mental Health Project’s model of task-sharing, routine screening, and holistic referral pathways, the workshop showcased the transformative potential of system-wide integration.

Looking ahead, #WAIRD will continue to engage with the #UCT and regional partners to explore collaborative avenues for advancing emotional wellbeing indicators across continental maternal health policy dialogues.

#FIGO2025 #PerinatalMentalHealth
#EveryMotherCounts
#WellbeingForAll
...

17 1

On World Cerebral Palsy Day yesterday, I stand with a global movement for and by the 50 million people living with cerebral palsy, their families and supporters, celebrating what makes each person unique while uniting for inclusion, access and dignity.

Yesterday, my @WellbeingAfrica Foundation joined the Kwara State Ministry of Social Development and the @IfeoluwaCPInitiative for an awareness walk and technical engagement on this year’s theme, Unique and United, where our Chief Programmes Manager presented WBFA’s capacity-building approach to reducing cerebral palsy linked to severe neonatal jaundice through better screening, timely treatment and family education. The voices heard throughout were powerful, from a mother’s testimony of preventable harm to a clinician’s lived experience, and they strengthened the call for WBFA to extend our Project Oscar — Light for Life, a Neonatal Jaundice Screening, Treatment, and Kernicterus Prevention Programme, to Kwara State.

Preventable perinatal risks still drive too many cases of cerebral palsy in low- and middle-income settings, including Nigeria, where severe neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia and kernicterus remain significant yet avoidable contributors. Early detection and effective phototherapy save lives and protect neurodevelopment, and WBFA will continue on our mission to equip facilities with bilirubinometers and phototherapy units, train frontline health workers, and empower mothers to recognise danger signs, through the support of our social impact partners @ThisIsReckitt.

At the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that no child’s potential is diminished by conditions that knowledge and compassion can prevent. We are unique in our stories, and united in our resolve.

#WorldCPDay
#UniqueAndUnited
#ProjectOscar
#LightForLife
#WellbeingForAll
...

25 2

Celebrating World Teachers’ Day 2025: Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession

Today, on @UNESCO #WorldTeachersDay, I honour the extraordinary educators who inspire, guide, and shape generations. Under this year’s theme, “Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession,” I celebrate the vital role teachers play as transmitters of knowledge and co-creators of healthier, more resilient communities.

At my @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, we believe that collaboration between educators and health professionals is essential to improving children’s wellbeing. This vision comes alive through the #WBFA-@DettolNigeria Hygiene Quest Programme, supported by our social impact partners @ThisIsReckitt @ReckittNigeria, which integrates #PSHE and #WASH education into school curricula across Kwara State, Lagos State, and the FCT Abuja.

In 2024 alone, the #DHQ Programme reached an impressive 238,235 beneficiaries, including 170,439 students, 42,998 pregnant and lactating mothers, and 24,800 community members, a testament to the power of collaboration between teachers, health educators, and communities.

By empowering teachers as hygiene champions, WBFA equips classrooms with the tools to prevent infections, promote sanitation, and cultivate lifelong habits of health and dignity. Our teachers become frontline advocates, instilling essential WASH knowledge that protects families, strengthens school systems, and drives community behavioural change.

Through practical, play-based learning, children not only grasp the science of hygiene but also carry these lessons home, extending the impact of teaching beyond school walls. This model of teacher-led health promotion exemplifies what it means to recast teaching as a truly collaborative profession, where educators, parents, and community health workers work hand in hand for sustainable development.

As we celebrate today, we reaffirm our commitment to supporting and uplifting teachers, the heart of change and the foundation of a healthier, more equitable future for all.

#WorldTeachersDay
#RecastingTeaching
#EducationForAll
#WellbeingForAll
...

22 1

I extend my warmest congratulations to The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dame Sarah Mullally DBE on her historic appointment as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury-Designate, and the first woman to lead the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

From the hospital ward to the altar, Dame Sarah’s vocation embodies the harmony of healing and faith. Her commitment to nursing and midwifery as a former Chief Nursing Officer to the United Kingdom NHS reflects antecedents of compassionate leadership that strengthens families, supports safe motherhood, and advances the wellbeing of communities.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, we share this belief, that faith expressed through care holds the power to transform lives. May her ministry continue to inspire all who serve in health and faith to uphold the dignity, care, and wellbeing of every life entrusted to them.

#GratefulForHisGrace
#BBC100Women
#FaithInAction
#WomenInLeadership
#NursingLeadership
#MidwiferyMatters
#WellbeingForAll
...

38 1

From UNGA’s halls of global advocacy to calm moments of faithful worship and fresh air, with songs of praise for the grace that bridges every step.

Reflecting with gratitude on the week’s commitments to health, equity, and dignity for all, wishing everyone a serene Sunday. 🙏🏽💫

#GratefulForHisGrace #PostUNGA #SongsOfPraise #SundaySerenity #HealthForAll
...

138 15

As a Founding Member of the African Women Leaders Network Nigeria Steering Council, and a Member of the @OfficialAWLNetwork @UNWomen Committee in New York, I am pleased to have been represented by my @WellbeingAfrica Foundation Abuja Team, led by our Director of Public Policy, Impact and Partnership, Mr Rasheed Yusuf, at a day of events yesterday which gathered Nigerian women to celebrate achievement, reflect on progress, and chart new paths forward together.

The Voice of Women Conference & Awards 2025, convened with dedication by Mrs Toun Okewale Sonaiya, brought women from every sphere of life under the theme Nigerian Women & The Power of Collective Action at a breakfast and live broadcast gathering, honouring women at both the grassroots and national levels, reminding that each gain for women is magnified when pursued collectively.

That spirit carried seamlessly into the evening with the AWLN Nigeria Steering Council @NG_AfricanWomenLeadersNetwork Dinner Reception Roundtable at the United Nations House in Abuja, chaired by Professor Funmi Para-Mallam MNI, and held in honour of Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Deputy President of South Africa and former Executive Director of UN Women. Discussions placed particular emphasis on the urgent need to secure parliamentary seats for women through measures such as the Special Seats Bill.

A highlight of the evening was the recognition of the recently launched National Consortium on Women in Governance, Peace and Security, developed with the support of UN Women Nigeria and the Government of Germany. I warmly welcome this vital step in institutionalising women’s leadership within decision-making and peacebuilding, ensuring inclusion is not symbolic but systemic, and reflecting AWLN Nigeria’s strength in bringing government, civil society, academia, and international partners together around a lasting framework for progress.

I congratulate the Steering Council for advancing this vision, and remain committed to standing at the frontline of our mission, ensuring that together we strengthen Nigeria and contribute to Africa’s transformation.

#AWLNNigeria
#WomenInLeadership
#FrontlineFriday
#WellbeingForAll
...

27 0