Your Excellencies; Distinguished Guests; esteemed organisers of the African Women in Leadership Organisation; Ladies and Gentlemen; thank you for the kind invitation and gracious bestowment of an award today. I am delighted to address this Goodwill Message to the premier organisation for female leaders of African descent and I salute your goal of changing the narrative and unlocking the potential for women to achieve the best for them and our sisters. 

It is my very great pleasure to accept the AWLO 2018 Phenomenal Woman of the Year Award. I do so not for myself, but for my sisters – the Wellbeing Foundation’s midwives, women in Government positions, those in global roles – who inspire me every day to lead for better outcomes for women and for all of society.

I would also like to take this opportunity to commend AWLO for its 1Mother1Child initiative, which recognises the role of motherhood as key to the nurture and future success of our children. You are right to support those crucial stages of development – which is exactly what the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, of which I am the Founder-President – achieves through its pioneering ‘MamaCare Classes’ led by our qualified midwives. Some of those classes, like 1Mother1Child, also take place in IDP camps, a frontline for women and their infants. Despite dire mortality rates here in Nigeria – where women face around a one in thirteen risk of maternal mortality in their lifetime – we have not lost even one of our over 200,000 MamaCare mothers during childbirth. Our MamaCare midwives have achieved this not only by providing classes to a global standard – and achieving the new WHO benchmark recommendation of at least 8 antenatal visits – but also because they act as even more than lifesavers. They provide safe spaces and safe conversations: no subject is taboo or off-limits. To unlock the potential for women and girls, our first obligation is to ensure that they are safe and healthy. 

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa was founded with health for mothers and infants as its key objective. Its scope has expanded however, as I soon realised that we cannot confine our actions to our supposed speciality; legislative change, gender equality, maternal health, education and health security are so closely interconnected. To make a sustainable impact and truly open up opportunities for women in Africa, we must reach across borders, knowledge-bases and cultures.

Given that the challenges for women cut across every aspect of their life, our solutions must be universal. As a global advocate for Universal Health Coverage, in Nigeria and across Africa, I know that it not only improves health, but also reduces poverty, creates jobs, drives economic growth, promotes gender equality and protects populations against epidemics. Africa faces the burden of weak health systems and both communicable and non-communicable diseases in a population estimated to reach 2.5 billion by 2050. If we want to transform opportunities for women, we must treat their health and wellbeing as a security threat. That must translate into appropriate levels of funding. The WHO estimates that 85% of the costs of meeting the SDG health targets – including UHC – can be met through domestic resources. But resources must be maximised and utilised effectively. In Nigeria, for every 1 Naira spent on health, 2.5 Naira is spent on defence. It is time that Governments across Africa responded to healthcare deficits as swiftly and aggressively as they respond to military threats.

Indeed, whilst investment in releasing the potential of women is a moral obligation, we must not shy away from making the hard-headed business case for it. Women are key to achieving the demographic dividend that comes with an interplay of reduced total fertility rate, an expanded base of working-age population, and improved educational, infrastructural and healthcare investments. Success for women, both professionally and personally, is success for the whole of society. The UN estimates that gender inequality costs sub-Saharan Africa on average $US95 billion a year. Our countries have both a moral and economic imperative to transform the equality agenda.

The fight for gender equality must also be reflected in the institutions which seek to work in Africa to expand opportunities for women. The release earlier this year of the Global Health 50/50 report demonstrated that organizations from the United Nations system; bilateral and multilateral development institutions; philanthropic organizations and funders; civil society and nongovernmental organizations; public-private partnerships; and the private sector still have a long way to go to reflect the values they are trying to themselves instill. Of course I salute our male allies – when the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, became the first African to succeed to that role, he established a senior leadership team which consists of more than 60% women, declaring that “We need top talent, gender equity and a geographically diverse set of perspectives to fulfil our mission to keep the world safe.” António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, recently tweeted that he had kept his personal commitment to women’s empowerment and gender parity at the UN by creating a “50-50 Senior Management Group.” We must however use our influence to empower African women to take on leadership roles and ensure that global institutions practice what they preach.

Thank you once more for the kind invitation to join you today and to receive an award. I will follow your conversations during this conference closely and vow to work closely with all partners to help African women achieve their potential. Thank you and God Bless.