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GOODWILL MESSAGE:

Good morning Honourable Ministers; Esteemed dignitaries; Ladies and Gentlemen; my name is Toyin Saraki, and I am the Founder and President of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa, an NGO headquartered in Nigeria which works to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for women, infants and children across the country. WBFA prioritises frontline impact with global advocacy, in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

I would like to begin by thanking the Nigeria Malala Fund team, and their founder Malala Yousafzai, for their tireless commitment towards a world where every girl can learn and lead. Today, as I join you at the Nigeria Malala Fund National Moment on Basic & Secondary Education, on the United Nations celebrated International Girls in Information and Communications Technology Day, I am thinking of the 112 million girls out of school around the world, and the 20 million children out of school in Nigeria, that we must be a voice for.

Education is the most powerful investment in our future, and this moment is an opportunity for us to encourage our new government to reimagine education for the country and find better ways to provide 12 years of safe, free, quality education for all. Through amending legislation to make education free and compulsory up to senior secondary level, thus guaranteeing 12 years of uninterrupted education for Nigerian children, and by adopting a progressive universalisation approach to the implementation of 12 years of education, which priorities support those at greatest risk of not learning; the poor, the discriminated against, girls, children with disabilities and those facing multiple disadvantages, Nigeria will be on track to achieving SDG 4. This requires financial planning which is gender-responsive and allocates nearly 4% of the GDP and 22.5% of the national budget for education by 2025.

We must also commit to make schools a safe space, ensuring that the students deprived of access to quality education as a result of  conflict, violence or crises are promptly given access to quality alternative education in a safe environment, in line with the National Guidelines for Accelerated Basic Education while enhancing teacher training on school related gender-based violence, inclusion, safeguarding and creating standard operating procedures for responding to rights violations and clear referral pathways for health and wellbeing services.

From communal violence, kidnappings, conflict and frequent attacks, schools are a deeply negative and insecure place for many. From 2020 to 2021 alone, 25 schools were attacked,1,470 learners abducted, 200 children are still missing, and over one million children were too afraid to return to schools. We must provide multi-sectoral support to keep our children safe, and aid in the  development of federal and state level roadmaps and implementation plans, for funding, safety, standards, and training.

Together, we can unlock the power of education. If every girl completed a full 12 year cycle of education in the world, the global economy would benefit from between $15-$30 trillion dollars in lifetime productivity and earnings, peace and security would improve as achieving gender equality in education can decrease the likelihood of conflict by as much as 37%, learning also reduces early marriages, with a 64% reduction occurring if girls are provided secondary education, and if all women in Nigeria completed their secondary education, the country would lower the mortality rate for children under five years old by 43%.

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa has been at the forefront in prioritising education and investing in the lives of children, adolescents, adults and the elderly in Nigeria and across Africa. Since our conception in 2004, WBFA has actively engaged in advocacy, writing of educational materials, policy papers and articles to promote education and implementation of health education programs in collaboration with its local and global partners. Our learnings, guidance and recommendations are currently being actualized through various programmatic means, implemented by a team of committed experts in public health and education who lead our on the ground community trusted grassroots programming.

When a girl is educated, she grows up into a woman who has the adequate knowledge, information and skill to ensure the welfare of her family, the health of her children and the impact her actions have on her community. My Wellbeing Foundation Africa and I look forward to further emboldening and engendering the Malala Fund mission of 12 years of free, safe, quality education for every girl in Nigeria through the Civil Society Manifesto on Education and look ahead to the Gender Review Report, as we work towards the global goal to see every child in school by 2030.