Founded | 2001 (in Accra, Ghana) |
---|---|
Founder | Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, Joana Foster and Hilda M. Tadria |
Location |
|
Area served | in 42 countries in Africa, over 1300 women's organisations [1] |
Key people | Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi (Co-founder and former Executive Director) Françoise Moudouthe (Chief Executive Officer) |
Website | http://www.awdf.org |
The African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) is the first pan-African foundation to support the work of women's rights organisations in Africa. [2] [3] AWDF was founded in 2001 [1] by Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, Joana Foster and Hilda M. Tardia. [4] AWDF belongs to the International Network of Women's Funds, an umbrella organisation for feminist foundations that focus on supporting women's human rights.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner, [5] delivered AWDF's tenth anniversary lecture at the celebrations in Accra, Ghana, in November 2010. On the occasion, Sirleaf said: "Heartfelt congratulations to you, AWDF Sisters, on reaching your tenth year! You have succeeded in your goals; you have weathered the global economic crisis; you have demonstrated resilience and determination to succeed in your noble cause to promote leadership and empowerment for African women."
Between 2001 and 2016 the AWDF distributed US$26 million to women's rights organizations. [6]
AWDF signed a working document to guide its analysis and practices during The African FeministsForum that took place in Accra from 15 to 19 November 2016. [7]
General elections were held in Liberia on 11 October 2005, with a runoff election for the presidency held on 8 November. The presidency and all seats in the House of Representatives and Senate were up for election. The elections were the first held since 1997 and marked the end of the political transition following the second civil war, having been stipulated in the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2004. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former World Bank employee and Liberian finance minister, won the presidential contest and became the first democratically elected female African head of state in January 2006.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Roberts International Airport, informally also known as Robertsfield, is an international airport in the West African nation of Liberia. Located near the town of Harbel in Margibi County, the single runway airport is about 35 miles (56 km) outside of the nation's capital of Monrovia, and as an origin and destination point is referred to as "Monrovia". Locally, it is often referred to as simply "RIA." The airport is named in honor of Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first President of Liberia.
Antoinette Monsio Sayeh is a Liberian economist and Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sayeh served as the Director of the African Department at the IMF from July 14, 2008, to August 31, 2016. She also was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
Henry Boimah Fahnbulleh, Jr. is a Liberian politician and diplomat. He most recently served in the Liberian Government as National Security Advisor in the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration. Immediately previous to his appointment as National Security Advisor, he served as Advisor on International Affairs in the same government. He served as Foreign Minister from 1981 to 1983 under President Samuel Doe.
Kimmie Weeks is a Liberian human rights activist.
Alan Claude Doss is a British international civil servant who has spent his entire professional life in the service of the United Nations, working on peacekeeping, development and humanitarian assignments in Africa, Asia and Europe as well as at United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Gini Reticker and produced by Abigail Disney. The film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary. The film had its theatrical release in New York City on November 7, 2008. It had cumulative gross worldwide of $90,066.
The Sirleaf Market Women's Fund (SMWF) is NGO dedicated to supporting women in Liberia and the rest of Africa.
The Iron Ladies of Liberia (2007) is an independently produced documentary film that gives behind-the-scenes access to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's first year in government. Johnson-Sirleaf is Africa's first female president.
The Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement or Accra Peace Agreement was the final peace agreement in the Second Liberian Civil War. It was signed on 18 August 2003 in Accra, Ghana. It was created following the signing of a ceasefire agreement on 17 June 2003 and "intensive back-door negotiations" beginning on 4 June in Akosombo, Ghana.
Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a Nigerian-British feminist activist, writer and policy advocate. She was first lady of Ekiti State, Nigeria as wife of Ekiti State governor Kayode Fayemi from 2018 to 2022. She previously served as first lady from 2010 to 2014 during her husband's first term in office. In 2001, she co-founded the African Women's Development Fund (AWDF), the first Pan-African grant-making organisation. She serves as a UN Women Nigeria Senior Advisor, and was appointed as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King's College London in 2017. She is CEO of Above Whispers Limited, and runs an online community called Abovewhispers.com.
Cyvette M. Gibson is the tenth Mayor of Paynesville, Liberia. She was appointed as acting Mayor on November 14, 2012; the youngest mayor in the country. Her administration faced an Ebola epidemic, persistent waste management issues, and human rights concerns.
Jessica Horn is a Ugandan feminist activist, writer, poet, and technical advisor on women's rights Her work focuses on women's rights, bodily autonomy and freedom from violence, and African feminist movement building. She was named as an African woman changemaker by ARISE Magazine and as one of Applause Africa's "40 African Changemakers under 40". She joined the African Women's Development Fund as director of programmes in October 2015.
Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA) (Swahili for "African women") was established in 1985 in the United Kingdom as a small community organisation for African women. It is now an international and Pan-African feminist non-governmental organisation headquartered in Kampala, Uganda.
Abena Pokua Adompim Busia is a Ghanaian writer, poet, feminist, lecturer and diplomat. She is a daughter of the former prime minister of Ghana, Kofi Abrefa Busia, and is the sister of actress Akosua Busia. Busia is an associate professor of Literature in English, and of women's and gender studies at Rutgers University. She is Ghana's ambassador to Brazil, appointed in 2017, with accreditation to the other 12 republics of South America.
Korto Reeves Williams is a Liberian feminist activist. She is the country director and women's rights coordinator of ActionAid Liberia, a board member of Urgent Action Fund (Africa), and a member of the Liberia Feminist Forum and the African Feminist Forum. It was through feminism that she found her clear purpose in life.
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is a Ghanaian feminist writer and blogger. She co-founded award-winning blog Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women and has written for The Guardian and Open Democracy. Sekyiamah is the Director for Communications manager at the Association for Women's Rights in Development and a member of the Black Feminism Forum Working Group which organised the historic first Black Feminist Forum in Bahia, Brazil.
The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development, also known as the EJS Center, is an organization to encourage and develop women in leadership roles in Africa. Founded by the former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2018, the organization aims "to be a catalyst for change across Africa, by helping unleash its most abundant untapped power – its women".
Thelma Awori is a Ugandan professor, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and feminist. She was born on March 25, 1943, in Monrovia, Liberia and came to Uganda in 1965. She is a former Uganda People's Congress diehard, who defected to the Movement. She is an individual African feminist who believes in justice for women and the validity of women’s perspectives. She sadly found an extremely high prevalence of internalized oppression due to religion and socialization.