Naana Otoo-Oyortey | |
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![]() in 2019 | |
Alma mater | University of Sussex |
Employer(s) | International Planned Parenthood Federation Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development |
Known for | Activism, campaigning against FGM |
Naana Otoo-Oyortey is a Ghanaian social activist, the executive director of the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development.
Otoo-Oyortey was born in Ghana. [1] She completed a master's of philosophy at the University of Sussex. [2] She was a member of the Institute of Development Studies, [3] where she worked on gender issues in Ghana. [4]
Otoo-Oyortey worked at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, [5] where she investigated child marriage and poverty. [6] She believes that to achieve gender equality the world must address violence against women and the socio-cultural norms that accept this behaviour. [7] She is concerned that domestic violence results in women not protecting themselves from sexually transmitted infections. [5]
Otoo-Oyortey joined the African Diaspora women-led nonprofit Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development (FORWARD) in 1998, [8] [9] invited by the founder, Efua Dorkenoo. FORWARD is the lead agency working to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in the UK. [8] She is now executive director of the organization, and has led training initiatives for in Swahili and English for girls to become innovators against gender-based violence. [10] With FORWARD Otoo-Oyortey has conducted an ethnographic study into the experiences of people affected by FGM. [11] In 2009 Otoo-Oyortey was honoured in the 2008 Birthday Honours for "services to Human Rights Issues for Women". [12]
In 2014 Otoo-Oyortey gave a TEDx talk about women's rights and FGM. [13] That year she was included in the Evening Standard's list of London's most influential people. [14] She was part of the London Girl Summit in 2014, inviting two young African campaigners who are fighting to end child marriage in Ethiopia and Tanzania. [15] She joined the UCLH to open the FGM paediatric clinic. [16] In 2016 FORWARD was part of an end FGM march in Bristol, which Otoo-Oyortey described as a "quiet revolution". [17]
She has discussed her campaigning on Woman's Hour and at the International Observatory of Human Rights. [18] [19] She is the President of the Board of the European End FGM Network and on the Board of Trustees of ACORD. [20] [21]