Creating a Better Africa

By Onuwa Lucky Joseph

The 2021 class of the annual WeForGood 100 Women ‘Creating a Better Africa’ was announced recently to sustained applause for those recognised. And as expected, some perennial heavyweights made the list who will make any list of accomplished women worldwide – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Amina Mohammed, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liya Kebede, and Mo Abudu being a few of such names.

This year’s list was made against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic which has wreaked havoc as it streaked its way across countries of the world. Women, in their different capacities as health care workers, caregivers, community organisers and innovators have tended to be directly in the path of the pandemic and so have found themselves carrying even more burden than the usual overload they are used to on behalf of the rest of humanity.

Which is why according to CEO of WeForGood, Temitayo Ade-Peters, this year’s nominations were thrown open on March 9, right after the International Women’s Day celebration which is commemorated on the 8th of March every year. This year’s list had Covid in mind and it was with a thought to honouring some of the trailblazing women whose efforts light the path and give women the courage to showcase their ingenuity on whatever stage they play in.

Ade-Peters says it is her company’s way of celebrating, honouring and showcasing women making impact across various communities in Africa.

“We are pleased with the makeup of the final list”, she said, adding that “we believe it will greatly inspire other women as it presents an incredible picture of women from different walks of life and at different stages of influence but with a common commitment to make Africa better for us and for the next generation”.

She said even though the final list could not exceed 100 in number, “each face on the picture collage represents thousands of women who continue to push the boundaries in their various fields to create a better Africa.”

Using the SDG Goals as benchmark, this writer teased out the number of names that were listed for distinction under the different goals. It was not surprising to see that Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) had the lion share of honorees with all of 25 names, a full one quarter of the list.

Why it’s so? Easy. Women, long relegated to the lower rungs of the economy are moving in and moving up with, if you like, an aggressive vengeance. There’s real strength to their upward movement in matters economic. The 25 names so listed belong to the beacons, but behind them are thousands and hundreds of thousands and soon millions who are equally breaking glass ceilings and looking to do more than the manly in the economic space.

They are entrepreneurs building businesses, and running organisations and institutions. Those scoring consistently under Goal 8 include names like Tara Fela-Durotoye, Mo Abudu, Wendy Ackerman and Wendy Applebaum, (both from South Africa), Adenike Ogunlesi, Rawya Mansour from Egypt, Lydia Nsekera from Burundi, Fade Ogunro, and many others. It’s an energized movement of stalwart women with minds made up not just to do well for themselves and their families but even more for their gender and for humanity.

The SDG Goal with the second highest number of honorees on the WeForGood 100 Women Creating a Better Africa belong in Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. Women know, intuitively, that acclaim for individual progress is not enough.

Until a system is institutionalised that makes women’s progress not a maybe but the norm, things can revert to the reviled old status quo in a heartbeat. And so 18 of the honorees are laboring assiduously in that particular Goal 8 vineyard, tweaking the details in their various countries so that what they leave behind would be much different from what they met.

Amina Mohammed is right on that list. Having done what she did with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the MDGs, she spent but little time as Minister for the Environment before joining the UN where, at the highest level as Deputy Sec Gen, she can intervene on matters of global policy formulation that are then sold in as delicate and persuasive way as possible to the various governments especially those in the 3rd World who need more women participation in the national scheme of things.

Goal 8 also has stellar names like Okonjo-Iweala (DG, WTO), for whom not much can be said by way of introduction. She, by sheer force of will and brilliance has made of herself a worthy icon revered globally.

Now she’s bent on ensuring as much equitability as possible in world trade. It’s a tough undertaking, but she’s known for her fearlessness and doggedness. The hope is that if she is able to succeed in this particular quest, Africa, especially, would, rather be a dumping ground, become also a veritable supplier of goods to the West and East and everywhere else.

Right after Goal 16 is Goal 3 with 16 honorees. It’s what the world knows women for: nurturing. Women have not moved away from that despite some noxious ideological expectations. Instead, a lot more women are having their play on this traditional turf of theirs, ensuring that their different countries and by extension, continents and the world is in better shape. Adana Chukwuma is an honoree here, as well as Angelina Makore of Zimbabwe, Edna Adan Ismali of Somalia, Glenda Gray of South Africa, and home girl Dolapo Fasawe, amongst others.

The other goals with good scorers were Goal 4 (Quality Education) with 9 honorees; Goal 5 (Gender Equality) with 8 names listed; Goal 9, (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) with 6 names and Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) with 5 names.

It was not so good to see Goal 6: (Clean Water and Sanitation) without any honorees. The same fate also befell Goals 14 (Life Below Water) and 15 (Life on Land). But it is to be expected. A lot of the names on the list are pioneers of sorts, helping to move the women of Africa away from solely domestic concerns to issues that are much larger than their nuclear homes but which impinge at the end on the day, on the wellbeing of Mama Africa and the different countries from which we hail.

Kudos to Temitayo and her team for a good job that can only get better. It would not be out of place to say that next year’s nominations should start a lot earlier and given wider publicity so that more of Africa can be represented on merit and based on measurable impact of the individuals. And in this day of the hybrid online cum physical meets, it would be nice to take this further by coming up with an event or series of events that get the younger ones to see and hear their role models, and to draw inspiration that helps the young ones push even further than the ones they look up to.