The Women Empowerment Platform (WEP), an avenue for ensuring that women are empowered at work and get into senior leadership and strategic positions, organized a forum on ”Celebration of Women in Science and Entrepreneurship” at IITA headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria, on 25 March during Women’s Month.
Attended by more than a hundred career women mostly from IITA and entrepreneurs, the forum featured three remarkable women in the community: Ylva Hillbur, IITA’s Deputy Director General for Research for Development; Femi Olayebi, Chief Executive Office (CEO) of My World of Bags; and Achenyo Idachaba, CEO of MitiMeth, both from Ibadan.
Celebrating women’s accomplishments in their fields was the focus of the symposium, which provided an impetus for inspiring women to succeed in their chosen paths. The three speakers talked about their life’s journey— and challenges—to to get to where they are now. The forum was part of the celebration of UN Women’s Month with the theme “Make it happen”. According to Sylvia Oyinlola, Regional Administrator for West Africa, who leads the group, WEP was established one year ago after IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga challenged the women of IITA about gender parity in management positions by 2017.
Last year, in a bigger women’s forum on Women’s Month, Dr Sanginga had said that he wanted to “empower the women for positions of leadership not only in IITA”. After that fateful meeting, the women nominated a group of representatives from various areas and specializations that would lead the activities of the group. Thus, WEP was formed.
“WEP is working towards empowering women,” said Sylvia. “It aims to get more support for women and for the larger community. All of us women should make a commitment to touch someone and show how we can make a difference.”
The goal of WEP is to “empower female IITA staff in their professional roles and advance women’s leadership and management skills to achieve positive changes in gender parity”. The target is to achieve 50% female representation at management level within IITA by 2017.
WEP has provided basic education for the local community, conducted training and mentorship for some women members, provided Christmas gifts to the IITA crèche, and is undertaking an awareness campaign to highlight various global issues, such violence against women, harassment, breast cancer, human trafficking, and environmental protection.
During his keynote address at the WEP forum, Sanginga said, “This is about leadership and about strategizing and making sure that women compete favorably and get into management positions.” He said that the next director general in IITA should be a woman.
The common message from all the speakers was: “We need to encourage our fellow women. We need to hold each other’s h ands to help us get better in our chosen field of competency, and ensure that we get credit and acknowledgment for our efforts.”
For more information, please contact:
Andrea Gros, Head of Communication, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture a.gros@cgiar.org
About IITA, www.iita.org
IITA is one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Its award-winning research for development (R4D) approach addresses the development needs of tropical countries. IITA works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is a nonprofit organization founded in 1967 and governed by a Board of Trustees. IITA works on the following crops: cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, yam, cassava, and maize. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
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