I am a Consultant and Manager of the Nordic Consulting Group (U) Ltd. My work largely revolves around programme development, monitoring and evaluation and organisational development. I have a particular interest in Women’s Rights and Governance issues and mainly the role of NGOs in empowering communities to demand and claim their rights. Apart from the typical development interventions, my work on women’s rights issues has included documenting feminist organising - movement building and leadership development.

I call myself a feminist because I believe that we as women must take the lead in the struggle for our own rights. While we require the support of others to attain and enjoy these rights, we are responsible for defining what we want and demanding for it. One of the key challenges for feminists in Africa is that delicate balance between religion and “African culture”. Both have created a lot of ambivalence in many women’s minds on the question of women’s rights and entitlements. Looking at religion and culture through black & white lenses has constrained the space for constructive engagement on issues that concern women.

Sharing tools for analysis on women’s rights issues and disseminating information on good practices and strategies applied by different organisations to engage culture and religion.

There is a need to demystify feminism – (we need an African word for it) to make ourselves understood. Rights have no colour.

We also need to showcase the diversity of African feminists – as part of strengthening our sisterhood with other women. Women out there need to understand that you can be a feminist and still embrace many other values.

Finally, we need to work with young people. This includes nurturing young women leaders, involving them actively in the movement and allowing them to enrich the movement with their innovative ideas and youthful energies.

Finally, I am inspired by people who grow big ideas starting with little else but vision, conviction and resilience.