Our founder, Baliqees Salaudeen, has always loved everything that contributes to Nigerian and African-wide development. Be it the policy research space, advocacy for the girl-child, boy-child, education, gender-based violence, and several other pressing social and environmental issues.
She is a 24-year-old Nigerian social activist passionate about climate change, causes, impact, and solutions. For over six years, she has mobilised future leaders with initiatives including Bays Planet Foundation, PickThatThrash, She Leads Climate Action and GirlUp Nigeria. She also co-founded Green Republic Farms to promote sustainable farming and food security.
Now, she has been selected by YOTA – Youth Opportunity & Transformation in Africa and Restless Development to be a part of the Nigeria Youth Task Team of the Africa Youth Partnership, funded by the Ford Foundation.
Her role is to join other thought leaders in Africa for the following:
“i. Conducting youth effectiveness analyses to identify accountability gaps in key areas of national recovery programmes, including in areas such as economic recovery, education and skills, youth employment and enterprises, health systems and treatment, vaccine equity, etc.,
ii. Preparing youth accountability reports, policy briefs, and other products that capture the youth position on key recovery programmes, with policy recommendations for how to make the national recovery more youth-inclusive; and
iii. Designing and implementing national campaigns to advocate for the youth position as captured in those policy products, including extensive work plans for the engagement of governments, the private sector, and other national stakeholders to amplify youth voices.”
The goal of the Africa Youth Partnership for an Equitable Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is to “engage, support, and empower young people to put their ideas into action and play a leading role in continental recovery efforts.” Through this work, they are “engendering increased attention to and investment in addressing the critical issues of social and economic inequality that have been escalated by the COVID-19 pandemic.” This will help “duty bearers and stakeholders at local, national, and continental levels act decisively in response to young people’s voices and engagement, and the African recovery agenda becomes more inclusive and equitable.”
You can read more about the project here. We are thrilled to have her on the board and wish her well!