African First Ladies buoy campaign for gender equity, fight against Mpox

-holds summit at 79th UNGA

The Organisation of African First Ladies for Development, OAFLAD on Tuesday stepped up its continent-wide campaign for gender equity with its #We Are Equal in Action.

This was disclosed at the side event Summit of African First Ladies at the ongoing 79th United Nations General Assembly, UNGA.

Some of the First Ladies, including Nigeria’s Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who shared their experiences in the last one year when the #We Are Equal campaign started, noted that the summit would help further shape Africa’s future.

“In Nigeria, I am driving the campaign through the Renewed Hope Initiative, RHI, where we have 5 areas, Economic Empowerment, Social Investment, Agriculture, Health and Education. All of these are in line with my husbands Renewed Hope Agenda.

“We have also just launched the Young Farmers Club, Nigeria in senior primary and high school, which will see the young ones get involved in Agriculture at an early stage”.

The First Lady emphasized that the nation is responding to the state of emergency on food security declared by President Bola Tinubu, and that is one of the reasons the RHI is also organizing Every Home a Garden competition, with a prize money and the winner would be announced in December 2024.

“When I was teaching high school, I realized that some of my brightest students had to drop out of school due to early pregnancies. But I also realized they can still be given a second chance.”

“We are having a lot of collaborations presently and we are already having positive results especially in the area of girl child education and health issues.”

During the discussion session at the event, panelists including representatives of the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and other partners, the issue of Monkey Pox came on the front burner and the African First Ladies were urged to lead the battle against the disease that is fast becoming a global epidemic.

The session also highlighted President Joe Bidens commitment on behalf of the US to the course of eliminating the disease with a  donation of 1 million units of Mpox Vaccine to Africa and an additional $500m to fight the disease in the continent.

OAFLAD also presented an award of appreciation for the successful and impactful launch of the #We Are Equal campaign in Nigeria to Senator Tinubu and 4 other First Ladies for a similar feat in their countries.

18 African Countries have launched the #We Are Equal Campaign. The theme for the Summit was Amplifying Change Through Collaboration.