By Martha Agas
Malala Yousafzai, Co-founder of the Malala Fund, says the organisation is securing gender-responsive policies for girls in Nigeria through its partners.
The Nobel Laureate stated this while speaking to newsmen at the fund’s high-level stakeholder event, themed ‘Partners in Change: Shaping the Future of Girls’ Education Together’ during a dinner on Monday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Malala and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, co-founder of the Malala fund, arrived in Nigeria on Friday to meet with its Board of Directors.
The visit is aimed at advancing its priorities on girls’ education in Nigeria, which include ensuring that married and pregnant girls can return to school.
Other priorities also include increasing education financing to meet girls’ needs and using education as a policy solution to end child marriage.
According to her, Malala fund believes in investing in local education activists in Nigeria as partners and is proud of the work they were doing.
She said the activists, through their decades of collective efforts, were recording many achievements in securing better policies, particularly gender-responsive policies for girls.
Malala added that many of them were also young women and girls, who were passionate on leading that change themselves.
“I feel so privileged that I am in the company of these incredible people who are leading this work.
“I met the girls, I met the education activists here in Nigeria and I am more determined than ever that change is possible.
“We will see it happen in our lifetime when every girl in Nigeria will be able to have her right to a complete and quality education,“ she said.
Malala said the fund was advocating gender-responsive policies to guarantee 12 years of schooling for girls which was already yielding results.
“I think now it requires more collaboration from all stakeholders including ministers and government officials to ensure that these policies are implemented.
“To also ensure there is financing for it so that we can see the real change happen on the ground,“ she said.
Malala described Nigeria as a very important part of the fund’s projects, with nearly 5 million adolescent girls of junior secondary school age currently out of school.
She added that girls in Nigeria as everywhere else have the same dreams and determination to learn and secure a future for themselves.
Malala said she was in Nigeria as their sister, to ensure the realisation of their dreams, noting their resilience and determination to access education.
“They know more than anyone else that education is the best solution and the best investment in their future,” she said.
Further highlighting the impact of its partnerships, the fund’s Chief Executive in Nigeria, Nabila Aguele, said one of its partners, Bridge Connect Africa in Kano, was working on gender-responsive budgeting with the state government and legislators.
Aguele also said Adamawa had launched a policy through which it received technical assistance from another Fund partner.
She explained that the partners work with communities, families and traditional rulers to ensure that girls’ needs and aspirations both inform community understanding and influence policy-making around their re-entry to school.
NAN reports that Malala, alongside her father, the fund’s CEO, Lena Alfi, Nigeria Chief Executive, Nabila Aguele and board members, also met with young girls and education champions supported by it.
The meeting was aimed at listening to their experiences and the changes they desire to see in their communities.
Since 2014, Malala fund had invested over 8million dollars in Nigerian partner organisations working to break the barriers keeping girls out-of-school. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani
