Olufunke Baruwa is a Nigerian

gender and development Gender and development is an interdisciplinary field of research and applied study that implements a Feminism, feminist approach to understanding and addressing the disparate impact that economic development and globalization have on people based up ...

practitioner, feminist and public speaker with a focus on gender, public policy and governance. For more than two decades, she has been at the forefront of social policies and reforms in Nigeria working with government, civil society and international development partners.

Education

Baruwa was educated at the

University of Abuja The University of Abuja is a tertiary institution in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. It was established in January 1988 (under Decree No. 110 of 1992 as amended) as a dual-mode university with the mandate to run conventional and distance learning ...

(BSc) and the

University of Nigeria, Nsukka The University of Nigeria, commonly referred to as UNN, is a federal university located in Nsukka, Enugu State, Eastern part of Nigeria. Founded by Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1955 and formally opened on 7 October 1960, the University of Nigeria has thr ...

(MBA), and completed further courses at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

and the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

Career

Baruwa is renowned for her advocacy on the inclusion of women in strategic political, social and economic positions in Nigeria. From 2000 to 2015, she was a program officer at the defunct National Poverty Eradication Programme, gender advisor at the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, and as a technical assistant on research, policy and planning in the Ministry of Communication Technology. In 2015, she was appointed as the chief executive officer of the Nigerian Women's Trust Fund Nigerian Women Trust Fund – a technical and financial resource for women in politics and decision-making in Nigeria, where she set the strategic vision and mobilized resources succeeding

Ayisha Osori Ayisha Osori is a Nigerian lawyer, author, international development consultant, journalist and politician known for her work on good governance, gender equality, women economic and political participation and ending violence against women in Nig ...

. Prior to assuming the role of CEO of the Nigerian Women's Trust Fund she served on the board of directors of the fund from 2011 to 2015. and in 2018, she was appointed co-chair of the board of directors, succeeding Amina Salihu. That same year, she joined the US Agency for International Development (

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

) / Nigeria as the Civil Society and Media Specialist in their Peace & Democratic Governance Office. In 2020, Olufunke Baruwa started working in

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

’s West Africa Office as program officer for gender, racial and ethnic justice, where she leads work on ending violence against women and girls.

Recognition

Named as one of the ‘17 women changing the world’ by the Institute for Inclusive Development at its 2015 Colloquium held at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, Baruwa is a member of the Women Waging Peace Network. She has been recognized for her work with Nigerian Women's Trust Fund by

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, She Leads Africa, and other publications. In 2021, Baruwa was one of the Nigerian transformational leaders participating in Harvard University's Nigeria in The World seminar series where she spoke about Nigerian individuals and groups working to address gender-based violence in Nigeria and West Africa.

Personal life

Baruwa is married with two daughters. She lives in

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

with her husband.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baruwa, Olufunke Living people University of Abuja alumni University of Nigeria alumni Nigerian women's rights activists Alumni of the University of East Anglia Alumni of the University of York Nigerian women activists 1976 births Yoruba women activists