Ford Foundation Africa Grants

Ford Foundation Africa Grants is sponsored by Ford Foundation. Multi-year grants for organizations working to reduce inequality, strengthen civil society, and defend human rights across Africa. The Ford Foundation has a history of supporting projects in Africa that advance education, public interest law, gender rights, community development, and public policy research.

West Africa - Ford Foundation Our work around the world Over the past two decades, West Africa has experienced rapid democratization and significant economic progress. Yet it remains among the world’s poorest regions. While rich in natural resources, the vast abundance of the region has not been used to benefit all its people.

Poor and rural communities shoulder most of the costs of natural resources extraction (financial and otherwise), but get few benefits in return. For women, these challenges are compounded by cultural norms, laws, and high rates of violence that inhibit economic opportunity and limit participation.

Though they make up about half of West Africa’s population, women are significantly underrepresented in elected positions, and their voices are often missing in decision-making. We believe there has never been a better or more important time to put women and girls at the center of efforts to address inequality in West Africa.

Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice Natural Resources and Climate Justice Switch to video with audio description Switch to video without audio descriptions [An illustrative collage unfolds with newsprint and archival photos celebrating 1960s independence across multiple African nations.] DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: So the 1960s was the coming to fruition of decades of struggle.

You had the Black Star rising in Ghana, the Teranga Lions roaring from Senegal, and here in Nigeria, the biggest Black nation on earth, also gaining its independence. [Text on screen: “Ford Foundation West Africa” with the number “65” in textile pattern.] [ChiChi Aniagolu-Okoye, Ford Foundation Regional Director, Office of West Africa.

Lagos, Nigeria. An African woman with long braided hair and glasses; wearing a light jacket sitting in an office.] CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: The Ford Foundation actually opened an office in 1960s in West Africa.

That’s why we are celebrating 65 years. What we do is work with people, institutions, with ideas that ensure that the world is a much better place for everyone to live in. [Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

President of Nigeria, 1999 to 2007, Lagos, Nigeria. An elderly African man wearing a blue traditional cap and kaftan; sitting in a modern living room.] CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO: Ford Foundation touched life in those 65 years and continues to touch life.

[Photos appear of Darren Walker, an African American man and former Ford Foundation President greeting people. A banner reads ‘Welcome to the President of Ford Foundation’.] CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: And the things that we have supported have all intercepted with the history of the time.

[Dike Chukwumerije, Founder of the Dike Chukwumerije Center, Abuja, Nigeria. An African man with short hair and glasses; wearing a white t-shirt featuring a graphic of a clenched fist sitting in a museum.] DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: And so there was a lot of expectation, a lot of worry of what this new African giant was going to do on the global stage.

[An illustrative collage unfolds. University buildings and the IITA sign rise from the landscape. Text on screen: “A New Dawn, 1960’s”] [Kevin Ejiofor.

Former Acting Director, Federal Radio Corporation, Enugu, Nigeria. An elderly African man with white hair and a grey kaftan sitting in a large conference hall.] KEVIN EJIOFOR: There was a palpable sense of freedom.

Nothing is impossible, anything could happen. Anybody could become anything. [Archival photos of the Nigerian Independence movement.]

[Vershima Orvell-Dio. Assistant Director, National Library of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria. A bearded African man in a brown traditional kaftan sitting in a conference room.]

VERSHIMA ORVELL-DIO: The President General of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe had interest to establish a national library. The Ford Foundation now sent Dr. Carl White. They were also sponsoring the training of Nigerians.

Someday we will be able to harmonize all this and see various aspects Nigerians contributed to the greatness of this country. [Archival photos of The Library Board Inauguration in 1976. Vershima pages through a large old book.

The page reads “National Library Act of 1964”] CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: At that time, the idea was to build human resource, that will help propel the new nations that were emerging. [Susan Berresford. Ford Foundation President, 1996 to 2007, New York, USA.

An older white American woman with short hair and glasses; sitting in a living room.] SUSAN BERRESFORD: So it was a very government-focused approach and also a university approach. We supported educational institutions, particularly universities in Africa.

[Archival footage of the University of Ibadan in the 1960s.] [Professor Kayode Adebowale. Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

An African man with a shaved head and glasses wearing a dark suit sitting in an office.] PROFESSOR KAYODE ADEBOWALE: The University of Ibadan started in 1948. T.

Adeoye Lambo was actually the Vice-Chancellor when Ford Foundation came to the University. He said, “Perhaps the most iconic and transformative outcome of this partnership is the establishment of the Institute of African Studies. ” [Professor Sola Olorunyomi.

Director of Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. Ibadan, Nigeria. An older African man with a gray afro and a beard wearing a blue collared shirt sitting in an office.]

PROFESSOR SOLA OLORUNYOMI : With the support of the Ford Foundation, it was possible to get top resources and faculty to do quality research. PROFESSOR KAYODE ADEBOWALE : The strong foundation of the Institute of African Studies has enabled them to give birth to so many departments and even faculties, and the Institute of African Studies is still there. [Recent aerial footage of the university campus.]

[Adhiambo Odaga. Ford Foundation Representative, West Africa, 2001 to 2012. Lagos, Nigeria.

An African woman with long braids in a patterned yellow dress sitting in dark theatre.] ADHIAMBO ODAGA: The biggest grant Ford had made at the time was for the establishment of IITA. [A bronze plaque reads ‘International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Dedicated 1970’.]

[Dr. Tahirou Adboulaye. Deputy Director, IITA. Ibadan, Nigeria.

An African man with a gray beard and glasses wearing a beige traditional shirt sitting in an office.] DR. TAHIROU ADBOULAYE: You have to go back to the idea of the Green Revolution that helped solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition in India. [Archival colour footage shows farmers holding up large cassava roots next to signs comparing local practice to improved practice crops.]

DR. TAHIROU ADBOULAYE: Our vision is really to continue to sustain food security and nutrition security on the continent. But all of that to the goal of reduction of poverty. As of today, we have offices in 21 different countries across the continent.

[In a modern lab, scientists can be seen working with samples and conducting tests.] CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO: That is a permanent feature of Ford Foundation, not only in Africa, but all tropical areas of the world. [Onscreen images tear to reveal a gritty collage of civilians in conflict with the military.]

[Text on screen: “Cracks in the Foundation, 1970s”.] DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: Within a few years of independence, many African countries began to suffer reversals. In a country like Nigeria, we had our dark night in 1966.

Nigeria had its first coup, and that coup set off a horrendous series of events culminating in a civil war. Things like this represented a crack in our foundation. [Archival images of soldiers with weapons, large military vehicles, and clear wartime destruction and ruins.]

CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: The Ford Foundation’s support after the war was in rebuilding the country, rebuilding the institutions. DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: An important institution like the University of Nigeria so that students whose education had been interrupted by three years of war could immediately go back to school. [Archival photos of construction workers building and plastering new walls and infrastructure.]

DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: You find the imprint of Ford Foundation there in a critical place in Nigeria’s history with a delicate task of trying to reconcile and heal. [An illustrative collage unfolds showing stormclouds, military vehicles, General Obasanjo in military uniform and Professor Yemi Osinbajo featured in a newspaper article.] [Text on screen: “Through the Storm, 1980s”.]

DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: The 80s saw this collapse in public infrastructure and a corresponding rise in significant human rights abuses. [Magette Kebe, Ford Foundation Grants Administrator, Office of Dakar, 1984–1996. Dakar, Senegal.

An elderly African woman with glasses wearing a patterned light orange dress and headscarf sitting in a living room.] MAGETTE KEBE (speaking French): We had two representatives: Franklin Thomas and Susan Berresford. SUSAN BERRESFORD: And when Franklin Thomas became president, he discontinued a lot of the work focused on governments and pivoted to building civil society and nonprofit organizations.

[A black and white portrait of Franklin Thomas, an African American man with glasses. Newspaper headline reads “Streamlining the Ford Foundation”.] DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: And so you had an organization like Ford Foundation invest in rural development, investing in communal organizations.

MAGETTE KEBE (speaking French): The Foundation contributed to leaders in the fields of research and organization in rural communities. [Magette pages through old Ford Foundation documents.] [Professor Bolanle Awe.

Co-Founder, Women’s Research and Documentation Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria. An elderly African woman with glasses wearing a patterned orange dress and headscarf sitting in a living room.] PROFESSOR BOLANLE AWE: Ford Foundation has made a lot of tremendous contribution in encouraging women to move forward, giving them scholarships so that they could go and develop their knowledge in women’s studies.

[Signage at the office for WORDOC, Women’s Research and Documentation Centre.] [Hands adjust the dials on a vintage reel-to-reel tape recorder.] DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: It is very important to have our memories preserved in archives.

If you do not know where you’re coming from, you will not know how to get to where you’re going. [Judith Opoku Boateng, Archivist, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. An African woman with long dreads and a patterned yellow dress sits between rows of bookshelves.]

JUDITH OPOKU BOATENG: This archive was founded as a sound archive by J. H. Kwabena Nketia.

The aim was to support research and creative engagement. It’s about preserving—I call it the knowledge of our ancestors—and then making this knowledge accessible to current and future generations. Ford Foundation’s contribution to this has enabled us to connect our own history to the rest of the world and then in Africa.

[The red-roofed buildings of the J. H. Kwabena Nketia Archives.]

[An illustrative collage unfolds showing images of a polling station and protesters holding signs. Text on screen: “Seeds of Renewal, 1990s”.] DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: By the ‘90s, the chickens had come home to roost.

Nigeria was characterized by the struggle for democracy, the fight against the military. CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: So the idea was: how do you support these countries to return to democracy? [Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of Nigeria, 2015–2023, Lagos, Nigeria.

An African man in a black traditional cap and kaftan sitting in a living room.] PROFESSOR YEMI OSINBAJO: We wanted a situation where we could call out corruption. It attracted both good and, I suppose, bad attention, because obviously the military government at the time was extremely sensitive to any kind of attempt to question the government.

[Foluso Idumu, Director, Justice Research Institute, Lagos, Nigeria. An African woman with long braids and glasses wearing a green patterned dress sitting in an office.] FOLUSO IDUMU: Military rule had also weakened the ethical institutions in place then.

People did not trust the government, did not trust the system. PROFESSOR YEMI OSINBAJO: All of this time, from 1995 to this point, we could not get Integrity registered. Our objectives clashed with the government at the time.

One of the things that we found commendable is that the Ford Foundation recognized the work we were doing and decided to give us a grant nevertheless. The grant was actually written in my name. CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO: Most of the people that were trained and educated by Ford Foundation came back and they played a very significant role in government, in politics.

CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: So one of our fellows, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, which is Kofi Annan, and many people like that… people who have ended up becoming captains of industry, luminaries. CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO: I was the first African from Africa to be on the board of trustees. SUSAN BERRESFORD: I think the Foundation was very lucky to have General Obasanjo as a trustee.

And then he was put in jail. And for the period he was jailed, we sent him the Ford Foundation trustee books for every board meeting. We wanted people to know we haven’t forgotten him because he’s in jail.

[A reconstruction of a sparse prison cell with a single bed and wooden desk. A plaque reads: “Reconstruction of Cell 333, Yola Prison, where Obasanjo was held. ”] CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO: They were also very active in campaigning for my release from prison.

They didn’t tell me that they had been paying my honorarium. They just said, “Well, check up in your bank. ” And I found that I have a quantum of money that helped me in rehabilitating my children while I was in prison.

[An illustrative collage features a young smiling Chief Obasanjo. Headlines read: “It’s a new dawn over Nigeria. ”] [Text on screen: “Towards a New Horizon, 2000s”.]

DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: The 2000s is a roller coaster ride. It was like taking the cover off a pressure cooker. There was a lot of dialogue and conversations that had been suppressed through the military years that had to happen.

[Archival footage of Chief Obasanjo waving to crowds and standing next to South African President Nelson Mandela.] CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: It was a beautiful time. It meant that the country had to start rebuilding democratic institutions as well.

PROFESSOR YEMI OSINBAJO: We had to overhaul our administration of justice system—from remuneration to discipline, to appointment of judges, to make cases simply go faster. And Ford was a very active supporter of the work that we were doing at the time. CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: Focusing on those things that really transform society.

That’s really at the heart of the work that the Ford Foundation does. If you look at, for instance, the work on reproductive health. [Archival photos show protesters holding signs about HIV-AIDS prevention.]

[Dr. Esiet Uwemedimo Uko. Co-Founder and Director, Action Health Incorporated, Lagos, Nigeria. An African man with a shaved head wearing a grey kaftan sitting in a large conference room.]

DR. ESIET UWEMEDIMO UKO: There was no way Nigeria would have responded to the HIV and AIDS crisis if it did not respond to the issues of adolescent and young people’s sexuality. So the question was: how do we reach young people? [Adenike Esiet, Executive Director, Action Health Incorporated, Lagos, Nigeria.

An African woman with short grey hair and glasses; wearing a blue patterned dress sitting in a large conference room.] ADENIKE ESIET: The decision from the beginning would be that there would be this curriculum that would be integrated into like subject matter. Ford was there when we had to begin the implementation, coming from a place of silence to a place of policy action.

And implementation was the greatest success. [Ngozi Iwere, Founder and Director, Community Life Project, Lagos, Nigeria. An African woman with short curly hair and glasses wearing a dark blue t-shirt sitting in an informal breakout room.]

NGOZI IWERE: We had a model of engaging grassroots communities, artisan groups, and various cultural associations that are outside mainstream communication channels. We had the first HIV/AIDS education at an open shed, a mechanic workshop, and Ford wanted to support us to scale this model, to replicate it elsewhere.

[Archival photos show African men in a mechanic workshop and a large group of African women in a community center watching a program on a television.] [An illustrative collage unfolds showing Gorée Island, a boat on the water, and a wind turbine. Text on screen: “New Horizons, 2010s”.]

DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: The 2010s are obviously characterized by a rise in technology. This has provided a lot of opportunities for young Nigerians, giving them the platforms and the capacity to make their voices heard. DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: And this has had a revolutionary impact on culture and on development in Nigeria.

[Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima, Ford Foundation Senior Program Officer, Office of West Africa, 2016-2025, Lagos, Nigeria. An African man with a shaved head and a short gray beard wearing a beige traditional kaftan sitting in a living room.] DABESAKI MAC-IKEMENJIMA: Youth opportunity work definitely had a clear strategy around youth leadership development, position young people to take leading roles in civil society and in politics.

[Cynthia Mbamalu, Director of Programs, YIAGA Africa, Abuja, Nigeria. A young African woman wearing red-framed glasses and large red tassel earrings sitting in an office.] CYNTHIA MBAMALU: I remember we had this mantra when we speak the government would shake because I felt that as a young person I had the power to get the government to do what we wanted.

[Cynthia stands in front of a large screen, gesturing towards a slide about “Building a Community of Youth Change Leaders. ”] [Andrew Mamedu, Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria. An African man with a neatly trimmed beard and glasses; wearing a black traditional kaftan sitting in an office.]

ANDREW MAMEDU: INEC did not have a logistic management framework. Ford Foundation was happy to come on board and we all partnered, worked with INEC and we worked with every relevant stakeholder you might think of within the election delivery. [Several African men in blue and yellow mechanic uniforms work on a car engine outdoors.]

[An older man gestures as he speaks to the group of young mechanics.] [A close-up shows a patch on a mechanic’s uniform that reads “Nigerian Automobile Technicians Association.] NGOZI IWERE: Ford knew that we were in a position to mobilize the grassroots communities across the length and breadth of this country.

Through the works supported by Ford we created the Reclaim Naija platform, real-time incident reporting and to troubleshoot these incidents while elections were still going on. The election culture transformed completely. It became very inclusive.

[A montage of archival photographs illustrates the grassroots mobilization of the Reclaim Naija platform.] [The offices for the Media Foundation for West Africa.] [Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa, Accra, Ghana.

An African man with a shaved head wearing a white traditional kaftan sitting in an office.] SULEMANA BRAIMAH: In Ghana, for example, the heavy lifting that was required at the beginning was supported by Ford, bringing the electoral commission and media together to better understand the electoral processes and report on them accurately. The elections came to pass.

There was a change in government. Transition was peaceful. DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE: West Africa is an extremely rich space in terms of cultural expression and art.

Exploring our creativity and our cultural expressions help us to tap into those roots. [A young African man and woman record and edit audio in a professional studio.] [Darren Walker, Ford Foundation President, 2013-2025, New York, USA.

An African American man with a shaved head and tortoise-shell glasses; wearing a blue suit sitting in a modern office building.] DARREN WALKER: There is no doubt that creativity and free expression are critical and essential to West Africa’s future. [Paul Nwulu, Ford Foundation Senior Program Officer, Office of West Africa, 2012-2020, Lagos, Nigeria.

An African man with a shaved head, grey beard and glasses wearing a dark collared shirt sitting in a conference room.] PAUL NWULU: The global media space had always had this narrative about Africa. Everything negative was applied to Africa.

One of the best ways to tackle this is to empower Africans to be the one controlling the African narrative. [A film clapperboard reads “Bling Lagosians 2”.] [A film set with two African women acting in a scene.]

[Bolanle Austen-Peters. Founder and Director, Terra Kulture, Lagos, Nigeria. An African woman with long, light braids; wearing a blue and orange dress sitting in a garden.]

BOLANLE AUSTEN-PETERS: As a person, I believe in art that has impact. Most times you often hear about negative stories about Nigeria. How about us doing a beautiful story about how Ebola was tamed in Nigeria?

Ford Foundation trusted us. They gave us a grant towards the movie called 93 Days. Today we have over nine musicals and we have seven movies to our credit.

[Clips from the movie “93 Days” showing doctors and patients during the Ebola outbreak.] [An aerial view of the Nigerian city of Enugu under a hazy sky.] KEVIN EJIOFOR: Life in my city means look around you, you are an artist, interrogate what you see.

We are positioning art for social development. Ford Foundation came. What we did was to create opportunity for them, a platform for them to show their skills.

The word is empowerment. Some of our people have now become well known worldwide working from Nigeria. [A young African artist wearing a black suit walks through an art gallery that features his own threaded artworks on the walls.]

[Old, sepia-toned photographs of the arid landscape of Mali.] [A large wooden door on the stone facade of the al-Wangari Manuscript Library.] ADHIAMBO ODAGA: We had an amazing opportunity to invest in conserving the written heritage of Africa by focusing on work in Mali to preserve the African manuscripts.

You know Timbuktu was attacked, and we were like, “Oh my god what’s going to happen to the libraries? ” They hid all the manuscripts under the sand. [Dozens of old locked suitcases and crates that contain the manuscripts.]

ADHIAMBO ODAGA: They were very proactive. Our big question was how are you going to move so many manuscripts out of Timbuktu? And they said, “Don’t worry we’re going to float them down the river.

” And that’s how they evacuated them and keep them out of harm’s way. [A rectangular doorway at the end of a short dark passage opens to a bright view of the ocean and a rocky shore.] [Eloi Coly, Chief Curator, Maison des Esclaves, Dakar, Senegal.

An African man with a shaved head and glasses; wearing a blue-traditional kaftan sitting in an office.] ELOI COLY (speaking French): Gorée obviously bears the scars, notably of slavery, but also the scars of colonization. One cannot come to Gorée and after visiting the House of Slaves, leave without being deeply moved.

The only reparation that matters is the preservation of their memory, after recognition by some and others of the role they played during that period. [A close-up on a weathered stone wall shows a white plaque with text: “Door of No Return. ”] [A historical painting depicts a bustling port scene with numerous ships in the bay.]

[The pink-hued House of Slaves on Gorée Island, with its distinctive red-tiled roofs and multiple courtyards.] [Kaba Laye, Assistant to the Chief Curator, Maison des Esclaves, Dakar, Senegal. An African man with a shaved head and a short beard; wearing a white traditional kaftan sitting in an office.]

KABA LAYE (speaking French): It is to succeed in making this space a space of peace, of dialogue, but above all of reconciliation between peoples. Because it is a history, not only of Africans, but it is the history of the world. ELOI COLY (speaking French): The Ford Foundation supported us a first time which allowed us not only to stabilize the House of Slaves, which was in an advanced state of disrepair.

KABA LAYE (speaking French): but to put in place a protective seawall to counter, at least partially, the advance of the sea. ELOI COLY (speaking French): So that all may go together towards forgiveness and the reconciliation of forgiveness. [The Memorial Goree du Castel, a tall white perforated canonical monument.]

[Gory Island as seen from above, surrounded by a vast ocean.] CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: I think another legacy of the foundation is the structure that we are in. [The Ford Foundation West Africa office in Lagos, Nigeria, a low rise building with a flat roof.]

[Joy Ehinor-Esezobor, Ford Foundation Program Manager, Office of West Africa, Lagos, Nigeria. An African woman with short braids; wearing a dark blouse sitting in a communal office space.] JOY EHINOR-ESEZOBOR: This office is one of the very few offices owned by the foundation across the world.

The plan is for us to have a convening space similar to what we have in New York, which is a social justice centre for our partners to come and have conversation, to have convening. CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: It’s an office space, but it’s also a monument to civil society and the fight for the human dignity.

[An illustrative collage unfolds, black-and-white archival images of African women carrying baskets on their heads and the vast African landscape. Text on screen: “Looking Ahead”.] DARREN WALKER: It will be African-led philanthropy who advances achievement and social progress in the region long term.

And so we’re investing in collectives and collaborations among African philanthropists. BUILD is an initiative that aims to strengthen organizations to be durable, sustainable and resilient. [A group of African professionals are seated around a conference table.]

[A clear glass award. “National Land Conference, 2022, Trust Africa. ”] [Nana Afadzinu, Executive Director, West Africa Civil Society Institute, Accra, Ghana.

An African woman with long braids wearing an orange and black patterned dress sitting in an office.] NANA AFADZINU: The BUILD grant is important in particular because we needed to give support to institutions to support their core function and to strengthen organizations. [Oumar Ndiaye.

Ford Foundation Program Officer, Office of West Africa, Lagos, Nigeria. A young African man with glasses wearing a traditional cap and white kaftan sitting in an office.] OUMAR NDIAYE: Intersectionality is looking at the issue of social justice beyond the single thematic issue.

So you talk about the disability, you talk about the gender issue, climate justice, the natural resources management. Intersectionality enables to really address all those in once, even across the government. It’s really about how working across the issue in the sustainable and comprehensive way.

[Officials and representatives are seen having a meeting.] [A woman in military-style uniform with a black beret gestures while speaking to a group of four people in front of a wall featuring the Cleen Foundation logo.] [Amb.

Yusuf Tuggar OON, Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria. An African man with a short grey beard wearing a traditional black cap and white robe sitting in a living room.] AMB.

YUSUF TUGGAR OON: They have to partner with state governments, they have to partner with local government and of course also federal governments. [Clement O. Oladele, Deputy Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Abuja, Nigeria.

An African man in a beige military-style uniform with a maroon beret and numerous medals sitting in an office.] CLEMENT O. OLADELE: It is very important that both the private and government organizations, they need to continue to do collaborations.

Some of our paramedics, apart from the basic training that they had, they never had opportunity of going for advanced training on rescue operations. This training took place because Ford Foundation facilitated it. We now notice 37% increase in the number of people that were rescued alive.

[Three paramedics are seen helping a patient in an ambulance.] [A close-up of a tablet screen shows the Ford Foundation website. The headline reads, “Working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide.

”] CHICHI ANIAGOLU-OKOYE: The Ford Foundation has nine areas of work and in West Africa we are focusing on two of those areas, and for us it is looking at natural resource and climate justice and ending gender-based violence under our gender, racial and ethnic justice program. [Izeduwa Derex-Briggs, Ford Foundation Program Officer, Office of West Africa, Lagos, Nigeria.

An African woman with reddish-brown braids and glasses; wearing a vibrant patterned blouse sitting in an office.] IZEDUWA DEREX-BRIGGS: Ford has taken a decision to deal with preventing gender-based violence rather than wait for violence to occur. [Reverend Father George Ehusani, Executive Director, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, Abuja, Nigeria.

An older African man with gray hair and glasses; wearing a white clerical collar sitting in a large communal hall.] REVEREND FATHER GEORGE EHUSANI: We have numerous issues in our society. We have cultural dimensions, we have customs and practices that violate the dignity of women and girls.

REVEREND FATHER GEORGE EHUSANI: We have widowhood rights and rituals that are harmful. Denial of rights of female children, for example. Denial of inheritance by wives and so on and so forth.

[A studio setting with microphones and lighting equipment. A large screen shows the title of a podcast “Breaking the Silence. ”] [Professor Joy Ngozi Ezeilo (SAN, OON), Founder and Executive Director, Women’s Aid Collective, Enugu, Nigeria.

An African woman with dark braids and glasses; wearing a purple and yellow patterned dress sitting in a conference room.]

PROFESSOR JOY NGOZI EZEILO SAN, OON: With Ford Foundation in the Southeast we have been able to engage with all the important stakeholders, including government, including at the rural level, including community based organizations to ensure that we prevent gender-based violence, to ensure that we advance gender equality, that we end all forms of discrimination.

[A group of women are seated outside in a circle under the shade of a large tree.] [Dr. Stanley Ilechukwu, Executive Director, Southern Sahara Social Development Organization, Enugu, Nigeria. An African man with a shaved head and a short beard; wearing a grey traditional kaftan sitting in an office.]

DR. STANLEY ILECHUKWU: Our plan was to build women’s agency, enable them to negotiate the power dynamics of their space and now push for what they want. PROFESSOR JOY NGOZI EZEILO SAN, OON: We’ve had important decisions coming from some of these traditional rulers changing their bylaws that are protective of women now and even including women in their cabinet, which we didn’t have before.

[Archival photos show a group of women in traditional clothes coming together in discussion.] [Anthonia Anike, Women’s Representative, Igwe’s Cabinet, Enugu, Nigeria. An African woman with short dark hair and glasses; wearing a black and yellow blouse sitting outdoors.]

ANTHONIA ANIKE: Now it is important for a woman to be one of them. So this one is not a woman, go solve your own, man, go solve your own, everybody will join hands together and make sure they settle the matter.