#ElectHER at one: ‘A New Agender’

It has been one year since ElectHER launched in December 2019 with the goal of bridging inequality gaps in Nigerian politics by addressing the underrepresentation of Nigerian women in elective office through behavioural change communication, skills development, human and financial capital mobilization using an end-to-end approach.

Nation building and socio-economic progression cannot be attained without equal representation especially in a country such as Nigeria that has an underwhelming number of women in elective and political officeWithout greater representation, our policy outcomes will remain poor and ineffective. As the biggest economy in Africa, we must do better for the country, the continent and the world at large, by advancing political leadership for 49.3% of the population.

A New Agender” is the theme for our first-year anniversary celebration. Agender being a word coined from the word’s agenda and gender; two words that perfectly depict ElectHER’s focus and plan to address the under-representation of Women in elective Office in Nigeria.

Our journey so far has led to the creation of several projects and platforms required to initiate and effect the desired change. We launched the DecideToRun Network; the first ever digital network and national recruitment platform for women aspiring to run for elective office in Nigeria. We also hosted a monthly webinar series, athought leadership platform that engages experts and major stakeholders through topical discussions on issues that affect women in politics to identify solutions.

In addition, we recently launched “When She Leads”, a virtual talk show that addresses misinformation and underrepresentation of women by the media and curates the journey of women who are currently in elective office and those that have been elected. We have also gone ahead to engage stakeholders and citizens in our first ever consultative forum and townhall meeting respectively.

Through our partnership with The Platform Capital group made up of Diatom Impact and Unicorn Group and the National Endowernment for Democracy (NED) we secured a $100,000 grant within the first 7 months of operations. Our digital footprint has also grown tremendously in a short amount of time with almost 10,000 followers across all social media platforms. 

Abosede George-Ogan, co-founder ElectHER, stated how blessed they feel to ‘have enjoyed support from partners, volunteers and the public who continue to engage across all our platforms and give us feedback on how we can improve on the work we are doing’. Moving forward, ElectHER will continue to innovate in its approach to solving women’s political leadership in Nigeriausing creative, technological solutions and policy advocacy amongst other. A few of the projects that everyone should anticipate include:

i.ElectHER Academy:  a hybrid learning program developed to build the capacity of and equip women with the requisite skills and knowledge they require to run for office.

ii. Impact story telling through a documentary that will highlight critical issues facing women who are interested in politics.

 iii. An art symposium that will seek to combine the love for art with conscious messaging around women empowerment. 

In concluding, the ElectHER Co-founders reiterated their commitment to ensure that the poor representation of women in politics which we experienced in 2019 will not be the case in 2023. We will ensure that women ‘Decide, Run and Win’

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