Remarks by Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, IWHC board member, co-founder and Executive Director of the African Women's Development Fund
Meeting Global Challenges: Healthy Women, Healthy World
IWHC's Fifth Annual Gala, January 19, 2006

Good evening, everyone. I am from Nigeria but I live in Accra, Ghana so I bring you greetings from a warm and sunny Accra.

I have been gloating all week because on Monday I was at the inauguration of Africa's first democratically elected president. When we got news that President-elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was going to be inaugurated on the sixteenth of January, those of us in the African women's movement who have known President Ellen for quite a while decided that they wanted the event to be more than an inauguration where we would have this grand ceremony and everyone would go back home.

We wanted the people to get the message that what had happened in Liberia was an inspiration not just for Liberians, but to Africans all over the world, and particularly women. So we decided to organize a Women's Summit on Saturday the fifteenth of January. And as part of that treatise of the Summit we had an interactive session with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. And what we told her at this session is, apart from congratulating her, we said over the next ten years in Africa we are going to ensure that we see ten more Ellens.

This is our vision for women of Africa. It is also our vision for women all over the world, particularly in the global South. But we can't accomplish this without empowering women and girls. We can't actualize this vision if millions of women and girls all over the world have no control over their lives. No control over their bodies. If they live in abject poverty, lack access to education, are HIV-positive, or are caring for family members who are AIDS victims.

And this can't be made possible if millions of women still can't own property. If they can't inherit. Or if they themselves are considered as property to be inherited. And if women lack the capacity to make choices that are transformatory. 

I accepted to become a Board member of the International Women's Health Coalition because I believe that their work is so integral to the personhood of women worldwide. However, if I had known that I also get a free dinner every January in a grand event like this, I would have said yes immediately to Adrienne instead of saying, "I will think about it."  

The business of promoting and protecting women's rights worldwide is unfinished business. It is true that we have several international and regional agreements, conventions and which guarantee the protection of women and women's rights, and their right to a life of dignity, free from discrimination and oppression. However, due to a lack of political will, a lack of financial and human resources, and poor infrastructure, all these obligations and promises have not been met.  And millions of women and girls continue to suffer.

In spite of all this there have always been vibrant women's organizations and civil society groups working to make a difference. Through research, advocacy, capacity building, legal reforms, and commitments to these programs, these organizations make it possible for women to have a voice.

The International Women's Health Coalition works in partnership with these organizations to ensure that women can live a better world. I am very grateful to all of you who have given of your time and your resources to support the work of International Women's Health Coalition, and I would like you to remember that every time you stand in support of IWHC, you are also standing in support of women of the world.

Those of you who come here year after year after year, I know that you don't come just because of the food—it is great, but I know that is not why you come. We hope you continue to come and you are continuing to support the work of IWHC. They need you. The women of the world need you. They need your solidarity and your support, and most of all, they need your love.

Thank you very much.