When it comes to driving women’s political inclusion and fighting for more women to get into elected office, ElectHER, a female-led party-agnostic organisation, committed to increasing women’s political inclusion across Africa, is at the forefront of the modern-day struggle. Just as political party primaries are set to begin ahead of the 2023 General Elections, the founder and CEO, Ibijoke Faborode, shares the plans her organisation has to ensure more women are represented in the coming election.
Ibijoke Faborode, ElectHER CEO
About ElectHER: Vision, mission and goal of the organisation
ElectHER is simply about getting women into elective office. It is founded on the principle that no gender should be underrepresented when it comes to the decisions that affect the lives of every citizen. That is why for us as an organisation, it is not just about women; it is important that all of society is involved in decision making. At this time, there is a demography of people that have been historically excluded from governance and decision making. It is time more urgent than ever, to ensure that more women are elected. Our vision is to see an Africa where there is equity in political governance which means men and women are represented equally to ensure that perspectives in development are taken into consideration and the people shaping and defining the policies that govern us are reflective of society.
For our mission, we have four strategic pillars. We are party agnostic, policy influencing, democratizing politics which shapes our mission and strategic partnership. Our mission is to also engage different critical stakeholders, from political parties to women themselves, citizens and media to shape mindsets and ensure that women’s political participation is normalized. We also encourage women to decide to run. We can’t do all this work and then women are not deciding to run. Part of our mission is to equip women with the right skill set to ensure that they can run competitively, they understand the political landscape, they can serve diligently and are result oriented. So, from candidates to elected representatives, we ensure that continuous learning is a part of their growth plan.
Our goal is to ensure that we get more women in elective office to ensure that there is equity in our political governance structures. We do that through policy influencing, engaging different stakeholders, encouraging women in the society to run, equipping them to run and through strategic partnerships as well. In terms of funding, the goal for ElectHER is that in the next two years, we as an organisation are going to be just about 60% grant funded and then the other compositions would then be earned income through intellectual property, programme design, paid services, consulting and then return investment as well because that is the only way we can grow a sustainable model for our organisation.
In terms of funding, the goal for ElectHER is that in the next two years, we as an organisation are going to be just about 60% grant funded
On ElectHER core programmes
Our work at ElectHER is centred around various thematic areas: Active citizen engagement, capacity development for women in political office or aspiring to get into office, research in policy non-partisan, resource mobilisation for elections, technovation and community building. Precisely, when it comes to core programming outside donor funded programmes, we have our signature programmes.
- Agenda 35:
On the short term, we have ‘Agenda 35’. This was launched last year, and it is our strategy ahead of the 2023 elections, to ensure that we can improve the outcome of women aspiring to run for office especially because this is one of the most anticipated elections given what has happened globally and even locally here in Nigeria for the past two years: from the COVID pandemic to the EndSARS, just a whole lot of things. Agenda 35 has a three-point agenda. The first is to mobilise critical resources including a $10 million fund which will provide campaign financing for up to 35 credible women and also, to support programming around women’s political representation ahead of the 2023 general elections. I think it’s important to say credible because it is not just about supporting women but getting women who can be role models who would actually do the job they are expected to do as representatives or elected officials. So, it’s in two streams: the institutional funding but also campaign funding.
Agenda 35 has a three-point agenda. The first is to mobilise critical resources including a $10 million fund which will provide campaign financing for up to 35 credible women and also, to support programming around women’s political representation ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The second agenda is policy advocacy around the legislative environment. We were involved in the Special Seats Bill advocacy. In particular, we partnered with The Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) and Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) to implement citizen’s townhall called ‘Seats To ElectHER’ on Channels TV, which brought together key people that were very pertinent to the bill to discuss the bill. Unfortunately, the Bill was stepped down, but we are still hopeful that the journey will continue.
ElectHER Future Lawmakers Programme
The third Agenda is deep citizens sensitization on voters’ rights and women’s political representation. The reason we are focusing on these three agendas ahead of the 2023 elections is that we can’t mobilise resources without advocating for the right legislative environment. We have to change or shape mindsets of people because the people are the ones who will cast their votes. If women are still stigmatized by societal stereotypes due to entrenched religious and cultural stereotypes, then that would affect the outcome. So, as an organisation, it is from this strategic viewpoint that we came about Agenda 35 campaign.
Recently, we launched what is called ‘Agenda 35 Citizens Fund’. It is essentially public crowdfunding, non-partisan I must say, to mobilise funds from Nigerians, home and abroad, just to see what the office of the citizens can do to really promote credible women who are running for office in 2023.
EndSARS campaign definitely introduced a model which is, when Nigerians buy into an issue, they can actually mobilise resources.
If you observed how that campaign was sustained, it was sustained by the people. People came together in kind, capital, etc. supporting the movement. So, for us, ahead of 2023 general elections, we are building a people-centric movement because we cannot do it alone as an organisation. We are playing a part, but the people are the ones that can steer things in whatever direction they want to steer it to in 2023.
We are hoping that the people make the right choice. We are also going to be unveiling our candidates soon. We have an advisory council made up of 13 reputable Nigerians.
The goal is to ensure that whatever we are doing, there is a thorough thought process and that we have the right intel, the right advice, the right guidance and counselling to ensure that we select model candidates, women that are ready to work, not just feeling entitled because they are ready to work because we must also understand that that is a problem on its own. We have our baseline criteria, and we are working very closely with the advisory council to identify and engage these women to see if they are Agenda 35 candidate material and from there, we will unveil them. The electoral season is here and so a lot of our work will be centred on Agenda 35 campaign for now.
- ElectHER Academy:
Under ElectHER Academy, we’ve done trainings to help women understand the various aspects of running for office. More importantly, we launched our signature fellowship programme called ‘ElectHER Future Lawmakers Programme’. We had over 140 candidates and we shortlisted to 35 exceptional women across the six geo-political zones. But what made the fellowship interesting is that all the women on that programme were aspiring to run for elective offices in 2023. Interestingly, a good number of them are declaring by the day which shows that this is a model fellowship that has come to stay and can actually groom future legislators. The programme was hybrid. There were virtual training programmes. The fellows learnt about legislative bill drafting, introduction to public policy perspective, gender perspective in development, leadership development, campaigning financing, campaign strategy, digital marketing and personal branding. We ensured that we were grooming all rounded future legislators. The goal is to scale up this programme as a pan-African programme.
- Decide to Run:
We also have ‘Decide to Run’. It is a concept or community that we established late 2020. There are so many barriers to break to ensure that women are deciding to run and that is why we created Decide to Run platform.
The goal is to ensure that women are not waiting until when they are ready to run to build their consciousness. They can actually start engaging with themselves internally and externally. They can support candidates, be involved in public policy issues and build coalitions.
ElectHER Future Lawmakers Programme
We have about 700 members now. Interestingly, this is the year for Decide to Run. The goal is to grow into the largest pan-African network for women that are aspiring to run for office at some point or any point in their lives. We recently got on an African Union fund. They are actually going to be supporting the digitization of the Decide to Run community. We are very excited about that because we know that the data from this particular community will be very powerful. We are creating a platform to build synergies to foster collaboration, give access to information and then, get a niche who are interested in governance. It could also become a recruitment base for governments who are looking for appointees or people who just want to volunteer to support public sector delivery work. We feel we are unto something with that and we can’t wait to launch it. Decide to Run platform is going to be integrated into our central ElectHER digital application that we are building. The digital platform we are building is going to have a mobile application.
The aim is that we are going to be launching our own mobile application by the end of this year which is going to feature some key niche never seen before, features and platforms that will definitely build communities, increase access to data and women’s political representation. So, we are very excited about that. We definitely are not using the traditional approach. People have been in this space for quite a while. Women’s political movement is not new to Nigeria; it is not new to Africa or the rest of the world. However, if something has been done the same way overtime, and has yielded little result then there is perhaps a need for innovation.
Women’s political movement is not new to Nigeria; it is not new to Africa or the rest of the world. However, if something has been done the same way overtime, and has yielded little result then there is perhaps a need for innovation.
On progress the organisation has made on one of their missions to support 1,000 women to ‘Decide to Run’, and fund 35 women to run for elective seats by 2023.
The truth is that we are trying to create a model. We are optimistic because EndSARS proved something. People were no longer questioning the role of women. It was now Nigerian citizens, male and female coming together to say no to injustice, no to police brutality; we need a better nation. It is from that angle that we are coming and saying that we’ve beaten the system, but we need to nudge them some more. We need to make them understand how to do better and we think there is something to work with; that is the rising social consciousness. So, it is indeed the time for it and 2023 will definitely define a lot of things. Now, there’s no one in power that will just relinquish themselves of power. They say that power is not given but taken. The goal is to take that power and ensure that it is people-centric and people driven.
We cannot determine the outcomes of election; however, we can work on ensuring that women have a competitive edge.
No one can determine the outcomes of elections no matter the algorithm we use, and I think it is important to state that fact. In terms of our mission to support 1,000 women who decide to run, the goal is through our different programmes. We’ve been doing it, we still trained 35 women. We’ve held programme and trained about 300 to 400 people. It’s more of a wider objective. In terms of specifics and targets, if you don’t target resource mobilisation, you’re going to find yourself doing too little for a lot of people. For us, up to 35 women doesn’t mean it’s going to be 35. If we get 10 solid women, 15 solid women, we will back them. Now what does backing mean? It varies. We’re counting on people to ensure that we can mobilise resources but beyond just finance, it is then getting different stakeholders that are very important to the electoral ecosystem to also see these women as credible candidates and to put our weight behind them.
On challenges the organisation is facing or faced in the course of work
The first thing I will say is that we are growing at an unprecedented rate and that brings its own pressure. Usually, start-ups have the incubation period to figure things, but we didn’t have that time. ElectHER is a very timely initiative but people don’t even address us or engage us as a start-up. While that is very good and commendable, that also puts a bit of unhealthy pressure on us because there’s little room for mistakes sometimes. We’re growing at a capacity where we’re thinking, acting, learning, failing, going back to the drawing board and designing, all at the same time. But I know that the resilience we have as a team is definitely what has seen us through, and it’s fast paced. Also, in terms of challenges, I would also say that the usual thing is that a lot of grant making organisations focus on the outcomes, the numbers and how many people you have impacted but they forget to empower the organisations and deliver very little percentile when it comes to overhead cost. This work we do is very important. We need a depth of professionalism, of technicality to be able to build the kind of model we are building and the absence of that does something to an organisation. For example, when you know where you are meant to be but because of affordability of staff strength, that could affect you.
So, I’m hoping that more organisations will become flexible as they understand that without investing in the operational environment and the institutionalisation of organisations that are delivering projects, that that could affect outcomes. I must say that as an organisation, we’ve been quite lucky and because we’ve had private sector funding. One of the things I told myself when I wanted to start ElectHER was that I was not going to wait, and I was not going to be apologetic. I was also not going to let any donor define or change the identity of my organisation. We’ve had to reject some funds or not apply for some funds because we knew that it wasn’t in line with our values and principles as an organisation. We also didn’t want to apply for these grants because we are looking for just another grant. So, for me, it is important that we stay connected and passionate to what we are doing to ensure that we can fulfil the mandate of ElectHER. I don’t see myself running a traditional non-profit organisation. I see myself running a social impact organisation that has a very clear business model.
One of the things I told myself when I wanted to start ElectHER was that I was not going to wait, and I was not going to be apologetic. I was also not going to let any donor define or change the identity of my organisation. I don’t see myself running a traditional non-profit organisation. I see myself running a social impact organisation that has a very clear business model.
On successes the organisation has recorded
I must say that there has been a lot of high periods and I feel really blessed every time that I remember because running an organisation as intense, fast paced, as young as ElectHER, also comes with its challenges but in those challenges, we’ve had a lot of wins. In the first six months of starting ElectHER, we got a donation of about $100,000. For us, that was very important because people paved the way, set the foundation and invested in us and we haven’t looked back since then. We were able to kickstart programmes and trainings and I think that really helped us. In terms of successes as well, we started ‘ElectHER Future Lawmakers Programme’ which is the first of its kind in Africa. Essentially, we are thankful for the kind of donors we’ve been able to secure like the European Union, conversations we’ve been having, the kind of programmes we’ve been designing and yes, I know that there’s a whole lot more we can achieve. Also, I look forward to 2023, post Agenda 35, when we start taking stock of the real success of actually getting women elected and saying that this is a model that is tested and trusted, then we can scale it across board and even across Africa. For me, that is what success looks like. So, while there are little wins here and there, I think the first and the most significant success that I am looking to recording as an organisation is that through our model, we can actually say that we were able to get credible women elected in 2023.
ElectHER ACCA Panel session
On why the organisation focuses on political resources for women
In life, you might have an idea but without resources, you cannot actualize it. Politics in Nigeria is expensive. According to the 2022 Electoral Act, the cap for electoral expenses for presidential election is five billion Naira. The issue is that women are still economically disenfranchised. How many women can actually afford, 5 billion, 1 billion, 100 million, how many women? Women are still just still catching up in the formal sector. Even though women constitute over 40% of micro businesses in Nigeria, most of them are not scalable due to the lack of financing. So, how many women can actually nurture political ambitions, running for office in this kind of climate knowing that it is a game of numbers and that we haven’t shifted into ideology-based politics where people actually elect candidates based on manifesto, on the agenda they have decided to put forward. Also, you know that for this environment, it is still politics of the highest bidder.
As an organisation, we asked ourselves, women have been training women, women have been protesting and advocating, what can we do differently? Our build-up of resources wasn’t done in isolation; we observed different democracies in the world and what is done to improve women’s political representation. In United States for example, you have organisations like ‘Emily’s List’ who has raised over $600 million for pro-choice women. These things are visible; these are clear models that have worked so why can’t it work in Nigeria?
For us, resource mobilisation became very important because the EndSARS campaign really proved something that if you can get the citizens deeply connected to an issue, nothing can stop the resilience of the Nigerian people.
We saw Nigerians from home and abroad donate money, resources, using alternative financing means to ensure that they could back the infrastructure that governed and managed the EndSARS protest. Resource mobilisation is so important because of the peculiarity of the challenge’s women face which is security and protecting their vote. Also, a lot of women are open to vulnerability due to the lack of resources. I like to use the word resources and not finances because it’s quite myopic to think about resources just from financing. Resources can be human, social, technological, it can be financial and that’s why we use resource mobilisation. The goal is to be able to get different people, different resources in kind and cash, so women can competitively run for office.
The more women have resources, at their disposal, the more parties do not see them as liabilities. Conversations stemming from some political parties is that women cannot come from a place of entitlement. In the first place, it’s a shame that people think that credible women who want to run are coming from the place of entitlement.
The more women have resources, at their disposal, the more parties do not see them as liabilities. Conversations stemming from some political parties is that women cannot come from a place of entitlement. In the first place, it’s a shame that people think that credible women who want to run are coming from the place of entitlement. However, we need to be pragmatic. How are the gatekeepers thinking about women’s political representation? Unfortunately, a lot of them think that women just want a free meal and for us, it’s no; we need to be able to pitch our money where it counts and where our mouth is. Now that we are seeing the rise of women in the corporate space and across board, why can’t we then start galvanizing resources from these people? So, women need to do more but also all of society needs to be involved.
The private sector in United States is involved in American politics. Why can’t ours in Nigeria be involved? So, ours is to ensure that we mobilise as much resources as we can get to ensure that increased women’s representation and participation is a thing of reality in Nigeria.
ElectHER ACCA group photograph
On importance of money for women contesting
Money makes everything go round in Nigeria’s political climate and so it is important for women to have access to not just money for resources and logistics but consulting and also to pay their agents to protect their votes otherwise, someone is going to outwit the agent and pay them to actually steal the very votes they are trying to protect. So, you must understand the intricacies of the challenges and the peculiarity that female candidates face during elections. Electoral violence has been weaponized against women and so women need to ensure that they can provide the right security infrastructure to protect their lives, votes and team, before and on election day. This is why resource mobilisation is very important because the more resources you have, the more respect you have actually.
On what more can be done to increase women representation in the Legislature
I think it’s to keep advocating for the right policies and to also ensure that we are engaging the men. Male allyship is very important because we have a National Assembly that comprise of about 95% male representation. So, we need to get them involved no matter how excruciating that process is.
Male allyship is very important because we have a National Assembly that comprise of about 95% male representation. So, we need to get them involved no matter how excruciating that process is.
One thing that someone mentioned to me recently, is languaging. He said to me, “the intent of the Reserved Seats Bill was good, however, because it was only targeting women, that was the issue.” According to him, the language could have made a difference such as: No legislative seat should comprise of let’s say less than 35% of any gender and more than 60% of any gender. That way, it’s not just about women but also about men and women because we must also be conscious of the fact that, in advocating for women political inclusion, we are also not building exclusion of men. To be honest, I could also see that this is something we must push. So, as an organisation, we are looking at how we can support the drafting of this kind of bill and see what that could become. We are more than happy to work on this with PLAC. In some of the African countries, the languaging actually really matters. When I spoke with the Vice President of Liberia, Chief Dr. Jewel Howard Taylor, she mentioned that the languaging mattered for the Liberian law that was passed as well on affirmative action to ensure that it was more of the composition of each gender; so, it was not like ‘oh, these women have come again!’.
We’re going to keep trying and I would say that in terms of increasing women’s representation, we need to be innovative and step away from being just traditional in our approach. The world is changing, and the place of technological innovation has come to stay. I think it is important for us to look inwards and outwards, to ensure that we are not doing this in isolation and to ensure that we are bringing in different stakeholders, private sector, adapting to technology in order to scale advocacy. One of the powerful reasons why the EndSARS campaign was sustained as much as it was sustained was because it was borderless, it was done on the web and so people were able to mobilise as much as they could and I’m hoping that we would learn that. This journey is a long one. This journey is gradual, but we will continue to appreciate the little wins, even wins that seem insignificant and then just keep collaborating and partnering to ensure that we can really move the need on women political representation.
Athens Democracy Forum
FINAL WORDS
Women constitute about half of the Nigerian population but are excluded. What outcomes do we think we are going to have for the economy, for social development? Our social indicators are down, health care and education. So, we need to start thinking strategically, we need to understand that politics and business are intertwined. We need to understand that politics and economy are intertwined because the very fate of the people deciding the fate of the economy are at the legislative and executive seats of government. It is important that we choose carefully and wisely, people who have conscience, pedigree, intellect, who understand the rules of democracy and the rule of law and are people-centric and coming to serve.
The economy is in recession, inflation rate is extremely high, people are seeing hardship like never before. I don’t know how the everyday Nigerian survives but it’s almost as if our status quo is hardship and survival but we cannot keep going like this as a nation. Why do we think Nigerians get out of the shores of this country and start thriving? That’s because they have the resources and the environment. So, when I tell people that I am female, I believe in competent, character and action, I don’t want people to give me opportunity because I am a woman. I want them to give me an opportunity because I am credible, I have come to do something on merit, and they should give me a chance. All we are asking people to do is to ensure that no one is side-lined because they are female or because of their gender.