Equality App

Equality app would help address violence on FGM as well as promotes the rights of female thereby closing gender gaps.

The App will equally empower girls on free/affordable formal/informal learning so as to improve their skills-set for employment.

This App would help achieve SDG5(gender equality) and SDG3(health and wellbeing)

With Equality App, women can be provided with new and innovative pathways to connect and to meaningfully participate in the community and economy.  

Since a girl child is often a victim to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), my idea is to develop Equality App to address FGM as well as promote the rights of a girl child (http://archive.womendeliver.org/updates/entry/say-no-to-child-labour-and-yes-to-quality-education)

Equality App would connect girls at risk of FGM to rescue centres as well as give legal and medical help to those who have been cut. Educate girls to know their rights so they can exercise it.  my solution would also help connect girls, to free or very low cost formal/informal learning so as to improve their skills-set for employment. Currently with grant from Women Deliver through the organization I founded Youth Spotlight Initiative we are implementing advocacy project to address FGM in Nigeria through community mobilization, advocacy, and digital media efforts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LixI2tRXbAE&feature=youtu.be)  
 
Youth Spotlight Initiative

(https://www.facebook.com/Youthspotlightinitiative/) is an NGO run/managed by young people to promote the SDGS as it relates to women, girls, and youth.

And I am very optimistic that young people in my community and elsewhere http://womendeliver.org/2016/reaping-the-demographic-dividend-the-role-of-young-people-in-sustainable-development/ can help drive innovations to achieve the SDGS in health and development.

In Nigeria, about a quarter of women and girls have undergone FGM and globally over 200 million girls and women are affected by this harmful practice-- which is more than the entire population of 16 West Africa countries (Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Benin, Togo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mauritania, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Saint Helena) as of today.

While there have been considerable efforts on law to stop FGM, support for the practice persists in many communities in Nigeria and beyond.

Equality App will be a huge benefit to empower girls to know their rights  

This App will be first of its kind in Nigeria  a country where many women have undergone FGM and many others are at risk.  It will not only help address FGM but also help promote the rights of girls. Knowing ones right is the first point towards empowerment and for exercising it.  More so, with a very high mobile penetration rate, mobile phones have become an invaluable part of most Nigerians. Meaning the wider community could also be educated to respect the rights of girls/women.

Equality App will improve connectivity and technology access for girls, particularly in undeserved areas.

It would have an  impact outcome on their economy because once girls know their rights, they find their purpose, and ideas/innovations develop.

The wider community and youth will also learn. As the App will equally serve as platform for them to know of the rights of girls/women so they respect/value it. We would deployed via seminars, informal/formal training workshops.

Track downloads in the app store - 2,000 people in Nigeria download the app

Track numbers of female attendance - 10 vocation skills training sessions done via link on app

Track download in the app store - 500 people in other countries download the app

It will empowers girls to know their rights and same time provide them platform to  gain skills-set for employment. Also, it will use technology to reverse girls marginalization on FGM and enable communities free herself from learned stereotypes.

This solution is birthed from a deep understanding of girl's needs at community level who are at risk of FGM, and the need for them to be empowered.  It will be tailored by girls, for girls around solving challenges a girl child face in terms of marginalization and also for gaining skills-set for employment. Girls knowing their rights is the first point towards empowerment and for exercising it.

Youth Spotlight Initiative, an organization via which girls will champion this innovation and benefit from it is located in the implementation country. Equality App will be available on google play store for free download making it affordable and accessible to girls in my home country and beyond. Team from the organization will also be on ground to introduce it to girls and help them get acquainted to it.

Equality App would also have features via which girls and youth could subscribe to free/very low cost formal/informal learning. our subscribers who would  like to acquire accredited certificate in conjunction with our partners will pay a very low cost fee. Also Youth Spotlight Initiative team would also routinely organize vocation skill acquisition at a very low affordable cost.

Since we have the field experience, and can give inputs, we need technical support to develop Equality App.

Also, since this is a new App in Nigeria with such platform to address FGM, promote girls rights and empower them, we would need mentorship as well as partnership/network for sustainable  collaborations.

https://www.facebook.com/ThisGenNG/posts/1873754409540947?pnref=story

http://archive.womendeliver.org/updates/entry/beyond-world-aids-day-continuing-the-work-to-end-hiv-in-nigeria

http://archive.womendeliver.org/updates/entry/say-no-to-child-labour-and-yes-to-quality-education

The learning will bring me forward on my local efforts as activist on ending female genital mutilation(FGM) and promoting the rights of girls/women .

 I hope to utilize the gained experience to strengthen my start up organization –Youth Spotlight Initiative (YSI). An organization run/manged by young people whose mission is to promote the SDGS as it relates to girls, women, and youth especially those in undeserved communities. 

Women Deliver

Girl Generation