Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attends the Time 100 Gala for the Most Influential People in the World at Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center on April 29, 2014 in New York City.
“If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation.”
This well-known African Proverb has long been motivating people around the world to strive for education for all. It resonates well with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has been appointed the new chief of the World Trade Organization. She is the first woman and first African to fill the role.
As CNBC reports, “Born in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala graduated from Harvard University in 1976 and then earned a PhD from MIT. She then became the first woman to take on the Nigerian finance ministry and the foreign ministry too. She was also the first female to run for the World Bank presidency, where she spent 25 years.”
“The WTO appears paralyzed at a time when its rule book would greatly benefit from an update to 21st century issues such as ecommerce and the digital economy, the green and circular economies,” the article reports Okonjo-Iweala saying. Her tenure at the WTO could also be a new chapter for women’s participation in global trade. CNBC quotes Okonjo-Iweala: “greater efforts should be made to include women-owned enterprises in the formal sector.”
CWS programs around the world focus on engaging women-led businesses. Our education program in Kenya helps vulnerable women in poor communities enroll in school. This same work has been replicated all over Africa and around the world. Using what they learn in schools, women can now build businesses. They can expand enterprises and provide food for their families. According to UNESCO, the UN agency on education and culture, there is no doubt that a concerted global push for universal education has narrowed the gender gap in primary school enrolment between 2001 and 2008 in Africa.
We work with extraordinary women in our programs. We have seen over and over again that African women have the determination and brilliance to lead. It is inspiring, therefore, to see Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, promoted to such a prominent position in global trade.
As we enter the second year of the coronavirus pandemic gripping our world, I am also inspired by Okonjo-Iweala’s involvement in the fight against the pandemic. CNBC reports that Okonjo-Iweala has been a board member of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — a public-private health partnership immunizing people in poorer countries.
“We can come up with ways that can assist us come out from the COVID-19 crises stronger and better equipped,” she has said. Okonjo-Iweala is one of the African Union’s special envoys chosen to mobilize international support for Africa’s efforts to address the COVID-19 economic fallout.
On International Women’s Day, I am celebrating women like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She shows us that when women rise, they take their families and their communities with them. Women, including African women, are succeeding in global trade. They are leading in the face of devastating pandemics. They are providing hope and strength. I’m glad to be a part of it through CWS programs.
Anthony Alando is a Cultural Orientation Trainer at the CWS-operated Resettlement Support Center in Nairobi, Kenya.