Toyin Ojora-Saraki

A lawyer and a mother, with her own personal testimony on child mortality, she was recently the subject of CNN’s African Voices and launched the UN Foundation’s Every Woman Every Child initiative in Nigeria, which means that she and The Wellbeing Foundation Africa are members of the Global Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Her main philanthropic and advocacy work is undertaken through her Foundation, which campaigns internationally for maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH).

Toyin was born on 6th September 1964 in Nigeria, studied law at the University of London and was later called to the Nigerian Bar. Having built a successful career in the private sector, initially as a lawyer, then as a banker and a property developer, she turned her attention, and applied her wealth and expertise to philanthropic areas of interest.

In her capacity as the First Lady of Kwara State, Nigeria, from 2003 until 2011, Toyin led a movement to enhance the access of every citizen to healthcare and education. Her continuous advocacy for the rights of the child made Kwara State the first to enact a law to protect the rights of children in that part of the country, and the first to implement a community health insurance scheme which guarantees that citizens receive healthcare for only $2 per annum.

Today, Toyin undertakes extensive advocacy work through the Wellbeing Foundation Africa. The Foundation is dedicated to the establishment and entrenchment of best practice in MNCH, as well as the improvement of health systems in Nigeria and across Africa. To support its objectives in MNCH, the Foundation also works in the fields of human rights, social welfare, education, arts and culture, citizenship and democracy.

WBF Africa has become one of the most powerful advocacy voices in the movement for improved MNCH, bringing together the public and private sectors on both the national and international level to counter this challenge. In Nigeria, the Wellbeing Foundation was responsible for lobbying for the new Nigerian Midwifery Service Scheme, widening access to family planning and the implementation of personal health records across Nigeria. The Foundation’s major commitment is the implementation of personal health records across Africa which the Foundation believes could have the single biggest impact on reducing child and maternal mortality and will move Africa towards attaining Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5.

Toyin regularly speaks globally on maternal, newborn and child health and rights: she has spoken about her work to promote maternal and child health at TEDxEuston where she described the significance of empowering mothers to take control of their health. She was also a panellist representing Africa at the launch event of the Global Truce 2012 ‘Reducing Domestic Violence Coalition’ in London and a panellist at Women: Inspiration & Enterprise (WIE) Symposium London to commemorate and celebrate Women's Achievements on International Women's Day in March 2012. In the first half of 2013 along, Toyin has spoken at Global Wellbeing Lab Forum in Berlin, at the Cannes Lion Film Festival, the UN DNA Summit, the WIE Africa Symposium in Cape Town, and Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy alongside Bono, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

She acts as Board Chair of the White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, Chair of the FIDA International Committee on Law Protecting the Rights of Children, and Goodwill Ambassador of the Olave Baden-Powell Society (OB-PS), which supports the efforts of the World Association of Girls Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). She also sits on the boards of the Global Foundation for the Elimination of Domestic Violence and The Africa Justice Foundation. Toyin has won numerous awards and recognitions for her achievements, including the WIE 60 Power Influencer Award 2013, MNCH Champion Award from the Institute of Child Health, Nigeria and the UN Fashion 4 Development Angel Award 2012.

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