TOYIN OJORA-SARAKIFOUNDER / PRESIDENTTHE WELLBEING FOUNDATION AFRICA

A lawyer and a mother, with her own personal testimony on child mortality, Toyin Saraki was a keynote speaker at the Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference 2015 and has committed this year to attaining all global RMNCAH goals, especially SDG 3 and the World Bank’s Global Strategy. In 2014, Toyin spoke at the Special Event of

the President of the United Nations General Assembly of the Sustainable Development Goals. She was made

Inaugural Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwives and continues to serve as Newborn champion for Save the Children Nigeria. 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 primary 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 to the Ojora Royal Family, one of seven traditional

royal ruling houses of Lagos, Nigeria. Educated in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, she studied law and was later called to the Nigerian Bar. A director and shareholder of the Ojora Group of Companies, headed by her father the renowned industrialist HRH The Otunba Adekunle Ojora, she is a non-executive director of the Carlisle

Group of Companies. Nigeria. 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 to, and applied her wealth and expertise to philanthropic areas of interest, through her Wellbeing Foundation Africa, and it’s social enterprise, Wellbeing Universal Health Limited.

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. Wellbeing Foundation Africa recently convened and hosted Nigeria’s First Global Midwifery Conference, where, under Toyin’s patronage as Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwives, delivered global-standard certificated training modules to over 350 qualified midwives and students of the National Association Of Nigerian Nurses And Midwives, in the occasion of International Day Of The Midwife 2016.

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 Sustainable Development Goals 3, 5, and 6 – Good Health and Wellbeing, Gender Equality, and Clean

Water and Sanitation, respectively.

Committed to gender equality and opportunity, Toyin and WBFA have advocated for the redrafting and passage of Nigeria’s Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill, in support of Planet 50-50. 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. During early 2013 , Toyin has spoke at the Global Wellbeing Lab Forum in Berlin, 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.

As immediate past Inaugural Board Chair of the White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, Toyin continues to support the White Ribbon Alliance as a Global Champion, Nigeria MNCH Champion, and Nigeria Grand Patron. She acts as 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). As an author and writer, Toyin’s opinion editorials are regularly published by the Huffington Post and the African Journal of Midwifery amongst others. 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 MM&M 2014 platinum award for outstanding contribution to healthcare, 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.

WELLBEING FOUNDATION AFRICA

LondonGlobal Office, WBFA, 2 Eaton Gate, London, SW1W 9BJ

Lagos21, Probyn Road, Ikoyi, Lagos

Abuja143, Adetokunbo Ademola St, Wuse 2, Abuja, Nigeria

Kwara StateMandate House Complex, 20 Olorunsogo St, Ilorin, Kwara State

GhanaPO Box Mp32074, Accra, Ghana

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For further information on Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s work, to learn about ways to collaborate or

make donations, please visit our website at

www.wbfafrica.org