Olufunke Baruwa


Olufunke Baruwa is a Nigerian gender and development practitioner, feminist and public speaker with a focus on gender, public policy and governance. For almost two decades, she has been at the forefront of social policies and reforms in Nigeria working with government, civil society and international development partners.

Education

Funke was educated at the University of Abuja and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and completed further courses at the University of East Anglia and the University of York.

Career

Funke is renowned for her advocacy on the inclusion of females in strategic political, social and economic positions in Nigeria. From 2000 to 2015, she was a Program Officer at the defunct National Poverty Eradication Programme, Gender Advisor at the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, and as a Technical Assistant on Research, Policy & Planning in the Ministry of Communication Technology. In 2015, she was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Women's Trust Fund – a technical and financial resource for women in politics and decision making in Nigeria where she set the strategic vision and mobilized resources succeeding Ayisha Osori. Prior to assuming the role of C.E.O of the Nigerian Women's Trust Fund she served on the Board of Directors of the Fund from 2011-2015. and in 2018, she was appointed co-Chair of the Board of Directors succeeding Amina Salihu.
She is currently the Project Management Specialist, Civil Society and Media for the US Agency for International Development.

Recognition

Named as one of the ‘17 women changing the world’ by the Institute for Inclusive Development at its 2015 Colloquium held at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Funke is a member of the Women Waging Peace Network.
She has been widely recognized for her work with Nigerian Women's Trust Fund by The Guardian, She Leads Africa, and other publications.

Personal life

Funke along with her husband and children reside in Abuja, Nigeria.'''