Shades of Us at the 2025 Gender and Inclusion Summit

Ramatu Ada Ochekliye, Founder, Shades of Us, at the 2025 Gender and Inclusion Summit

By Ramatu Ada Ochekliye

On September 4, 2025, I walked into the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja for what has become an annual pilgrimage—the Gender and Inclusion Summit hosted by the Policy Innovation Centre (PIC). This year marked my third time attending since 2023, and just like the previous years, I was eager to immerse myself in conversations that matter deeply to me.

When I first saw the theme of this year’s summit—“New Voices and Approaches for Accelerating an Inclusive Society”—I was immediately curious. What new ideas would be presented? Who would be these "new voices" invited to the table? And more importantly, how would these conversations translate into action that improves the lives of women, young people, persons with disability, and underserved communities in Nigeria?

The Gender and Inclusion Summit has grown into one of Africa’s most important platforms for advancing gender-responsive governance. It brings together a wide array of voices: government officials, civil society actors, private sector leaders, development partners, creatives, and everyday people committed to building an inclusive continent. The format blends plenary sessions, breakout discussions, academic presentations, creative competitions, and exhibitions, creating space for deep dialogue and vibrant collaboration.

From just 700 in-person attendees in 2022 to over 2,000 in 2024, the summit’s reach has been impressive. Virtual participation has doubled as well, with thousands joining from across the continent and beyond. I have always attended in person, and I can attest to the electric energy in the room, one charged with possibility, urgency, and purpose.

This year, the summit set out to achieve five specific objectives:

• Promote male engagement as a strategy to accelerate gender inclusivity.

• Encourage community-based interventions that tackle gender stereotypes at the grassroots level.

• Elevate new voices—especially women and young people—in governance, business, and civic life.

• Leverage digital transformation to create economic and social opportunities for women.

• Foster cross-sector collaboration to scale inclusive models and drive systemic change.

Although my abstract for the Shades of Us Mobile Cinema Project was not selected this year, that did not deter me. I knew I wanted to be there to learn, engage, and remain grounded in the evolving work of inclusion. 

Summit Tracks at the 2025 Gender and Inclusion Summit

Session Reflections

Reframing Family Planning as a Development Issue

One of the sessions that deeply resonated with me was the breakout titled "Beyond Health: Positioning Family Planning as a Cornerstone of Gender Equity and Socioeconomic Growth". It was led by Margaret Bolaji-Adegbola, who serves as the Youth Partnerships Manager at FP2030 North, West, and Central Africa (NWCA) hub and also sits on the board of Shades of Us. Her personal story of how access to family planning allowed her to raise her children while building an impactful career was both poignant and instructive.

The narrative around family planning in Nigeria has long been reduced to health outcomes, but this session reiterated what I have come to believe: family planning is about power, choice, and dignity. It is a development issue, an economic issue, and a governance issue. I have shared how unplanned families can exacerbate poverty and predispose women and children to a hard life. I have also shared that we must put in place sustainable family planning solutions if we are ever going to move out of the terrible social and economic indices we have in Nigeria.

Dr. Salma Anas, Special Adviser to the President on Health, delivered a compelling keynote. Her argument was unambiguous: without prioritising family planning, Nigeria cannot achieve universal health coverage, gender equity, or economic development. She explained that one percent of the national health budget allocated to family planning commodities can change a lot in Nigeria, and emphasized the need for domestic production and export of consumables to achieve self-reliance.

The panel that followed—featuring Yusuf Nuhu, Dr. Rhoda Robinson, Dr. Fejiro, and Jemima Osunde—built on this foundation. The quote that has stayed with me since that day came from an FP2030 video played during the session: “The opposite of poverty is choice.”

Jemima Osunde’s contributions reminded us that poverty is not only a lack of money, but it is a thief of choice, dignity, and life itself. The link between poverty and maternal mortality is undeniable, and in a country like Nigeria, where women still die preventable deaths during childbirth, access to family planning can be life-saving.

Dr. Rhoda Robinson added that when families are unplanned, they struggle with even the most basic necessities: education, healthcare, and nutrition. Her organisation, HACEY, is working to empower young people to take ownership of their reproductive health, giving them agency in the most meaningful sense of the word.

From Yusuf and Dr. Fejiro, we heard about the fragility of family planning funding in Nigeria, currently 70 percent dependent on donor aid. With global funding priorities shifting, we must begin to invest in domestic solutions and integrate family planning into other sectors, including education and information.

Reserving Seats for Women: A Political Imperative

The plenary on Reserved Seats for Women in Governance struck a deeply personal chord. Nigeria currently ranks 178 out of 182 countries in terms of women’s political representation. That ranking is disheartening and a national crisis.

The panel advocated for the creation of 37 new seats in the National Assembly, exclusively for women—one for each state and the FCT. Some called it tokenism. I call it a corrective measure. In countries where women have been systemically excluded from governance, temporary mechanisms like quotas have been the gateway to parity. Once representation becomes equitable, these measures can be phased out. But we are not there yet.

Since 1999, there have been glimmers of progress. But between 2015 and now, those glimmers have faded. We now have fewer women in political office than we did a decade ago, and every effort to pass gender equality bills in both state and national assemblies has met with fierce opposition. These rejections are often couched in cultural or religious rhetoric, masking a deeper fear of change.

Women need encouragement, but we also need funding, legal protection, solidarity, and strategy. We must organise around candidates, build alternative political infrastructures, and push relentlessly for legislative reforms like House Bill 1349.

This session inspired me to begin writing a piece on tokenism versus representation, and I intend to explore how what some dismiss as “symbolic” has, in many countries, been the catalyst for real, lasting change.

Artificial Intelligence and Inclusive Futures

In another breakout session, “From Bias to Inclusion: Shaping a Practical Governance Framework for Ethical and Inclusive AI,” participants explored the intersection of technology and equity.

We often imagine Artificial Intelligence as the future, an impartial, efficient, transformative force. But the truth is that the biases we carry offline are already encoded into our online systems. Algorithms reflect the societies that create them. Until we deal with the root inequities that harm women and marginalized communities in real life, AI will simply replicate those harms at scale.

What moved me most in this session was the call for intersectional inclusion—not just in rhetoric, but in design, funding, and implementation. We must build AI systems that account for disability, race, gender, and class from the beginning and not as an afterthought. It is only by embracing a participatory approach, where everyone has a seat at the table, that technology can truly serve all of us.

Fireside Chat: Dressed to Disrupt

Finally, the session that left me the most emotional was a fireside chat with Madam Dora Godwin, a tailor and fashion designer with a physical disability.

Her story was not sugar-coated. Abandoned by her parents, she taught herself to sew and soon outperformed many of her peers. Over the past 30 years, she has trained more than 200 girls—many of them also from vulnerable backgrounds. Despite the physical toll on her shoulders and spine from years of using crutches, she continues to push forward. Her tenacity and purpose were palpable, and her story reminded me that inclusion must be more than aspirational—it must be actionable.

Key Takeaways

1. Family Planning Is Foundational to Gender Equity and National Growth

Family planning is not a health sector concern alone. It is central to achieving gender equity, reducing poverty, and driving economic transformation. Unplanned families place strain on limited resources, deepen cycles of poverty, and disproportionately affect women. Sustainable, locally-funded, and widely accessible family planning systems must become a national priority.

2. Women in Governance Need Encouragement and Structure

Representation matters. Nigeria’s appallingly low percentage of women in governance is not an accident: it is the result of systemic exclusion. Creating reserved seats for women is not a handout; it is a necessary correction. Only when women have equal power in decision-making spaces can we claim to be a true democracy.

3. AI Must Be Built on Inclusion, Not Assumptions

Artificial Intelligence will not solve our problems if we do not address the human biases embedded in its design. Inclusion must be baked into AI development, particularly for African women, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. We need participatory data, ethical governance frameworks, and local ownership of the tools that will shape our digital future.

4. Disability Inclusion Requires Investment, Not Pity

Madam Dora Godwin's story is proof that talent, skill, and resilience exist in every body. But her continued use of crutches—despite physical pain—highlights how often disabled individuals are expected to do more with less. True inclusion means structural support, adaptive infrastructure, healthcare, and recognition—not just applause.

5. Gender Inclusion is for Everyone, Everywhere

Inclusion is not a women’s issue; it is a societal necessity. From male engagement to grassroots interventions, digital transformation to political reform, gender inclusion must be embedded in every sector and at every level. And as this summit reminded us, new voices are not optional—they are essential.

The 2025 Gender and Inclusion Summit left me reenergized. It reminded me that even in a country where progress can feel painfully slow, there are people doing the hard work of change. And while we may not always be heard the first time, or the tenth, we will keep speaking. Because an inclusive society is not a dream—it is a decision.

And we must decide to make it real.

Shades of Us at the 2025 Gender and Inclusion Summit