Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at 6APC

Feminist activist and philanthropist Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi has been recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 6th African Philanthropy Conference, held from July 27 to July 31, 2025, at the American University in Cairo.

The award honors her decades-long commitment to social justice, gender equity, and institution-building across the African continent.

The 6APC was organised by a consortium that includes the African Philanthropy Forum (APF), Africa Philanthropy Network (APN), Centre on African Philanthropy & Social Investment (CAPSI), East Africa Philanthropy Network (EAPN), Southern Africa Trust, and TrustAfrica.

The annual conference serves as a major convening for actors and institutions shaping the philanthropic landscape in Africa.

Adeleye-Fayemi, who is a member of APF and a co-founder of APN, has played a pivotal role in defining the values and strategies of African-led philanthropy.

Her career spans leadership in feminist organisations, advocacy for legal reforms, and the development of grant-making structures that centre African women’s voices and agency.

Her work has consistently focused on philanthropy as a means to drive systemic change and social transformation.

A cornerstone of Adeleye-Fayemi’s impact is her role in founding the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) in 2001, where she served as the inaugural CEO until 2010.

The AWDF was established to respond to the chronic underfunding of women’s organisations across the continent.

Under her leadership, the fund provided grants and technical assistance to women-led initiatives in 42 African countries, with a model that prioritised shifting resources and power directly to grassroots movements.

This approach not only addressed financial gaps but also helped strengthen the organisational capacity of feminist networks.

Before co-founding the AWDF, Adeleye-Fayemi led Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), an international development organisation for African women, between 1991 and 2001.

With offices in London and Kampala, AMwA focused on amplifying African women’s leadership.

During this time, she also established the African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI), a forum that trained a generation of young African women, many of whom have since assumed leadership roles in civil society, government, and academia.

Beyond organisational leadership, Adeleye-Fayemi has been deeply involved in policy advocacy, particularly during her time as First Lady of Ekiti State in Nigeria.

She served in this role from 2010 to 2014, and again from 2018 to 2022.

In this capacity, she used her platform to push for laws and policies protecting the rights of women and girls.

She was instrumental in the development and passage of the Gender-Based Violence (Prohibition) Law (2011, revised in 2019) and the Equal Opportunities Bill (2013).

She also chaired the Ekiti State GBV Management Committee and the Ekiti State AIDS Control Agency, mobilising resources to support women and children.

As chair of the Nigerian Governors’ Wives Forum, she helped bring national attention to the issue of gender-based violence, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the forum declared a state of emergency on the matter.

Adeleye-Fayemi is also known for her work in media and thought leadership.

She founded the Above Whispers Media Foundation, a platform focused on women’s voices and social commentary.

As an author, she has written several books, including Speaking Above a Whisper (2013), an autobiography, and Loud Whispers (2017), which explores themes of feminist activism, leadership, and justice. Her writings have further amplified her advocacy and offered a reflective lens on African women’s experiences.

Her contributions to philanthropy and development have been recognised internationally.

In 2007, she received the “Changing the Face of Philanthropy” award from the Women’s Funding Network in the United States.

The Synergos Institute honoured her with the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award in 2011.

In 2018, she was awarded the Zik Leadership Prize for humanitarian leadership.

She was also named among the 100 most influential civil society leaders in Nigeria in 2021, and in March 2022, she was recognised as an “Outstanding Woman Leader” by the United Nations Development Program Nigeria, UN Women Nigeria, the European Union Delegation to Nigeria, and the British High Commission.

With this latest honour, Adeleye-Fayemi joins an esteemed group of previous Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, including;

• Dr. Akwasi Aidoo (2021), founding Executive Director of TrustAfrica;
• Graça Machel (2022), advocate for women and children’s rights;
• Dr. Gerry Salole (2023), former CEO of the European Foundation Centre
•  Dr. Tade Aina (2024), educator and writer on urban development and philanthropy.

The award stands as a testament to Adeleye-Fayemi’s long-standing influence on Africa’s philanthropic and feminist movements.

Through institution-building, policy work, and public advocacy, her career reflects a commitment to shifting power, elevating women’s leadership, and advancing justice through African-led solutions.