Saudatu Mahdi MFR
Women’s Rights Advocate | Development Worker | Educator | Change Agent
Saudatu is Secretary General Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), a rights based non-profit advocating for equity and equality of opportunities to directly impact the lives of women and girls. With over 20 years experience of social development work leading the WRAPA team, Saudatu has served as UN CEDAW Committee Advisor for Nigeria and was a nominee for its membership in 2006. She has served on the Council of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission. Serving in various capacities she has first-hand knowledge of the humanitarian crises in Northeast Nigeria and its impact on women, girls and other affected vulnerable groups.
Over the last five years she has deployed her competency in policy dialogue formulation gender systems and situational analysis, towards addressing the knowledge deficit of around the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs. She leads the WRAPA public education, sensitization and government monitoring on the implementation of SDGs 5, 16 and 17 under the UN Spotlight Initiative. Her expertise in addressing the challenges and complexities of the social dimensions of development, poverty, and exclusion, she sits on the governing Boards of several organizations responding to such vulnerabilities.
A founding member of Bring Back Our Girls campaign, she is also the Special Assistant (Development) to Chairman of Nigeria’s Victims Support Fund (VSF), a private sector initiative aiding recovery for survivors of insurgency and other conflicts around Nigeria. She holds a National Honour of MFR for her contributions to the advancement of gender in Nigeria. She is a Fellow of Nigeria’s Institute for Corporate Administration, a recipient of other national and international awards.