Binaifer Nowrojee is the president of the Open Society Foundations, the world's largest private funder dedicated to advancing human rights, equity, and justice. She is an international human rights lawyer whose career spans strategic litigation, advocacy, research, and philanthropy across Africa and Asia Pacific. Earlier in her career, she investigated sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide with Human Rights Watch, contributing to the first convictions recognizing rape as a weapon of war. Today, she continues to influence global conversations on rights, accountability, and the redistribution of power.
In this special International Women's Day 2025 episode, Dr. Yemisi Akinbobola sits down with Binaifer to explore the global theme Gift to Gain and what it truly means for African women, institutions, and the future of gender justice on the continent.
A key focus of the episode is intergenerational collaboration. Binaifer speaks passionately about the moral imagination of Gen Z African women and how older feminists must remain humble enough to learn from new organizing strategies while also offering the institutional support and legal infrastructure built over decades. She closes with a vision of African women putting their heads and hands together across sectors, lifting the continent through passion, commitment, and a shared humanity that rejects single stories and celebrates multiplicity.
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction: Give to Gain and Gender Justice in Africa
00:00:56 Meet Binaifer Nowrojee: First African Woman President of Open Society
00:02:24 Growing Up as a Minority: Identity and Early Awareness of Injustice
00:03:32 From Dictatorship to Democracy: The Pro-Democracy Movement in Kenya
00:05:17 Books, Writers and Awakening: Shaping a Feminist Consciousness
00:06:24 College in America: Finding Her Voice Through Anti-Apartheid Activism
00:07:35 Audre Lorde and Feminist Identity: When I Dare to Be Powerful
00:08:35 Human Rights Watch and Rwanda: Documenting Sexual Violence as a War Crime
00:10:54 What Give to Gain Means: Standing With Women on the Front Lines
00:12:42 Leadership at Open Society: A Different Kind of Philanthropy
00:14:35 Charlotte Maxeke's Legacy: If You Rise, Bring Someone With You
00:15:42 Glass Cliffs and Backlash: The Reality for Women in Power
00:18:31 Beyond Funding: What Meaningful Giving to African Women Really Requires
00:20:30 Gen Z Leadership and Moral Imagination for a New World
00:21:49 The Kigali Declaration: Addressing Gender Violence in Media
00:23:01 From Recipients to Shapers: African Women and Philanthropic Power
00:24:30 What Governments Must Give: Access, Opportunity and Getting Out of the Way
00:26:21 The Danger of a Single Story: Why Who Tells the Story Matters
00:27:37 Intergenerational Collaboration: What Each Generation Brings
00:30:05 A Vision for African Women: Passion, Commitment and Shared Humanity
00:31:28 What Philanthropy Must Give Up: Humility and the Power of Listening
00:32:25 Closing Reflections: Demanding Structural Change, Not Just Celebration
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