Let's Talk Human Rights

By Layla Riaz Saqibuddin

The Initiative for Gender Equality and Development in Africa (IGED-Africa) is located in Ghana and aims to promote and further strengthen the voice, capacity, and participation of women and young people in helping them recognize their rights through training, research, and advocacy at the community, national, regional and international levels. IGED-Africa has raised awareness on women’s property and inheritance rights, period poverty and more. IGED Africa has also participated in joint reports to CEDAW, and strategic international meetings on women’s rights to property and inheritance in Africa.

During my time with IGED-Africa, my role covered a wide range of responsibilities which ranged from creating databases, pitching general recommendations, providing social media optimization techniques to researching engagement opportunities and partnerships and more. One of the things I enjoyed learning about IGED-Africa was about their local impact. I find it so inspiring for an organization to go out directly into the community to raise awareness about pressing issues in regard to gender equality, especially in terms of educating the youth. Each week, despite working remotely, I had meetings with my supervisor to update her on any patterns, unique findings, or partnerships I had assisted with. One project that IGED-Africa worked on during my fellowship was a period poverty project for the community that aimed at raising awareness about the many challenges female adolescents face and the impact of not being able to afford such products. I was also able to witness IGED-Africa’s social media campaign on the Maputo Protocol. I loved being able to understand the history, context and goals of this protocol and being part of an organization that is consistently advocating for gender parity and women’s rights. 

While researching on engagement and partnership opportunities, I was able to use my knowledge that I developed from my job at UD’s HRC as graduate assistant, which consisted of researching information about designated human rights cities. One of my responsibilities this summer in regard to the HRC was to research and analyze the history, the importance, the process and the involvement of human rights cities, organizations, and more. Quite frankly, the topic of human rights cities, civil society organizations, along with the goals of these organizations were quite new to me at the beginning of the summer. One of my favorite parts of my time with IGED-Africa was being able to use my knowledge from researching human rights cities and noticing the relationship between organizations, their cities, their partners and more, and seeing possible partnerships between organizations and human rights cities to further human rights goals. 

In fact, one of my roles for IGED-Africa was to assist in the business development side of the organization in terms of seeking out engagement opportunities and partnerships. In doing so, as mentioned above, I was keen to use the knowledge I developed from my research in studying designated human rights cities, the process, the role and partnerships of NGOs and CSOs and more. I learned that organizations are more common than they may think and by simply initiating a meeting, two organizations can come together and learn about common overlaps within their mission. Together, organizations can prosper and uplift each other.  Without being aware, I was simultaneously connecting all the dots from my numerous experiences and jobs. Each time I came across organizations or institutes with common goals, I felt inclined to reach out and take a risk to promote my organization’s mission. In doing so, I also connected this with how IGED-Africa can connect their mission with other designated human rights cities and CSOs to help promote their work and contribute to their similar goals. I was able to connect with numerous organizations and initiate partnership meetings. It felt so rewarding to see IGED-Africa meet with a partnership that I recommended and initiated. 

Reflecting on my summer experience, I am grateful to the HRC and IGED-Africa for providing me with this invaluable experience. I am proud to see what I have accomplished. I have noticed a great growth in my knowledge and I now feel more comfortable than ever assisting in human rights initiatives. 

Layla Riaz Saqibuddin is currently pursuing a STEM-designated MBA program and serves as a graduate assistant at the University of Dayton’s Human Rights Center. In this role, she engages closely with students, staff, and faculty. With a broad range of interests in human rights, Layla enjoys collaborating with human rights organizations. Layla holds a bachelor’s degree in International Studies, with minors in Arabic, Spanish, Political Science, and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. After graduation, Layla aspires to build a career in business development and marketing within the human rights sector. This past summer, Layla worked with the Initiative for Gender Equality and Development in Africa (IGED).