By: Kabina S. Kabah — kabinaskabah98@gmail.com
New York — The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development (EJS Center) has announced a landmark $30 million Commitment to Action to establish the African Women’s House, a first-of-its-kind hub for women’s leadership and empowerment across the continent.
The announcement came at the Clinton Global Initiative’s 20th Anniversary meeting, signaling a bold step toward addressing gender gaps in African public leadership.
As the world’s first Presidential Center dedicated to a female leader, the African Women’s House will serve as a Pan-African hub for leadership training, feminist organizing, and movement building.
It will provide women and girls with convening spaces, research resources, and the networks needed to rise into positions of influence.
“The African Women’s House will be a place where women leaders come together to learn, to lead, and to change the future of our continent,” said former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, founder of the EJS Center. “We have long known that African women are the backbone of our societies. Now, we are building the House that their leadership deserves.”
The project advances the EJS Center’s #GapZero agenda, which calls for urgent action to close the gender gap in public leadership.
It also builds on the Center’s flagship Amujae Initiative, which has already empowered more than 50 women leaders across politics, civil society, and business.
The EJS Center is now appealing to philanthropists, governments, development institutions, and private sector partners to join in supporting the initiative, which is set to begin construction in Monrovia.
With this historic step, the Center is positioning itself as a catalyst for transforming women’s leadership and ensuring greater gender parity across Africa.
