Marginalisation is not a defence—23-year-old UNESCO Youth Representative

23-year-old Victoria Ibiwoye has just been appointed UNESCO Youth Representative for the SDG-Education 2030 Steering Committee, partly in recognition of her work as Founding Director of OneAfricanChild. In this interview, the law graduate from University of Ibadan tells NAZA OKOLI of her dreams to ‘change the African narrative through education’.

What does this position entail?

The SDG-Education 2030 Steering Committee is the global coordination mechanism for the education goal, Sustainable Development Goals 4 (SDG 4). The primary objective is to support UN member states and partners to achieve the ten targets of SDG4 and other education-related targets of the global agenda. As the first youth representative of the Steering Committee, my role is to represent the interest of young people on the Steering Committee. As most of the discussions and actions to be taken by the SC are targeted towards the quality education of children and youths, it is important to create a space where the beneficiaries are active partakers in the decision-making process of education leaders.

The Steering Committee meets once or twice a year to discuss and take decisions on priority issues. It is supported by four working groups which provide technical input and recommendations for adoption by the Committee as a whole. As a member of the steering committee, I also belong to the Advocacy and Communication Working Group and my role is to develop communication and advocacy actions on SDG4 and propose actions to advocate for increased political commitment to the education 2030 agenda.

How did you come to be selected?

Nomination was made through a consultative process, coordinated by the UNESCO youth section and the UNESCO’s Division for Education 2030 Support and Coordination made the final selection.

This journey – how did it all start for you?

Passionate about quality education for kids in low-income communities, I started a youth-led organisation in 2013 called OneAfricanChild Foundation for Creative Learning. I believe that education is a powerful tool to transform the life of a child and by extension, her family and her community. Education is a strategy to poverty alleviation and holds the key to achieving the sustainable development goals by 2030.

Through OneAfricanChild, I learnt to become a strong advocate for education in Nigeria and a global citizen. With support of other youth leaders serving as volunteers of OAC, we channelled our leadership skills to empower children in underserved communities in Nigeria through after-school training on Global Citizenship Education (GCED). As youth educators, we taught lessons on emotional intelligence, entrepreneurial leadership, peace and conflict resolution, perspective taking, critical thinking and problem solving. Our approach to education is experience-based and learners get to express themselves and explore their creativity.

As a community youth leader working to change the African narrative through education, I was selected as one of 50 youth leaders from across the world to the First Youth Advocacy Workshop on Global Citizenship Education in Busan, South Korea, organised by UNESCO

Your work has taken you to some parts of Africa. Is lack of education truly at the heart of Africa’s predicament?

Africa as a continent does not lack education, rather it lacks equal access to quality education and lifelong learning at all levels. Our challenges from one country to another are very similar which shows that education for all is not a priority in many African countries. There is an urgent need to invest strategically in education for sustainable development (ESD) so as to close the bulging inequality and raise ethical leaders who are equipped to take the baton for a sustainable Africa.

One African Child – does this name hold any special meaning for you?

Coming from a low-income community, I knew it would take a lot of courage to achieve my dream of supporting millions of underserved African children to reach their full potentials. I decided that I have to be bold by talking responsibility for OneAfricanChild at a time since I did not have all the resources to reach more. That was the inspiration for the name. At our first project, I reached out to two kids from my community. Four years fast forward, we have supported over 5,000 in and out-of-school children through our creative learning and empowerment programs.

A common criticism of the UN goals is that they are not often attainable. Isn’t this true?

The UN Sustainable Development Goals may not be attainable if we do not believe that they are achievable and possible. It all starts with believing. We need to understand what the goals are about, then invest through action. At OneAfricanChild Foundation, we have chosen to work in the area of education because we believe that education contributes to the achievement of all 17 SDGs. We are investing in capacity-building trainings for our youth educators to deliver ESD trainings in low-income community children who cannot afford the best education possible. To achieve the global goals, we need all hands on deck and everyone has a role to play in delivering the SDGs.

The UN goal you’re involved in seeks to “ensure inclusive and quality education for all, and promote lifelong learning.” What concrete strategies should African countries adopt in order to achieve this (by the year 2030), given our peculiar circumstances?

1. Education should be placed at the heart of the SDGs as it is a key for progress for the achievement of all the SDGs. Education in Africa should take a central-place in ensuring sustainable development.
2. African countries should increase domestic education spending by at least 20% and allocate it more equitably in a way that supports the most marginalized groups and disadvantaged children.
3. Government and donors should increase the share of their humanitarian aid allocated to education while promoting resilience of education and systems and strengthening national capacities, including through support for policies and programs aiming at better connecting humanitarian and development aid.
4. African countries should promote, effectively coordinate and strengthen capacity building for SDG4 implementation of governments, educational community, civil society, youth-led NGOs as well as other key actors at country level, and help to establish effective mechanisms for implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

What kind of upbringing did you have? Do you have personal stories you would want to share?

I’m grateful to have parents who believe strongly in the power of education. With limited resources, they gave their best to ensure that my siblings and I receive the best education possible.

You spoke about your struggles with dyslexia as a young child. How did you eventually overcome it?

Dyslexia is an inborn invisible learning disability characterized by difficulties with accurate word recognition, poor spelling and self-expression. Other secondary problems may be found in vocabulary, reading comprehension and writing. It has nothing to do with intelligence.

I wouldn’t say I have overcome; I have adapted and found alternative ways to learn and express myself. I struggled a lot growing up because I didn’t know I had dyslexia but that also challenged me to find creative ways of learning and memorizing. Joining study groups with my peers has helped me in remembering, listening to audio-visuals has also been very useful. I sometimes find it difficult to express myself in writing but I am a great storyteller. Over the years, self-awareness has helped me recognise my strength and weaknesses. Knowing this, I am able to channel more energy into my areas of strength. For example, being a story teller, I spend more time teaching others what I have learnt, this way, I do not forget and even learn more by so doing. My critical thinking and problem solving skills have helped greatly in my leadership style, I have become proactive and built more resilience. I just never give up easily, I always find an alternative solution to a challenge I encounter.

Given the rise in the number of women who occupy important positions in Africa and elsewhere, do you think women are still marginalised, or is it the case that a good number of them are not making use of the opportunities around them?

More than ever, women from Africa are occupying and creating spaces of leadership not because we have been marginalized for too long but because we have valuable experience and necessary competencies to deliver. I am ever inspired by leaders like Amina J. Mohammed who is the current Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and former Minister of Environment of Nigeria for her exemplary leadership. The 21st century is writing an entirely new narrative and we are the authors. Rather than fit into the status quo, we must go out of our way to it. The world has plenty of opportunities to go around, the more effort we put into refining our skills, the more confident we will become as leaders.

Marginalisation is not a defence not to reach their dreams. The only way to create the future you want is to be effective in the now. Fantasies about the future don’t matter unless you’re active in the moment.