Gender Mobile Initiative
Gender Mobile Initiative
Broader Sectors
- Education - Sani/Wisdom
- Human Rights - Idajo/Justice,
- Technology - Kusasa/Tomorrow
Demographic Focus
- Women and Girls
Cohort: 04
- West Africa
- Nigeria
Gender Mobile Initiative leverages technology to provide resources and support services to victims and survivors of gender-based violence. GMI’s services include trauma counseling, legal support, psychosocial support, and livelihood assistance.
The Differentiator
GMI is breaking the culture of silence surrounding gender-based violence. Their approach focuses on increasing the ease of reporting, holding perpetrators accountable to deter others, and improving institutional accountability.
Why Their Work Matters
Sexual harassment in higher learning institutions has reached epidemic proportions, with various studies highlighting its gendered and power-centered pattern of violence. As tertiary institutions in Nigeria grapple with this issue, victims face severe consequences, including education disruption, absenteeism, depression, and in some cases, eventual dropout. The lack of federal legislation addressing this is a significant concern that GMI aims to tackle with a focus on delivering justice and healing to victims.
Partner Impact
Leadership Highlight
Omowumi Ogunrotimi
Lead Director
Omowumi Ogunrotimi is an accomplished feminist lawyer, boasting multiple awards, and possesses over 6 years of strategic leadership experience. She adopts a systems change approach and utilizes a social ecological model to reshape structures and practices that perpetuate gender-based violence, uphold gender disparities, and hinder equal educational opportunities.
With a proven track record of working in over 50 rural communities and 50 higher education institutions, Omowumi actively drives the co-creation of strategies to combat school-related gender-based violence in elementary, high schools, and higher education. Her methods include innovative policies, research, preventative education, bystander intervention, and technology adoption.
Committed to fostering a system where educational access is healthy, safe, and equitable for women and girls, Omowumi has been recognized globally. She is a recipient of the 2018 Commonwealth Youth Award, acknowledged by JCI as one of the ten outstanding young persons in Nigeria, and is an Ashoka fellow. Additionally, the UNDP and UN Women recognized her outstanding work on gender equality in 2022.
