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.
- Nigeria
- Education, Human Rights, and Technology
- 25 institutions have a fully operational policies and 15 are in the policy validation stage
- 25 institutions with fully operational policies center the leadership of women and students
- 4 institutions with operational policies have allocated resources to policy implementation.
- over 50 institutions with an aggregate student population of Seven Hundred Thousand (700,000)have implemented GMI's co-designed guide for developing sexual harassment policies. The initiative has nationwide coverage with institutions geographically spread across 32 States in Nigeria.
- GMI has piloted in 4 institutions of higher learning in 2018 and recorded indications from institutions across the higher education spectrum including 60 universities, 30 polytechnics and 15 colleges of education, totalling 105 with an estimated student population of 3,500,000
- GMI held meetings with the management team of 61 institutions and provided technical assistance to 50 higher education institutions in the development of their sexual harassment policies
- over 300,000 members of the campus community reached through Townhall forum, bystander intervention training, preventative education programs, female student leaders engagement, policy validation meetings and management team meetings
Gender Mobile Initiative works to ensure that over 3,000,000 and girls have equitable, safe and healthy access to higher education without experiences of sexual harassment through the implementation of innovative policies, accountability frameworks, preventative education and creative adoption of technology for safe reporting and access to justice.
Omowumi Ogunrotimi
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.