Binaifer Nowrojee is the president of the Open Society Foundations, the world's largest private funder dedicated to advancing human rights, equity, and justice. She is an international human rights lawyer whose career spans strategic litigation, advocacy, research, and philanthropy across Africa and Asia Pacific. Earlier in her career, she investigated sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide with Human Rights Watch, contributing to the first convictions recognizing rape as a weapon of war. Today, she continues to influence global conversations on rights, accountability, and the redistribution of power.

In this special International Women's Day 2025 episode, Dr. Yemisi Akinbobola sits down with Binaifer to explore the global theme Gift to Gain and what it truly means for African women, institutions, and the future of gender justice on the continent.

A key focus of the episode is intergenerational collaboration. Binaifer speaks passionately about the moral imagination of Gen Z African women and how older feminists must remain humble enough to learn from new organizing strategies while also offering the institutional support and legal infrastructure built over decades. She closes with a vision of African women putting their heads and hands together across sectors, lifting the continent through passion, commitment, and a shared humanity that rejects single stories and celebrates multiplicity.

Chapters

• 00:00:00 Introduction: Give to Gain and Gender Justice in Africa
• 00:00:56 Meet Benaifah Nauroji: First African Woman President of Open Society
• 00:02:24 Growing Up as a Minority: Identity and Early Awareness of Injustice
• 00:03:32 From Dictatorship to Democracy: The Pro-Democracy Movement in Kenya
• 00:05:17 Books, Writers and Awakening: Shaping a Feminist Consciousness
• 00:06:24 College in America: Finding Her Voice Through Anti-Apartheid Activism
• 00:07:35 Audre Lorde and Feminist Identity: When I Dare to Be Powerful
• 00:08:35 Human Rights Watch and Rwanda: Documenting Sexual Violence as a War Crime
• 00:10:54 What Give to Gain Means: Standing With Women on the Front Lines
• 00:12:42 Leadership at Open Society: A Different Kind of Philanthropy
• 00:14:35 Charlotte Maxeke's Legacy: If You Rise, Bring Someone With You
• 00:15:42 Glass Cliffs and Backlash: The Reality for Women in Power
• 00:18:31 Beyond Funding: What Meaningful Giving to African Women Really Requires
• 00:20:30 Gen Z Leadership and Moral Imagination for a New World
• 00:21:49 The Kigali Declaration: Addressing Gender Violence in Media
• 00:23:01 From Recipients to Shapers: African Women and Philanthropic Power
• 00:24:30 What Governments Must Give: Access, Opportunity and Getting Out of the Way
• 00:26:21 The Danger of a Single Story: Why Who Tells the Story Matters
• 00:27:37 Intergenerational Collaboration: What Each Generation Brings
• 00:30:05 A Vision for African Women: Passion, Commitment and Shared Humanity
• 00:31:28 What Philanthropy Must Give Up: Humility and the Power of Listening
• 00:32:25 Closing Reflections: Demanding Structural Change, Not Just Celebration

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