INTERCULTURAL

LEADERS

Haddy Jonga
Programme Officer, Think Young Women & The Girl Generation

Summer Schools

With nearly fifteen years of experience in gender, development and advocacy, focusing on Project Design, Implementation, Mentoring and Social Media Influencing for grassroots and global activism, community leadership and service, Haddy Jonga is a renowned activist, speaker and performance poet. She serves as a peace educator, trainer in Human Rights, Social Change Communications, Female Genital Mutilation and Child Marriage as Forms of Gender-Based Violence. She just started working with UNFPA – United Nations Population Fund, as a Programme Analyst for Communications, through which she contributes towards agency’s mandate. She is a member of the Programmes teams for Think Young Women, a young-women led non-profit organisation working towards creating a new generation of enlightened young women leaders. She was one of The Gambia’s programme officers for The Girl Generation, a 5-year programme working towards ending Female Genital Mutilation in a generation. Being the first in her family to obtain university education and having just graduated from her Bachelor of Laws programme, Haddy is an advocate for quality education. In 2014, she was identified as a Global Youth Ambassador for Education, under the A World at School Initiative Launched by the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown. Through her engagement with grassroots communities, she coordinates a Girls' Mentorship Programme. Haddy is affiliated with regional and international networks such as the Women Living Under Muslim Laws, The African Feminist Forum, Young African Leaders’ Initiative, the UNAOC Summer School Alumni, and has served on the National Child and Youth Advisory Board on Violence against Children, the Board of Directors of the Child Protection Alliance. In 2015, Haddy was recognised by the Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa, as one of the 27 most outstanding, emerging young women leaders of Africa.