Olufunke Baruwa
Program Officer, West Africa
Olufunke Baruwa is a program officer for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice in the foundation’s West Africa office, where she leads work on ending violence against women and girls. She is a gender and development practitioner with almost two decades of experience in government and civil society, focusing on public policy, gender advocacy, civil society strengthening, and governance.
Prior to joining Ford, Olufunke was the civil society and media specialist in the Peace and Democratic Governance Office of USAID in Nigeria, where she designed and led multimillion-dollar civil society strengthening projects. She has led several social policies and reforms in Nigeria and has served as chief executive officer of the Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund, a technical and financial resource for women in governance in Nigeria; program officer at the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund and National Poverty Eradication Program; gender advisor at the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs; and as a technical assistant of research, policy, and planning in the Ministry of Communication Technology.
She holds a bachelor’s of science in. business administration and a master of business administration in management from the Universities of Abuja and Nsukka, Nigeria, with post-graduate certifications in gender, public policy, and management and corruption and governance from the Universities of East Anglia, York, and Sussex, respectively.