September 30, 2021

Making housing more affordable in Nigeria

As I continue to look for personal stories of women entrepreneurs in Southern countries (for lack of a better definition), I share my conversation with Chii Akporji, former Senior Advisor to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is now the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation. Chii has become an expert in housing finance in Nigeria and beyond, founding the consulting firm Alphacities Africa and breaking the glass ceiling of gender discrimination in the sector.
June 25, 2021

What does it take for a woman to start a business in Kenya?

This blog post is the first of a series focusing on female entrepreneurship in Southern countries. I start with an interview with a Kenyan woman, Mercy Khamala. Mercy has successfully transitioned from the humanitarian sector to business, founding the online concept store Meruti. Here she shares her journey and reflects on what she has learned along the way.
October 7, 2020
Three Doors

Feminism 2.0

KILIZA turns five! I cannot think of a better way to mark this moment than to publish an article by a former colleague I particularly admire, Wairu Kinyori. Based in Nairobi, Wairu talks about one of the most challenging choices she’s had to make in her life: taking a break from her highly successful career to raise her children. The freedom to choose this path is for Wairu a more authentic expression of feminism than trying to have it all, all the time.
March 7, 2017

International Women’s Day 2017: back to the workplace

This year’s International Women’s Day is about gender equality at work. A fitting theme to remember where and why we mark this day – it all started with a female garment workers’ strike in New York in 1908. More than a century later, working conditions for women have dramatically improved, yet they are still worse than for male colleagues...
November 23, 2016

An orange world against gender-based violence

You may have not noticed – and this month there are plenty of good reasons why – but there is a massive campaign to ‘orange the world’ going on right now. Every year from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day, the UN organises sixteen days of worldwide activism against gender-based violence, symbolised by the colour orange. Orange hats, orange t-shirts, orange banners, orange-lit monuments – you name it...
October 27, 2015

The elephant in the room

There’s a lot of talk these days about leaving no-one behind. In development circles it has become a mantra for making sure that everyone benefits from […]
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