At the Clinton Global Initiative’s 20th Anniversary meeting, the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development (EJS Center) announced a landmark USD30 million Commitment to Action to establish the African Women’s House and expand the Center’s existing programs to advance women’s leadership across Africa.
Planned as a pan African hub for leadership development, feminist organizing, and movement building, the African Women’s House will provide space for training, convening, and research aimed at preparing a new generation of women leaders with the infrastructure, networks, and support to rise into positions of power.
Construction is set to begin in Monrovia, Liberia, the EJS Center said, crediting a growing community of supporters for enabling the project to move forward. The initiative is framed within the Center’s #GapZero agenda, which seeks to close the gender gap in public leadership by providing data, evidence, and concrete pathways to equity.
“The African Women’s House will be a place where women leaders come together to learn, to lead, and to change the future of our continent,” said Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, EJS Center founder and former President of Liberia. “We have long known that African women are the backbone of our societies. Now, we are building the House that their leadership deserves.”
The facility will build on the Center’s flagship Amujae Initiative, which has supported more than 50 African women leaders across politics, civil society, and business, and aims to cultivate the next generation of public service leaders.
Through the USD30 million Commitment to Action, the EJS Center is calling on philanthropists, governments, development institutions, and private sector partners to join in accelerating progress toward gender parity in public leadership across the continent.
