The Youth Fellowship Programme Overview

The ‘Innocent Chukwuma Social Impact Fellowship’ is a capacity-building programme that is designed to support young Nigerians to lead transitions through their social change initiatives in communities, social enterprises, nonprofit organisations, research, and influence on development policy implementation. The fellowship equipped the ten youth fellows with the necessary skills to deal strategically with complex challenges and opportunities in leading their organisations and communities, and it also gave the youth fellows the opportunity to create a network of local, national and international partners committed to sustainable development and feminist and responsible leadership principles.

 

Fellowship Highlights

The fellowship activities ran over a six (6) month period and included;

 

Innocent Chukwuma Social Impact Chair and Fellowship Inauguration:

Lagos Business School (LBS) and Ford Foundation inaugurated the Innocent Chukwuma Social Impact Chair and Fellowship (ICSICF), introducing the first youth fellows cohort and unveiling the book cover of the upcoming biography of Innocent Chukwuma on Friday, May 13, 2022.

Please click here to view the press release of the inauguration of the Innocent Chukwuma Social Impact Chair and fellowship

Pictures: Innocent Chukwuma social impact chair and fellowship inauguration Pictures

Programme Delivery

All the sessions on this programme went on smoothly. The facilitators stimulated engaging and interesting class discussions on practical issues involving leading and managing a social enterprise. There were a total of 40 online sessions and  six (6) days of in-person engagement with topics centred on the three disciplines of the fellowship: Management (Social Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship and Nonprofits); Public Policy and Governance (Policing, security sector reforms and criminal justice administration); and Impact Investing and International Development. The curriculum helped to demystify misunderstandings around feminism and feminist leadership principles, explored leadership styles, tools and social justice values, and as well built the knowledge of the youth fellows in the finance and impact investment landscape. The facilitators and contributors  are listed below;

Oreva Atanya, Head, LBS Sustainability Centre

Dr Kemi Ogunyemi, Associate Professor of Business Ethics, Lagos Business School

Dr Tunde Ekpe, Faculty Lagos Business School

Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie, Faculty, Lagos Business School

Nike Akerele-De Souza, Founder, Teach4Nigeria

Falope Ayodeji Peter, Creative Media and Marketing Communications Expert, Business Development and Management Consulting

Mrs Rose Ogbechie, Faculty, Lagos Business School

Prof Olawale Ajai, Professor of Legal, Social and Political Environment of Business and Faculty, Lagos Business School

Ms. Ruth Olofin, Acting Executive Director, CLEEN Foundation

Henry Onukwuba, Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour Expert, Faculty, Lagos Business school

Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, founder, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC)

Dr Ijeoma Nwagwu, Princeton University and Adjunct Faculty, Lagos Business School

Prof Akintola Owolabi, Professor of Cost & Management Accounting, Lagos Business School

Etemore Glover, Project Lead, Impact Investors Foundation

Prof. Bongo Adi, Finance and Economics Expert, Faculty Lagos Business School

Dr Arinze Nwokolo, Faculty, Lagos Business School

Dr Okechukwu Amah, Faculty Lagos Business  School

Adenike Adeyemi, Executive Director, FATE Foundation

Crystal Chigbu, Executive, Director, The Irede Foundation

Ibijoke Faborode, Founder, ElectHer

Hamzat Lawal, Founder, Connected Development

Gabriel Okeowo, Country Director, BudgIT

Cynthia Mbamalu, Director of Programs, YIAGA Africa

Mr Oluseun Onigbinde, Global Director, Budgit

Mr Femi  Taiwo, Managing Director, TRACE Academia

Olufunke Baruwa, Programmes manager, Ford Foundation

Onyinye Onyemobi, Program Associate, Ford Foundation Office for West Africa

 

Advisory Sessions

The advisory session brings in expertise to help the youth fellows answer some questions of interest that will enable their organisations to grow. The Advisors were;

Dr. Kole Shettima, Director, MacArthur Foundation Africa Office

Mrs. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, Founder, LEAP Africa and Co-Founder, Sahel Capital

Youth-Led Impact Projects

The youths developed and presented four proposals that sought to solve social problems in the areas of education, economic empowerment, criminal justice and environment & climate change. The four different projects are listed below;

Strengthening the Capacity of Social Entrepreneurs working on Criminal Justice Issues in Nigeria: The project is aimed at carrying out intensive capacity development training for lawyers as they are equipped with up-to-date knowledge on criminal and human rights litigation in their local context so that they would be able to adequately represent persons whose human rights have been violated at various stages in the criminal justice system within the shortest time possible.

Plastic Community Project: The Plastic Community Project is a Beat Plastic Pollution (BPP) initiative that seeks to facilitate a community-led approach by using sport as an advocacy tool to achieve social and behavioural change toward mitigating the adverse effects of climate change for Plastic Free Communities in Benue State.

Farmsafe: This project seeks to enable sustainable food systems for Africa and bridge the knowledge gap between Farmers and Best Practices.

Project Tanzuwa: Project Tanzuwa is aimed at improving access to skills-based education for out-of-school youths in Karu Community – a rural community located on the outskirts of Nasarawa state, northern Nigeria.

 

Pictures: ICSI online and in-person class sessions