Sarah Egbo- Global Citizen Cisco Youth Leadership Award Pi

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Global Citizen Cisco Youth Leadership Award Pitch by Sarah Egbo, Policy Support Lead, Gender Mobile Initiative

TRANSCRIPT
Sexual harassment in Institutions of higher learning has assumed an epidemic proportion as indicated in research. A flagship study by Owoaje and Olusola reveals that 69.8% of female student respondents had been sexually harassed and/or assaulted in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Similarly, a survey conducted by the World Bank Group in 2018 affirms that 70% of female graduates from Nigerian tertiary institutions have been sexually harassed in school. This numbers are not mere statistics to me. I have been a part of the journey of victims and to collapse them into summary data will not do justice to it.
What is surprising is not the alarming volume of the cases or the vulnerability of the victims, what is surprising is Sandra's experience which is the reality of many students.
Sandra was a 100 level student whose academic survival was dependent on meeting the sexual demands of a prominent Professor. She threatened to report but her harasser who was a repeat offender was quick to remind her of his social status and the repressive culture that interrogates shames and blames the victim. Sandra confided in her friend who divulged the evidence shared with her in confidence. The Management advised her to report at the nearest Police Station. Within 1 month, Sandra's physical security was threatened 4 times and her friend became a secondary victim. Sandra dropped out of the Institution due to fear of further reprisals and the culture of sexual harassment that had pervaded the Campus. More disturbing was the disapproval of her peers who also questioned her gut.

With this context-specific data and empirical evidence, I, Sarah Egbo, Policy Support Lead and my team at Gender Mobile Initiative moved into the campus community and realised that dedicated reporting structures, policies and panel of enquiry were totally non-existent. This informed the Campus Safety Initiative; our evidence-based intervention which is anchored on a tripartite approach centred around policy design/implementation, institutionalization of bystander intervention and leveraging the Campus Pal mobile app for data harvesting, confidential reporting and effective case management.

The Campus Pal mobile application is a feature-rich platform with confidentiality-driven reporting, reported case tracking, support community/safe space that supports proactive bystander intervention, information escrow/perpetrator matching, access learning Centre to learn about policies, case appeal and onboarding information function.

I am deserving of the Cisco Global Citizen Prize as the CampusPal innovation is an Accelerator for sustainable development goals 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 16, and 17 which are all fundamental to the achievement of other SDGs. With the Campus Safety Initiative model, those affected by these structural inequities are involved in the design and implementation of policies and practices that impact their lives. With this, we would achieve our aspirational goal of building institutions of higher learning safe for everyone to thrive without leaving girls like Sandra behind.

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