Hafsat Abiola-Costello
Honoree, 2016
![hafsat](https://www.vitalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/hafsat-242x242.jpg)
Focus Areas
One of three leaders of Connected Women Leaders, Hafsat Abiola is the President of Women in Africa Initiative, the foremost platform organizing the continent’s leading women into a force for sustainable development.
An economist with degrees from Harvard and Tsinghua; a pro-democracy activist who lost both parents to her country’s democracy struggle; and a former member of her state’s cabinet in charge of the MDGs and trade and investment portfolios; Hafsat believes women’s equal engagement in the economy and governance systems at all levels will lead to a better world.
Her commitment to harnessing women’ s power to transform society is reflected in her work, which spans from the local to global. In Nigeria, she founded KIND, a civil society organization that trains thousands of women in service-oriented leadership. She is one of 50 Councillors of the World Future Council, a Special Envoy to Africa for Women Political Leaders, a member of BMW Foundation’s Responsible Leaders Group, Vital Voices 100 and an alumna of the World Economic Forum’ s Community of Young Global Leaders. She is also the recipient of several global and national awards; including, in 2019, the U.S. Civil Rights Museum Public Service Award.
Personal twitter handle: @HafsatKIND
Organizational handles: @WIAInitiative @kind_Nigeria @Good_Policies
Hafsat was chosen as a Global Leadership Award Honoree in 2016.
She is also one of the inspirations behind the SEVEN play.