Summary Report Of the First Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF)
Topic: Repositioning Ourselves, Transforming our Lives
Venue: Denis Hotel, Abuja
Date: January 2008

Participation
Participation to the conference was strictly by a non-transferable invitation and criteria for selection included women who publicly identified themselves as feminists with experience and track record of active engagement with feminist issues and a willingness to sign on to a African Charter of Feminist Principles adopted and agreed to in Ghana. Participation also included multi-generational representation of young people under the age of 35 years.

Main outcome of event
The conference provided a space for reflection and dialogue on the challenges facing the Nigerian women’s movement and feminist activists in particular.
• Adoption of the feminist principle;
• NFF to be organised every two years;
• Mentoring framework for young feminists;

Women movement building
It was noted that there are lots of women organizations in Nigeria, with good programmes for women, but are not parts of women’s movement in neither Nigeria nor do they identify themselves as feminists. There is a need to engage these women in some kind of discussion based on the feminist Charter before the next NFF in 2010.

Feminism 101
This is programme designed for youths and those who are not sure if they are feminist or not. The steering committee noted that a training document has to be produced before the next NFF in 2010.

Internal and external challenges
Internal challenges were quite few and far between due to the fact that there was a steering committee that was responsible for most decision makings. Another challenge was getting a meeting date that was convenient for all the members as most of them have very busy schedules and always in and out of Nigeria.

Other challenges included:

• Securing enough space and resources to accommodate self identified feminists and those nominated by known feminists;
• Getting the hotel staff to understand our needs while catering for a only women affairs was a challenge;
• Making some uninvited women to understand why they were not invited was quite a challenge;
• Turning down grants from other organisations who wanted to be part of the initiative mid-way through the conference was a challenge in balancing donor-grantee relationship.