Women’s rights advocate and Executive Director for Developing Women for Skills and Opportunities (DWoSO) Initiative, Francisca Nancy Hagan, has been selected for the 2024 Mandela Washington Fellowship.
The activist is currently at the Michigan State University in the United States where she will be taking part in academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities, and local community engagement.
Francisca Nancy Hagan has over 12 years of experience in gender equality, social inclusion, and community development.
Currently, Francisca serves as the Executive Director of Developing Women for Skills and Opportunities (DWoSO) Initiative, where she leads initiatives focused on women’s empowerment and social inclusion.
As the Founder and Executive Director for DWOSO, Francisca has implemented mentorship programs, worked with survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, dismantled period stigma, and provided skill training to young women in rural Ghana.
In the past seven years, she worked as an Extension Services Specialist for Community Water and Sanitation Agency, where she provided technical communication support and led stakeholder engagements, demonstrating strong leadership and communication skills. Francisca holds both Master of Arts and Bachelors of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of Cape Coast.
Committed to promoting gender equality and social justice, Francisca fosters inclusive environments and advances women’s leadership across diverse sectors. She is one of 32 fellows from Ghana selected from over 3,000 applications by the U.S. Embassy Ghana to be part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship.
Francisca is among the 700 Mandela Washington Fellows hosted at 28 educational institutions across the United States, chosen from a pool of over 50,000 applications submitted across the continent.
Francisca’s participation in this prestigious program at the Michigan State University underscores her dedication to creating impactful programs for women and girls in Ghana and beyond.
This year marks 10 years of the U.S. government’s signature effort of empowering the next generation of African leaders through the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
About DWOSO
DWOSO is a feminist organization that centers all self-identifying women and girls through education and advocacy, poverty eradication programs and skill development. With its focus on women and girls development, the organization has a defined target group being rural women, unemployed women, the girl child, women and girls living with all forms of disabilities, women and girls living with HIV/AIDS, and Queer women.
DWOSO strongly believes that feminism is for everybody; Hence, we encourage all persons from diverse backgrounds to participate in meaningful conversation and activities that will help us dismantle the patriarchy.
For more information on future events, visit dwosoinitiative.org.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Vivian Adu
