Fadekemi “Kemi” Akinfaderin is the Program Lead for Stream 2—the grantmaking program dedicated to support women’s funds and feminist funds specifically. She comes to the Equality Fund with over twenty years of experience supporting women and girl’s rights organizations and movements across Africa.

Before joining the Equality Fund, Kemi was the pioneer Knowledge Management and Learning Director at Prospera- the International Network of Women’s Funds, where she led the redesign of the network’s institutional strengthening portfolio and served as a thought partner to 44 women’s funds in strengthening their program and grant-making strategies, impact reporting, and operational excellence.

As a young woman, she co-founded and, until 2016, served as the Executive Director of Education as a Vaccine (EVA), one of Nigeria’s leading non-profit working to advance adolescent and young people’s rights to health including sexual and reproductive rights. She was a member of Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice (RESURJ) alliance for 10 years and worked with like-minded feminists to support the formation of other feminist alliances that support young women to advocate for the advancement of the rights of women and girls in Africa. Kemi served as an advisor to the Government of Nigeria in several health and women’s rights platforms and was a special assistant to Secretary-General Kofi Anan’s Special Envoy on HIV and AIDS in Africa.

She holds a BA in Chemistry and Molecular Biology/Biochemistry from Wesleyan University and a Masters in Public Health from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Kemi is an accomplished fashion designer & entrepreneur and enjoys gardening in her spare time.