In a piece for Apolitical, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf outlined the crucial role that women play in advancing development across Africa and highlighted how her Presidential Center will work to accelerate progress towards gender parity:

All around Africa, there is a sense that incremental change is not enough to deliver on the promise of the continent’s future. The demand of the young rings loud and clear: we must strive for transformational change.

However, women and youth, and the catalytic forces of change we know them to be, remain the missing link on this journey toward change.

I hold two mutually reinforcing positions about Africa’s future.

First, realising national development agendas depends on strong government capacity. Good governance and a robust civil service can serve as the engine for formulating and implementing policies conducive to development goals.

Second — and my main reason for writing — is that for as long as Africa excludes its women and girls from full participation in and leadership of their societies, the transformational change the continent desperately needs will remain elusive.

To read the piece in full, see here.