Meet Aderonke

• Academic Background

Aderonke holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Benin in 2007. She proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, after which the Supreme Court of Nigeria certified her as a Barrister at Law (BL). She was called to the Bar in 2008.

To sharpen her skill for the mediatory services that her legal practice entailed in her early years of public-interest legal practice, she proceeded to study Peace Building & Conflict resolution as a short course at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), where she was certified in 2012. 

In 2019, Aderonke was named a Young Global Changer by Global Solutions in Berlin, Germany, for her community development work with women in local communities, she proceeded to curate a safe space for women and a handholding community of support for young people, both of which are now programmes under the Help Initiative for Social Justice and Humanitarian Development, a non-profit she founded in 2019.

Aderonke works alongside a team of passionate young Nigerians who are equally dedicated to an inclusive and just society where all can thrive because of governance systems, and not despite it.

Her commitment to development has led her to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where she is currently studying for an MSc degree in Development Studies as a  Chevening Scholar. She describes her choice of SOAS, University of London as an intentional part of her journey to study an Africa-focused and critical curriculum which will be useful for rethinking development in a manner most useful to the progress of her continent and motherland.

Trajectory of Social Impact work

Since 2010, she has been actively involved in advocacy, community development, field activities and movement building towards the promotion of a humane and efficient society that enhances holistic human development and participatory/inclusive governance.

Core Competencies

Aderonke has deepened expertise over the years in the particular space of policy advocacy, Development knowledge facilitation and training, Youth mentoring & citizens’ engagements, Child Rights promotion, and Gender Justice Campaigns.

In 2019, she joined the campaign for environmental justice and resistance movement against the corporate capture of natural resources across communities in Nigeria and across Africa.

She joined the Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria, now Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, where she is an Associate Director, campaigning for human rights to water and climate justice. Alongside her team at CAPPA, Aderonke mobilises communities across Africa in the "Our Water Our Right" movement and the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. 

Successful legislative Advocacy

As a Criminal Justice System reform advocate, she has been involved in advocacy and campaigns for several successful legislative & judicial reforms, including the Non-custodial alternative punishment to Imprisonment "Community Service" for minor offences"; an initiative targeted at prison decongestion, which became successful in 2015 after a five-year long legislative advocacy effort.  Also, the “Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Oyo State” became successful in quick succession. A task she considers both a privilege and honour to have successfully undertaken as a result of the trust of the then Chief Judge of Oyo State, Hon. Justice M.L Abimbola who appointed her as a result of her ability and passion for the enhancement of a fair and progressive justice system. 

Social Services

She served as a member of the 1999 Constitution Review Committee of Oyo State in 2013 as the youngest member of that committee; a task that allowed her to contribute to the process of actionable systemic change.

She remains committed to systemic justice and challenging systems of oppression through the agency of her voice, her work and other tools of engagement.

"Who you are is a gift to you. What you make of who you are is your gift to the world"