02/08/2026
A CRUCIAL MILESTONE FOR WILPF GHANA: PASSING THE TORCH OF FEMINIST PEACE
"The fabric of feminist peace is woven from the deep bonds of enduring sisterhood. It is shaped across decades by women of fierce integrity who refuse to accept injustice as inevitable. When we step into leadership together, we cease to be spectators of time and become the creators of a new history."— Ayo Ayoola-Amale
From a passionate group of women in 2010 to our historic recognition as an official section in The Hague in 2015, to our full legal registration and institutional establishment, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Ghana has been a labour of love, resilience, and unwavering dedication to sustainable, feminist peace.
Today, as the founder and outgoing President of WILPF Ghana, my heart is filled with immense pride, joy, and gratitude as I officially hand over the presidency to a lady whom I have known and walked alongside for over a decade, Mrs. Margaret Baby Harris.
Effective 27th July, 2026, Margaret steps into this role backed by a unanimous vote from our members and more than ten years of dedicated leadership within our section. As a Strategic Healthcare Professional and Human Resource Administrator, she possesses a strong dual expertise in Clinical Nursing and HR Management. Her work seamlessly integrates the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda with Reproductive Health advocacy and UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality). From serving as our National Coordinator for Gender-Based Violence, where she championed survivor-centered health and legal responses to her current focus on the critical intersection of physical security and healthcare access for women, Margaret embodies the future of rights-based advocacy.
The True Measure of My Legacy: Living Impact
"True leadership does not build a monument to its own tenure; it builds a foundation strong enough to carry the vision of the next generation. Passing the torch is not an ending, but the ultimate validation of the fire I started."
— Ayo Ayoola-Amale
As I pass this torch, I find myself reflecting on the quiet, transformative human stories that truly define the legacy I have built as the founder of WILPF Ghana. Beyond the policies, the frameworks, the projects, the advocacies, and the legal milestones, the truest measure of my life's work lives in the lives I have changed and the spaces I have forced open for women and girls across Ghana and beyond.
I vividly remember the girls from our final pre-COVID intake batch. They walked into our training rooms as anxious, soft-spoken teenagers, unsure of their voices and hesitant to claim their space. Today, those same girls are paired with dedicated mentors, standing tall as university scholars, community organizers, and fierce advocates. They are no longer spectators; they are the living, breathing impact of structural feminist peace.
Over the years, I have intentionally designed mentorship tracks to train and graduate consecutive batches of young girls. I have watched them transform from quiet observers into bold leaders who spearhead local peace initiatives, challenge gender-based violence, and confidently lead their peers.
Beyond grassroots empowerment, my legacy is cemented in the shifting of institutional paradigms in Ghana. I have fought to amplify the margins, bringing the grassroots female perspective directly to peacebuilding, mediation, policy tables, creating safer legal environments for survivors, and building a self-sustaining blueprint where one generation of women systematically lifts the next.
Securing the Next Chapter: ‘I am WILPF’
An Evolutionary leader does not just build an organization; she builds the people who will sustain it. In handing over the presidential instruments of leadership to Margaret, I am not stepping away from the struggle for justice; I am multiplying our leadership.
My life, my vision, and my dedication are permanently woven into the fabric of peacebuilding and peace-making. As the Founder and Director of WILPF Ghana, I remain fully engaged, providing strategic oversight, institutional guidance, and visionary direction. Margaret and I will work side by side to steer this ship forward.
I extend my profound gratitude to our entire membership whose unwavering dedication and unanimous vote have made this transition seamless. To our global partners, civil society allies, and international networks: I urge you to extend the same trust, cooperation, and solidarity to Margaret that you have generously afforded me over the last sixteen years. Together, we will fortify what has been established.
The foundation is rock-solid. The vision is crystal clear. Under Margaret’s leadership, the march toward social justice, human rights, and feminist peace in Ghana continues
Please join me in celebrating and congratulating our new National President!
