Salamatu Garba is making waves across Nigeria. As the Executive Director of the Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), she has spent 25 years working to empower Nigeria’s rural women and is coming off an especially big year in 2016 — she became an Ashoka Fellow for Nigeria (designating her as a global change leader) and was nominated to the steering committee of the Netherlands-based Women for Water Partnership thanks to her work improving rural water, sanitation, hygiene, and food security.

Garba says one of the main catalysts of WOFAN’s sustained success was a project supported 10 years ago by the Water and Development Alliance (WADA), a partnership between USAID and Coca-Cola. That 18-month WADA project built capacity, provided trainings, and helped install water and sanitation infrastructure, enabling WOFAN to make serious quality of life improvements in local communities. Despite the project’s limited duration, she tells Global Waters Radio it continues to have an outsized impact today. Its ripple effects continue to be felt in the form of greater economic and social empowerment for women; increased women’s involvement in water and sanitation management; improved water supply infrastructure; and community-level education campaigns championing handwashing behavior change for improved hygiene and community health. This podcast was originally published in September 2017.

To view or download a written transcript of this podcast:



* Global Waters Radio – Salamatu Garba Transcript



For more information on topics discussed in this Global Waters Radio podcast:



* Water and Development Alliance (WADA)

* Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN)

* USAID/Nigeria



To listen to the podcast, click below.