The GPE Secretariat is delighted to congratulate Salimatou Fatty, a member of GPE's Youth Advocates Group (YAG) and Gambian Education and Human Rights Activist, who has been included in the list of the 2017 100 most influential young Africans across the continent.

Salimatou, 23, is founder and CEO of the Salimatou Foundation for Education (SaFE), an organization that campaigns for quality education and gender equality for all, especially children in her community.

As an education and gender advocate, she is collaborating with GPE on its newly formed Youth Advocates Group. The YAG is focused on taking forward youth advocacy and engagement within the partnership, including its replenishment campaign on education financing as well as country and global level activities, to ensure the voices are youth are heard.

The YAG includes a cohort of young people from across countries eligible for GPE support who are passionate education advocates. They are engaging within their communities and at the global level on what is required to achieve SDG 4, so that children and young people are able to reach their potential through access to a quality education.

Previously Salimatou was the Global Youth Ambassador for A World At School. She is an ambassador for several international organizations to The Gambia and a member of African Youth Commission. She is a trained Peace Educator and passionate about global development.

In addition to this role with GPE and others, she has received several accolades, including the African Leadership Award by Independent Pan African Youth Parliament in 2016, nominated for the African Youth Award under ‘Advocate of the year,' ‘Girl of the Month’ by Girls Pride Circle, and ‘African Woman of the Day’ by MTV Ghana. Salimatou is also a Barack Obama Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI RLC) Alumni.

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