CORPORATE SCENE
A Chat With Veyrl Adell , Founder , Signifide Group International
By Marketing Africa Team
Marketing Africa had an engaging conversation with Veyrl Adell , CEO , Signifide Group , a company that drives social and economic growth and transformation across Africa with an objective to empower women and youth by leveraging on technology . Before setting up Signifide she was in full time employment for over a decade working for Ford Foundation , ILRI , Technoserve , and Nike Foundation . Contributing to her decision to set up shop was the fact that she was a-sought-after gender economist , whose services were in high demand by governments , the UN agencies and international consulting firms .
She spoke passionately about how she fulfils her deeply embedded passion of making a difference to women through social and economic empowerment , lessons she ’ s picked along the way and even opened up on a personal challenge she navigated through and how it has influenced some of the things she does .
Who is Veyrl Adell ?
I describe myself as a gender economist and you may ask ‘ what ’ s that ?’ It comes from a combination of my academic qualifications : my undergraduate is in Economics and my post-graduate is in Gender & Development . But above my education I have a strong belief in women empowerment and given any opportunity I try my level best to push that agenda . It ’ s my guiding light , my North Star ; I truly believe it ’ s my calling .
As for my career choices I tell people that my career chose me rather than the other way round . Let me elaborate ; when there ’ s a need that sits with you , burns you and makes you uncomfortable and you have the potential and sit in a space where you can come up with a solution and you are able to GET UP and answer to the call , then the career has chosen you .
The urge to empower women economically started when I was young and was reignited upon graduation and joining Ford Foundation as a Programmes Assistant for the African Philanthropy Initiative . I was employed to do filing and other minor administrative tasks . But due to my desire to contribute more and learn , I found myself being assigned to coordinate the various workshops we ran . This was a logistics role aimed at ensuring the workshops went smoothly by having all ducks in a row . This added my value to the organization and I was soon taking notes and minutes at workshops . With time and thanks to a post graduate Diploma in Finance , I started preparing and submitting Financial Reports to various donors .
When the contract came to an end I felt that Ford Foundation was still the place to be . I still had gas in my tank to contribute and was still thirsty to learn more . As fate would have it however the only opening for a position was that of a receptionist which would mean I would be a few rungs lower than my previous position . With an open mind I took the position and was attached to the Africa Fellowship Programme for Kenya , Uganda and Tanzania .
It was while here that I realized more than 90 % of successful applications for Master ’ s Degree scholarships were submissions by men and I brought this up with management . I was asked ‘ do you have a solution ’ while being given that look of ‘ let ’ s see what we ’ ve got here ’?’ I took it upon myself to rise to the challenge and change the situation . From my experience I knew that every issue has an origin , a history , and if one looks below the surface they ’ ll find the root cause . And so I dug in .
I talked to women and discovered that by their nature and conditioning , they go back to offer support for their families or start one of their own once they complete undergraduate . Duty calls as it were . Very few thought of furthering their education . On the other hand men are always looking for the next big thing and latch on any window of opportunity .
I realized that the only way to remedy the situation was two-fold : encourage women to apply and also change the application timing . It was important to send out the call for proposals earlier while targeted applicants were in final year rather than after they had graduated . This change reversed the situation and a lot more women applied increasing chances of being considered and indeed many were successful . I ’ m proud to say that my efforts paid off .
I moved to ILRI in the HR Department as Head of Capacity Building where I was responsible for Scholarships & Fellowships in Livestock Research . I introduced a quota system ensuring that at least one position was to be filled by a woman when advertising for proposals for scholarships and fellowships in respect to the programs we ran . At this point I was awarded a scholarship to study for a Masters in Gender & Development at University of Nairobi . I got a promotion soon after and was assigned Public Relations Manager , with greater responsibility to donor relations .
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