Former First Lady, Monica Geingos was one of three trailblazing women to be awarded the 2024 Hall of Femme Award by the International Women’s Forum South Africa (IWFSA). IWFSA is part of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), a global invitation-only network of some of the world’s most accomplished and influential women leaders. The IWFSA Award Gala was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 31 October 2024, and was attended by the former First Lady of the Republic of South Africa and IWFSA Patron, Dr Zanele Mbeki, IWFSA President Nolitha Fakude, IWFSA Board Members, and South Africa’s top women leaders.
The Award pays tribute to women committed to advancing women’s leadership. Past honorees include Mrs Zanele Mbeki, former First Lady of South Africa; Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO Director-General; Ms Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director; and other trailblazing women.
Geingos was made a Halle of Femme Honoree with Dr Naledi Pandor, Former South African Minister of International Relations, and Wendy Ackerman, co-founding Pick n Pay Group Executive.
Mrs Geingos was commended for being a global role model and thought leader who has led with purpose and determination in addressing women’s issues.
The Award citation for Geingos recognised her transformative work on financial inclusion in Namibia, how she drove meaningful change as First Lady, and her turnaround of the Organisation of African First Ladies during her tenure as its President, which included leading a successful capital campaign, deepening organisational capacity, and launching a high-level gender equality campaign titled the “We Are Equal” campaign, which has to date been launched in 18 countries with a combined population of 700 million Africans.
In accepting the award, Geingos reflected on the 2024 SDG Gender Index that found that no country had achieved the promise of gender equality envisioned by the UN’s 2030 sustainable development goal and that between 2019 and 2022, nearly 40% of countries home to more than 1 billion women and girls – stagnated or declined on gender equality.
Geingos shared that these deeply rooted biases manifest in unequal access to Sexual and reproductive health, unequal political representation, economic disparities and a lack of legal protection and how adolescent girls and young women suffer the brunt of biases against women, with half of 15 – 19-year-old girls either out of school, married or parenting and bearing the most isk.
Geingos concluded that “when you expose adolescent girls to risk, you risk the development of your country. When you build strong and resilient adolescents, you build strong and resilient families, a strong and resilient workforce, and a strong and resilient economy. We all must play a deliberate role in empowering women and enabling adolescents to survive and thrive.”
Geingos dedicated her award to adolescent girls and young women on the African continent who inspire her vision of intergeneratonal solidarity among women, which fast-tracks the attainment of an equal society.