Usman Bashir Abubakar is a development practitioner and a beneficiary of the YouthLab Fellowship, under the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) cluster.
Growing up in a middle-class family within a local community, Usman became aware early on of the privileges he enjoyed: access to quality education, opportunities, and freedom that his sisters did not always have. As a Shuwa Arab, he witnessed firsthand how his sisters and other girls were subjected to the painful practice of female genital mutilation, enduring both physical and emotional suffering for months.
These experiences shaped his commitment to becoming an advocate for change. As a young man, he is determined to challenge harmful cultural practices, speak out against gender-based inequalities, and mobilize other men to stand in solidarity with girls and women in the fight against FGM.
Being a mini-grant recipient in The Smile Outreach Youth and Adolescent fellowship, he launched Shifting Harmful Norms, a grassroots and youth advocacy project, intentionally designed to nudge change in social and gender norms and promote norm change to help eliminate FGM. The project uses a gender transformative approach to shift community expectations and transform gender roles that normalize female genital mutilation (FGM). So far, the project has reached a total of 360 participants, with 75% of the Boys and young men demonstrating a proactive willingness to promote gender-equitable masculinities that support the elimination of harmful practices.
Usman’s passion for advocacy is rooted in his experiences working in crisis-affected regions of Northern Nigeria and across Sub-Saharan Africa. “My drive is shaped by the humanitarian crises in these regions and how they disproportionately affect marginalized groups, especially youth and women”. His work sits at the intersection of human rights advocacy and sustainable development, and his focus on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) reflects his commitment to addressing one of the most deeply entrenched gender-based injustices.
Through the Shifting Harmful Norms Project, Usman’s biggest contribution to ending violence against women and girls lies in his gender-transformative approach. Rather than focusing solely on eradicating practices like FGM, he works to change the social environments that sustain them.
Reflecting on his experience, he expressed how the YouthLab Fellowship was instrumental in strengthening his strategic approach to advocacy. “The program significantly deepened my understanding of legal frameworks and effective advocacy practices. It moved me from conducting one-off advocacy efforts to creating sustainable change”.
Through the Shifting Harmful Norms Project, his leadership in the YouthLab Fellowship, and his continental advocacy, Usman continues to demonstrate what it means to create change from the ground up, challenging deep-rooted norms, empowering communities, and paving the way for a future where women and girls can live free from violence and inequality.
