Michael Akanji — BIOGRAPHY
Born on the 1st of September 1984, Michael Akanji has a background in Electronics Engineering from both Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa and Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State Nigeria. Proceeded to the University of San Diego, to study Gender Studies where he graduated in 2016 with a degree in Gender Studies and in 2017 obtained a Graduate Certificate from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell in Peace and Conflict resolution with specialization in intra-personal peace and gender identity.
In 2019, he obtained professional development certificate in leadership and management in health, implementation science, and project management from the University of Washington.
He works on human rights using the public health approach for Sexual minorities and a Sexual Health and Rights Advocate with over a decade of experience on LGBTI issues and interventions in West Africa and trained in Peace and Conflict resolution with expertise in Intra-personal Conflict.
He has attended several pieces of training on Sexual Health and Rights advocacy; Population and Reproductive Health; Youth and Sexuality; Sexuality and Culture; Religion and Human Rights and key population programming, security, Research methodology among others and a trained paralegal with the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative.
He was a Research Member for the UN 2000 Young People Report on the progress made on the “UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: Our Voices Our Future” (https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/youth_UNGASS.pdf) and also a contributor to various publications on Key Population and LGBTI issues, which includes: MSM in Sub-Saharan Africa: Health, Access,& HIV: Findings from the 2012 Global Men’s Health & Rights (GMHR) Study (http://msmgf.org/files/msmgf/documents/MSMinSSA_PolicyBrief.pdf); The Nigerian MSM Health Scorecard: a tool for assessing and monitoring the accountability of stakeholders in advancing the health of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Nigeria.
He served as a member of the Local Organizing Committee of the First National Conference on Inclusivity, Equality, And Diversity in University Education in Nigeria, 2017 (http://inclusivity2017.com/speaker/mr-michael-akanji/).
He is a member of the Nigerian Drug Demand Reduction Technical Working Group; National HIV Prevention Technical Working Group, UNDP African Regional Key Population Expert Working Group and a 2015 Fellow of the International Visitors Leadership Program on LGBTI Human Rights and Advocacy of the US government.
Currently, he is the Key Population Advisor with Heartland Alliance International, Nigeria.
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