Graça Machel at the Conference
10 April 2008
Graça Machel will be the keynote speaker at the 33rd World Conference in South Africa on 7 July. Graça Machel will also receive the World Citizenship Award, which is awarded to people outside the Movement who have contributed to a better world.A former Minister of Education in the Mozambique Government, Ms. Machel is a renowned international advocate for women and children’s rights and has been a social and political activist over many decades. She is President of the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), a not for profit Mozambican organisation she founded in 1994.
More about Graça Machel
Graça Machel’s many awards include the Laureate of Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger from the Hunger Project in 1992 and the Nansen Medal in recognition of her contribution to the welfare of refugee children in 1995. She has received the Inter Press Service’s International Achievement Award for her work on behalf of children internationally, the Africare Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe, amongst others.
Graça Machel has served on the boards of numerous international organisations, including the UN Foundation, the Forum of African Women Educationalists, the African Leadership Forum and the International Crisis Group.
Amongst her current commitments, Graça Machel is Chair of the GAVI Fund Board, Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, South Africa and Peer of the African Peer Review Mechanism. Mrs Machel also serves on the Africa Progress Panel, convened by Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations.
With her husband Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu she has convened the Elders, a group of leaders who will contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackling some of the world’s toughest problems.