ISLAMABAD: The Nelson Mandela Foundation has announced that Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai will deliver the 21st Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in December, becoming the youngest person ever to speak at the prestigious forum.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Mandela in 1999 to promote freedom and equality for all. Previous speakers at the annual lecture include United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, among others.
“Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai will deliver the 21st Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg on 5 December 2023,” the foundation announced in a statement on its website.
“Malala embodies the type of leadership we believe the world needs across all levels of society. In the face of current global challenges, which can seem daunting, she stands as an inspiring symbol of hope for a just and equitable future,” Nelson Mandela Foundation acting CE, Verne Harris, said.
This year’s annual lecture will seek to address key questions, including what kind of leadership is needed locally and globally, how to actualize the kind of leadership needed to achieve a more just future and what is the vision for a more just future.
Malala was ten years old when she began to write an anonymous diary for the BBC about life under Taliban rule in northwest Pakistan. In 2012, she was shot in the head by militants for advocating for girls education.
In 2014 she became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Her non-profit, the Malala Fund, funds education projects in multiple countries and works with international leaders and local partners to invest in innovative solutions on the ground and advocates globally for quality education for all girls.
