Leaders respond to Global Citizens’ call to end extreme poverty

His Excellency Paul Kagame, His Excellency Jomo Kenyatta, Mrs. Graca Machel, Dr. Jim Kim, Ambassador Birx, His Excellency Benedict Ayade, the Honourable Baroness Scotland, and Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Confirmed to Attend Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100. Over 3.71 Million Actions Taken by Global Citizens to Earn Tickets to Historic Festival; hosted and presented by the Motsepe Foundation.

Date:

(Johannesburg, 13 November 2018 - International advocacy organization Global Citizen today announced that President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, chair of the African Union; President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya; His Excellency Benedict Bengioushuye Ayade, Governor of Cross River State, Nigeria; Mrs. Graca Machel, UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate; The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth; Dr. Jim Kim, President of the World Bank; Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women; and Ambassador Deborah Birx, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator & U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy will join other heads of government and leading development advocates  attending and addressing the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 on 2nd December in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Global Citizens have taken an unprecedented number of actions to apply pressure on world leaders to make commitments at the Festival around the issues associated with extreme poverty; gender equality, food security, education, the environment, and global health. Since 18 July, Global Citizens in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho, have taken 3.71 million actions, totalling 33,423 actions per day, which is roughly 1392 actions per hour, or around 23 per minute. Through these actions Global Citizens are then rewarded with free tickets to the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100. 

World leaders, NGOs and leading corporations will announce major commitments at Mandela 100 in response to the calls of Global Citizen. 

Graca Machel and Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway will showcase the leadership of South Africa in the fight against HIV, in support of the Global Fund’s 6th Replenishment in 2019 at which it hopes to raise billions more in funding from the international community to continue this fight.

Governor Ayade will declare that Nigeria will achieve open defecation free status in Cross River State, home to some 3.7 million people. If successful, it will be the first of Nigeria’s 36 states to become open defecation free. 

The Festival will be the culmination of a six-months long campaign engaging Global Citizens around the world on seven Global Goals: 

  • POVERTY: (Global Goal 1): End all forms of poverty everywhere
  • ZERO HUNGER (Global Goal 2): End all forms of hunger and malnutrition
  • HEALTH (Global Goal 3): Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages
  • EDUCATION (Global Goal 4): Ensure every child has access to a quality education
  • GIRLS & WOMEN (Global Goal 5): End all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere to ensure that #SheIsEqual
  • WATER & SANITATION (Global Goal 6): Ensure everyone has access to clean water and sanitation
  • LIFE BELOW WATER (Global Goal 14): addressing the threat plastic pollution poses to the oceans.

"Everyone has the right to live their life without the threat of violence. This holds for all people, no matter what their gender, age, race, religion, ethnicity or caste, and irrespective of their income level, sexual orientation, HIV status, citizenship, where they live, or any other characteristic of their identity,” said UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “Yet, the forces of shame, fear of reprisal, and impact of not being believed, continue to silence the voices of millions of survivors of violence and mask the true extent of women’s continued experience of this, the greatest blight of our time.”

The Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 will be presented and hosted by The Motsepe Foundation, with major partners, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Nedbank, Vodacom, Coca Cola SA, Big Concerts, Harmony, House of Mandela, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers, Eldridge Industries, and Associate Partners, HP, Microsoft and Tsogo Sun. 

For more information on how to join the movement, please visit www.globalcitizen.org.za and follow @GlblCtzn on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, using #BeTheGeneration

Read the full press release on Global Citizen's website.