Ms. Graça Machel
Founder, Graça Machel Trust
Graça Machel is an African stateswoman whose decades-long professional and public life is rooted in Mozambique’s struggle for self-rule and international advocacy for women and children’s rights. She is a former freedom fighter in Mozambique’s FRELIMO movement and that country’s first Minister of Education.
Ms. Machel is a current member of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders who work together for peace and human rights which she co-founded with her husband, former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa. She is also a UN independent expert on the impact of armed conflict on children, international advocate for women's and children's rights, former freedom fighter and Education and Culture Minister of Mozambique.
Machel works through several regional and international development bodies to accelerate social transformation. She is a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group and sits on the high-level steering group for Every Woman Every Child. Additionally, she is the chancellor of the University of Cape Town, chancellor of the African Leadership University and the president of SOAS, University of London.
