Events

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. 
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In the years following her tenure in government, Machel produced a ground-breaking UNICEF report “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children” that changed the way the United Nations and member states respond in conflict zones. Since then, she has worked tirelessly in support of global health, child welfare, and women’s rights and empowerment. 
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Machel works through several regional and international development bodies to accelerate social transformation. Machel is a founding member and Deputy Chair of The Elders, and played a key role in establishing Girls Not Brides. She is a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group.

Machel lends her expertise to a number of organizations in a governance role. She serves as Board Chair of the Africa Child Policy Forum, Board Chair of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, Board Chair of United People Global as well as Executive Chair of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies. Machel is a Board Member of the South African Future Trust (SAFT), Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Kofi Annan Foundation, and Education Above All. She is Board Chair Emeritus for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and is a UNICEF Young People's Agenda Global Advisory Board Member. She is Chairperson of Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust and a Trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. She also sits on the Jack Ma Netpreneur Advisory Board. Additionally, she is the Chancellor of the African Leadership University.

Ambassador Abdou Abarry, new Permanent Representative of Niger to the United Nations, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Antonío Guterres on June 4, 2019.

Mr. Abarry was previously the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and head of office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2014.  Before joining that regional bloc, he headed its Liaison Office to the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria, beginning in 2011.

A career diplomat, Mr. Abarry was Ambassador to Belgium from 2003 to 2011, accredited concurrently to Greece, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. He also had accreditation to the United Nations Offices in Geneva and Vienna, the European Union Commission and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.

Mr. Abarry was also Diplomatic Adviser to the President of the Republic of Niger and Director General of State Protocol from 1999 to 2003. He served as a Counsellor at Niger’s Permanent Mission in New York from 1992 to 1997.

Holder of a master’s degree in International Relations from the Ecole Supérieure d’Administration et des Carrières Juridiques de Lomé, in Togo, he also earned a diploma from the International Relations Institute of Cameroon.

Mr. Abarry received honorific distinctions such as Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite du Niger (1999), Grand-Croix de la Couronne du Royaume de Belgique (2011), Commandeur de l’ordre National du Niger (2014), Officier de la Légion d’honneur Française (2014)