In this TEDx talk in Johannesburg, novelist and medical doctor Kopano Matlwa Mabaso tells how she and her friend Chrystelle Wedi sought to turn the tide of preventable deaths in women at childbirth. Their idea made them winners of the first Aspen Ideas Award. Their idea was to set up mobile, ultrasound scan clinics in remote and rural parts of Africa and make lifesaving antenatal healthcare more easily accessible to pregnant women. But the deepest parts of Africa are tough places to do work. Matlwa, with humility, tells how even good ideas sometimes need self-correction during implementation.

Two Tutu Fellows are included on the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining 2016 list.  They are Zeinab Camara and Siza Majola.

Tutu Fellow Kopano Mabaso has been featured on season three of the South African short-film series 21 Icons. The South African medical doctor, who is pursuing a PhD in public health at Oxford University is #18 in the series.

Tutu Fellow Robtel Pailey has given a TEDx talk in London on her children's book to fight Gbagba (corruption) in Liberia. She reminds us all that there is nothing inherently African about corruption.  Her children’s book was published in 2013 to critical acclaim and subsequently placed on the list of supplemental readers for 3rd to 5th graders in Liberia.

Tutu Fellow Jumoke Oduwole has been appointed as a senior economic development advisor in the Nigerian government.  She is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment in the Office of the Vice President.  The President has given the Vice President the authority to take a supervisory role on developing the Nigerian economy.  Oduwole will also be assisting the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, who is new to international trade, although he has a background in private equity.

Tutu Fellow Lanre Akinola has joined the board of the Business Council for Africa.  The council is a membership-based organisation supporting business and trade in  and with Africa.  More than 400 companies and entrepreneurs are part of the council, which was started in 1956.  The council has 33 representatives across Africa and is part of the European Business Council for Africa and a sister organization for the Mediterranean.

Tutu Fellow Eunice Ajambo has received the 2015 Global Female Leadership Impact Award by the Center for Economic and Leadership Development. She was also inducted into the Global Women Leaders Hall of Fame. The award and the induction was conferred by the Center for Economic and Leadership Development (CELD) in partnership with the CEO Clubs Network Worldwide, and the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women (NOBEL Women), USA. The event took place at the the South America-Africa-Middle East-Asia Women's Summit in Dubai in November.

In less than a fortnight, South African President Jacob Zuma has fired two finance ministers from his cabinet.  The first was Nhlanhla Nene, who resisted Zuma's excesses and was replaced with little-known David van Rooyen who was expected to rubber stamp Zuma's wishes.  World markets reacted immediately, causing the Rand to fall precipitously and the stock market to tumble. 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has issued a stern warning to South African President Jacob Zuma and the ruling ANC.  The Nobel Peace laureate and patron of the African Leadership Institute told the ANC from a place of love that they were behaving in a way that was totally at variance with the things for which the country stood for.  He accused the ANC government of being worse than the Apartheid government, saying that it was acting in its own interest only and not that of the nation.  He bluntly told them to 'watch out' or fall in the way leaders had during the Arab Spring.

  The full video clip is on YouTube.

2010 Tutu Fellow Bright Simons is being called a champion of safe medicine in Africa.  The social entrepreneur and policy activist has developed software that enables consumers to instantly verify the authenticity of medicine they buy.  The person buying the medicine enters a code on the medicine at the point of sale on their mobile phone and gets a reply confirming if the medicine they are getting is authentic or not.

Ten Tutu Fellows attended the annual governance conference organized by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which took place in Accra, Ghana, in November 2015.  The theme of the 2015 conference was African urban dynamics.  A central goal of the foundation is to put governance at the centre of any conversation on African development. It holds that effective governance and leadership are key to improving the quality of life of Africans.

Tutu Fellow January Makamba has been appointed to the Tanzanian cabinet as the Minister of State in the Vice President's Office for Union Affairs and Environment.  The MP for the constituency of Bumbuli was previously a Deputy Minister of Communication, Science and Technology and was also the youngest candidate to run for the position of President in the country.  As one of five presidential candidates, he beat several of his party's veterans, including former Prime Ministers and party veterans. He lost the party nomination eventually to Dr. John Magufuli, who went on to win the election and become President.  Among his responsibilities in his new position will be to manage the somewhat sensitive union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Tutu Fellow Landry Signe has been recognized as one of the Junior Chamber International's 2015 Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World. The recognition is for his 'innovative actions, extraordinary achievement, and dedication to serving others', and to 'creating sustainable impact in his community, in Africa and across the globe'.   The award was bestowed on him during JCI's International World Congress on 7 November 2015 in Kanazawa, Japan.  JCI members and active citizens from around the world voted online to participate in selecting the 2015 honorees and more than 26,000 votes were cast.

Tutu Fellow James Mwangi has been appointed to the United Nations' Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council.  The announcement, which took place in Dubai on 24 October 2015, was made by Rick Parnell, the COO of the foundation. The council is comprised of leading entrepreneurs from around the world to incorporate innovation and sustainable economic growth to support the newly adopted U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.  Parnell said that a multi-sector, integrated approach was needed over the 15 years to accomplish the sustainable development goals.  He said that the newly appointed council members would bring a wealth of "experience, accomplishments and global reach to help the Foundation support the UN as it tackles that challenge."

2015 Tutu Fellow Uzodinma Iweala's novel Beasts of No Nation has been adapted for the big screen and released internationally by Netflix. The film was first screened at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Marcello Mastroianni Award and then subsequently at the Toronto International Film Festival before being picked up by Netflix and released globally. The story is of the life of a child soldier in a war-torn African country recruited into a unit of guerilla fighers and haunted by the death of his father, shot by militants.  Iweala's novel was first published in 2005 and is available on Amazon. The novel received strong reviews from critics.