Latest News

2014 Tutu Fellow Aua Balde has been elected Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. She was appointed to the Group in November 2020 by the UN Human Rights Council. 

Enforced disappearance has become a global problem and is not restricted to a specific region of the world. A disappearance has a doubly paralysing impact: on the victims, frequently tortured and in constant fear for their lives, and on their families, ignorant of the fate of their loved ones, their emotions alternating between hope and despair, wondering and waiting, sometimes for years, for news that may never come.

2013 Tutu Fellow Danladi Verheijen has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Atlantic Council’s new Freedom and Prosperity Center.  The Atlantic Council is an international affairs think tank that favours a close relationship between North America and Europe on political, economic and defense issues. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosperity.

The news of the appointment was shared by Danladi on his Linkedin page.

2013 Tutu Fellow Danladi Verheijen has shared that oil giant Shell has bought the Daystar Power Group, a company backed by Verod in 2019. Verod Capital Management is a private equity firm that 2022 Fellow, Eric Idiahi  co-founded with Danladi.  As a result of their collaboration, Daystar Power has evolved to become the leading solar player in Nigeria.

Daystar provides off-grid power to commercial and industrial clients in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, offering solar and hybrid power solutions with battery storage. It has 300 power installations with solar capacity of 32 megawatts.

2014 Tutu Fellow Sello Hatang rang the Opening Bell on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday 23 September at 9:30 AM. 

Sello, who is the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, rang the bell to honor the legacy of former President Nelson Mandela, who had also rung the NYSE bell twenty years previously and was welcomed by the NYSE.

After the bell, Sello sat down for an interview about the work of the foundation and some of the ambitious goals it has.

2022 Tutu Fellow Bilha Ndirangu has been named to the inaugural cohort of young climate practitioners of the Yale Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship program.

This eight-month program offers an opportunity for 16 young climate and clean energy practitioners from across the Global South to broaden their technical skills, deepen their professional networks, and exchange views with top global clean energy and climate change leaders.

2014 Tutu Fellow Isaac Fokuo and 2006 Tutu Associate Ndidi Nwuneli have been appointed members of the 2022-2023 Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee at the US EXIM Bank. Isaac was appointed to represent Banking and Finance and Ndidi for Trade/Commerce.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is the nation’s official export credit agency with the mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating U.S. exports.

In this Tutu Talk, 2012 Tutu Fellow and Ivory Coast entrepreneur Swaady Martin says: "What drives me is how do I contribute to make the world a more compassionate and loving place with all the gifts that I have. But also the gifts that I acquire along my journey. How else could we bring more peace?"

TutuTalks are a series collaboration between the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the African Leadership Institute, and it is a platform for African leaders who embody the values and ethics displayed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu throughout his life of service.

2015 Tutu Fellow Dr Kopano Matlwa Mabaso has started a new role as Senior Program Officer, Health, Africa at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Kopano is a public health physician and novelist and the Founding Executive Director of the Grow Great Campaign, which seeks to achieve the goal of zero stunted growth among children in South Africa by 2030.  

At the Gates Foundation, Kopano says that together with colleagues in the Africa team she hopes to strengthen and advance the Foundation's regional and continental health portfolio, with a focus on primary health care and health systems strengthening.

In her Tutu Talk, titled The Activist-Scholar: Navigating the promises and pitfalls of policy-making, 2010 Tutu Fellow Robtel Neajai Pailey PhD speaks about her commitment to building progressive politics in her country and influencing public discourse and policy-making processes.

TutuTalks are a series collaboration between the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the African Leadership Institute, and it is a platform for African leaders who embody the values and ethics displayed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu throughout his life of service.

2018 Tutu Fellow Edzai Zvobwo has been appointed an Expert Contributor to the High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies - APET - at the African Union's Development Agency, NEPAD. In 2016, African heads of government instructed NEPAD to establish a system to obtain expert contributions on matters of technology development and acquisition for economic development.

Edzai's role in the team will be to meaningfully research, analyze and present findings around emerging technologies and their potential benefit on the African continent.

In this Tutu Talk, 2011 Tutu Fellow and Ugandan peace activist Victor Ochen is using his voice of courageous leadership to champion the protection of rights of children and promote the culture of peace and tolerance.

Born in northern Uganda, he spent 21 years amidst violent conflict that displaced over three million people. More than 60,000 people - including his own brother - were forcefully abducted and recruited as child soldiers.

2015 Tutu Fellow Wiebe Boer PhD started as President of Calvin University - his Alma Mater - on 1 July 2022, and within a week, the university had signed a commitment to accelerate its transition to renewable energy.  Prior to accepting the presidency of the university, Wiebe was the CEO of All On, an off-grid energy impact investment fund for Nigeria seeded by Shell. 

With his expertise in the energy sector, Wiebe also serves on the UN Technical Working Group 5: Finance and Investment Board. Calvin University is making history in Michigan by becoming the first university in the state to pursue solar-as-a-service as an approach to accelerating the energy transition. 

2007 Tutu Fellow Ed Mabaya has been named Director of Cornell's Hubert H Humphrey Fellowship Program.  The Fullbright exchange program provides accomplished professionals from countries with emerging economies an international enrichment opportunity in leadership and public service. The program at Cornell focuses on three areas of interest - agriculture, rural development, and natural resource management. 

Ed has had a long and distinguished career in agricultural development and food security and most recently was the Associate Director at Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development.

2015 Tutu Fellow, Dr Uzo Iweala, has written a piece for Foreign Affairs magazine titled Nigeria's Second Independence - Why the Giant of Africa Needs to Start Over.  The piece is published in the July/August 2022 edition.  Uzo is the Chief Executive Officer of The Africa Center, a non-profit based in New York. 

In the piece, Uzo begins by saying that from the moment of it's independence in 1960, observers have questioned the country's viability as a multiethnic, multireligious state.  When the devastating Nigerian civil war broke out in 1967, that skepticism appeared warranted.  Since then, he says, the country's leadership has sought to preserve the unified state - even by force.  But what the country needs more than ever, is to reimagine its structures of power and governance.

In her Tutu Talk, 2015 Tutu Fellow Dr Kopano Matlwa Mabaso talks about the importance of enabling those around you to for meaningful change.  The South African public health physician and novelist says it is possible to make a difference by showing up and being the best you can be, being honest and working with integrity.  

TutuTalks are a series collaboration between the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the African Leadership Institute, and it is a platform for African leaders who embody the values and ethics displayed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu throughout his life of service.