Mrs. Machel participated in our panel on targeting the needs of women and girls in to end extreme poverty. They discussed why gender inequality makes females more vulnerable to poverty than males. Mrs. Machel discussed how the decision to send girls to school and early child marriage can impact women’s progress. Mrs. Machel also joined Dr. Albright and Mr. Hadley in debating the role of governance and human rights in ending extreme poverty.

Quotes

Who are the poor? Where are they? They have a face. They have a very specific, in some cases, even location. And we tend to deal with them as if they are a homogeneous group. They are not.

Poverty, it’s not necessarily about having the material means. They have wealth of the sense of worth, of a sense of dignity, and that also has to be recognized and to be valued.

Most of African countries, they are something like 50 years old. And 50 years is a long time for a human being, but 50 years is a very short period of time for a society, and particularly for nation building.

For us to be here, in Washington, sitting and sharing our thoughts with you it will only happen because our families made a very strategic decision—one single decision in their lives. It was, as girls, sending us to school, keeping us at school up to the age of many of them that went to university, and giving us the opportunities which then allow us to be sitting here to come about, what we are talking about.

Biography

Graça Machel, Founder, Foundation for Community Development, Mozambique; Founder, Graça Machel Trust

Mrs. Graça Machel, is a renowned international advocate for women and children’s rights and has been a social and political activist over many decades. She currently serves in various capacities in several organizations, among them the Elders, the Africa Progress Panel, and the UN Millennium Development Goals Advocates Panel. She is also an Eminent Person of the GAVI Alliance and the UN Foundation, Chair of the Board of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes and Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. Through these positions and independently, she continues to support efforts aimed at realizing the rights of Africa’s children and women on a number of key fronts.