Johannesburg - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela was announced as one of the “five extraordinary women who are responding to leadership challenges of the 21st century” by the Tällberg Foundation.
Reacting to the announcement on Wednesday Madonsela said: “Words cannot express the depth of my gratitude at the news of being selected as one of the five Tällberg Global Leaders. It is an enormous privilege to receive such an honour”.
“I’m supremely grateful to the Tällberg Foundation for this remarkable honour. I’m also honoured to be associated with the foundation whose work with regard to engendering ethical global leadership I have witnessed in action.”
Tällberg Foundation is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit education organisation that seeks to provoke people to think differently about global issues that are shaping their present and their future.
Madonsela, who finishes her term as Public Protector on Friday, said the honour recognised the role of the “Public Protector Team” and that of institutions performing work similar her office all over the world.
“The recognition affirms the critical role played by the Public Protector and similar institutions globally, which are commonly referred to as Ombudsman Offices, in leading the world out of the abyss it has put itself in with regard to governance and leadership lapses impacting on domestic and global peace,” she said.
By honouring Madonsela and four other women leaders, the foundation said it sought to draw attention to their work and said it wanted to provoke a global conversation on leadership.
The other four women are:
* Celina de Sola, the co-founder of Glasswing, a community-based education and public health initiative based in El Salvador that works throughout Central America.
* Sunitha Krishnan, the co-founder of Prajwala, an anti-sex trafficking organisation in Hyderabad, India that has evolved pioneering, effective rehabilitation programmes for victims of sex crime and sex trafficking. She has also advocated for policy changes and legal reforms for the welfare of victims of sex trafficking.
* Christiana Figueres, who served as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for the past six years where her innovative diplomacy helped to deliver the unprecedented climate change agreement last December.
* Eleni Antoniadou, a researcher in Regenerative Medicine, Artificial Organ Bioengineering and Space Medicine, who focuses on the development of artificial organs from stem cells as an alternative therapeutic pathway for transplantations. She also serves as the President of the European Health Parliament in Brussels and is an advocate in raising awareness about illegal and immoral organ trafficking.
“They demonstrate that effective, courageous and innovative leadership that can overcome even the most seemingly intractable issues,” Tällberg Foundation Chairperson Alan Stoga said in a statement.
The five women were selected through secret ballot by an international jury from a pool of 270 nominations from 60 countries.
The nominees work in a wide range of fields and roles, including business, politics, arts and social activism and were nominated through a global, open online process conducted during the first half of the year, Madonsela’s office said.
“At a time of growing doubts about the efficacy of leadership in many countries, these five women demonstrate that individual leaders who are innovative, ethical, determined and willing to take great risks are capable of coping with the challenges of the 21st century,” the Tällberg Foundation said on its website announcing the five leaders.
The Tällberg Foundation was founded in 1981 in Sweden by the former chairman Bo Ekman, and is devoted to exploring the changes that are driving our societies and our planet through open-ended, value-based conversations among our growing, global network, the foundation said on its website.
African News Agency