Global Citizen reveals 117 million lives benefited from the epic Mandela 100 festival

Greatest impact seen in healthcare, nutrition and gender equality

To mark the third anniversary of the Mandela 100 festival, international advocacy organisation Global Citizen has announced that over 12 million lives have been impacted this year across Africa, and the world, adding to the 105 million lives reported last year. Impact from commitments announced at Mandela 100 now totals over 117 million people having benefited from pledges made at the groundbreaking festival in 2018 - which brought together world leaders, philanthropists, and the private sector to make commitments towards achieving the UN’s Global Goals, to end extreme poverty and its systemic causes.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, more than $4.7 billion of the total $7.2 billion in funding announced during the Mandela 100 campaign have been disbursed and allocated to key organisations on the frontline of ending extreme poverty, in all its forms, and to communities in need around the world.

Over 70,000 Global Citizens, artists, and global leaders came together at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 2 December 2018, united behind one mission to honour the life of Nelson Mandela in his centenary year. The event commemorated the legacy of a man whose extraordinary vision for peace and equality still resonates today with the hearts and minds of Global Citizens across the world.

Hosts of the event included Trevor Noah, Sir Bob Geldof, Naomi Campbell, Gayle King, Bonang Matheba, Tyler Perry, and Forest Whitaker, with groundbreaking performances by Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Cassper Nyovest, Ed Sheeran, Sho Madjozi, and more.

During the festival Global Citizen and partners announced 60 key pledges across health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), food security, agriculture, environment, education, education, finance and innovation.

By 2020, more than 105 million lives had been impacted by the commitments announced as part of the Mandela 100 campaign in 2018. Now one year on, Global Citizen can announce that a further 12 million lives have been impacted from delivery of these pledges. Through pledges made at the festival, interventions have been vast, urgent, and critical for communities experiencing the compounded effects of extreme poverty and Covid-19.

Pledges have resulted in accelerated action to end child marriage, and the delivery of antiretroviral therapeutics to more than 5.1 million South Africans; efforts are underway to map the spread of river blindness in Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal, and computers and other educational equipment and facilities that enabled students to continue attending classes online during Covid-19.

Released this week, Global Citizen’s 2021 impact report highlights the latest disbursed commitments including:

• USD $40 million has been spent by the Motsepe Foundation towards the provision of quality education, an increase of USD $20 million over the last 16 months. USD $50 million had been spent since 2018, contributing to the development and growth of agriculture and farming projects in traditional communities and poor rural and urban communities in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Free State and Northern Cape. The funding has been for tractors, farming equipment and implements, irrigation systems, the digging and construction of several hundreds of boreholes, the provision of water tanks and water storage facilities, as well as the provision of fertilisers, seeds and other agricultural and farming inputs.

• The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the Elma Foundation UK, UK Aid, Virgin Unite, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed US$105 million to tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2023. Supported by the funding announced at Mandela 100, Sightsavers’ Accelerate programme has addressed neglected tropical diseases such as trachoma in 14 African countries, including Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Ethiopia. The program has delivered 7.4 million treatments for river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis and in the first quarter of 2021, surgery activities were underway in 95 of the programme’s targeted 180 districts for the year, which has allowed for the treatment of 5,100 cases of trachoma.

• Vodacom pledged ZAR 500 million (US$34.8 million) toward combating gender-based violence, teacher and learner digital literacy, and early childhood centres. In 2021 Vodacom's Mandela 100 commitment has supported programmes that have had a profound impact across key areas in gender, education, and literacy.

• As a result of one of these programmes, more than 1,900 female farmers have been trained in relevant ICT skills to enable them to communicate with other farmers, access relevant products and services online, and ultimately provide them with access to economic opportunities by connecting them to potential buyers.

• A Gender-Based Violence Command Centre (GBVCC) and website has provided victims of violence in South Africa with a source of support, by providing counselling, service referrals, and immediate response in the event of imminent danger, all free of charge.

• Germany committed $72.4 million to support the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD). Germany’s commitment helped support IFAD overall efforts, ensuring that from 2019 to 2021, 23.4 million people gained access to financial services, such as savings and credits, and almost 1.7 million hectares of land were brought under climate resilient practices. IFAD’s ongoing projects reached over 128 million people, surpassing the year’s goal of 120 million. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, IFAD has repurposed $179 million in the form of 58 projects across 36 countries to help relieve the pandemic’s profound impacts thanks in part to funding announced at Mandela 100, in other partners. Recently in Eritrea, for instance, $1 million has been repurposed through the “Fisheries Resources Management Programme” to provide temporary cold storage to make sure those affected by Covid-19 were able to store their harvests.

Precious Moloi-Motsepe, co-founder and chairperson of the Motsepe Foundation, said: “We are pleased with the progress we’ve made relating to our Global Citizen Mandela 100 commitments despite the Covid-19 challenges. We are committed to contributing to improving the living conditions and standards of living of millions of people in South Africa, the rest of the African Continent and the world.”

Chebet Chikumbu, Global Citizen's Africa regional director, said: "Despite the ongoing pandemic, we've been working closely with our partners to ensure funds are being dispersed to communities most in need in Africa and across the world. Over the next year, we will continue to deliver on the accountability tied to Mandela 100 campaign pledges made, helping millions of the world’s most vulnerable combat poverty daily, while mitigating the ongoing personal implications and economic impacts of Covid-19.”

Global Citizen remains committed to bring Nelson Mandela's dream into reality by ending extreme poverty. In order to achieve the United Nations’ Global Goals, including Global Citizen's mission to end extreme poverty by 2030, we must end poverty in all its forms.