Siya Kolisi announced as Global Citizen: Mandela 100 advocate with key focus on hunger and nutrition

International advocacy organisation Global Citizen has announced that Siya Kolisi will become an advocate for the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100, a free-ticketed event on Sunday, 2 December 2018 at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In his role as official advocate for Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100, he intends to focus on hunger and education, both of which are very close to his heart.

“Hunger is huge for me because I grew up with hunger,” said Kolisi. “Global Citizen will have a profound impact on both present and future generations of South Africans through its ongoing skills training programme. This is fundamental to creating a world free of extreme poverty, especially in a country like South Africa, in which over 50% of young people between the ages of 15 and 25 are unemployed.”

Today’s announcement kicks off Action Journey 3, the third in a series of opportunities for fans and activists to earn their tickets to the event. Actions include:

• Calling on South Africa’s Minister of Labour to achieve equal pay for equal work — regardless of gender

• Asking the African Union and Government of Burundi to end discriminatory policies that force expectant teen mothers out of school

• Urging Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana and Nigeria to tackle neglected tropical diseases, especially trachoma.

Global Citizens have been calling on the Government of Zambia to commit & show leadership at the December 2nd Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 by increasing nutrition spending by R581 (USD$40) per child. This would mean spending an additional R364M (USD$25M) per year towards nutrition. Currently, 40 out of 100 children are stunted, and at risk of cognitive and physical limitations that can last a lifetime.

Global Citizen has invited the Vice President of Zambia, Inonge Wina, a national nutrition champion, to announce the additional R364M (USD$25M) per year towards nutrition at the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 in December.

To date, Global Citizens have directly taken over 38,000 actions in support of this ask to the Vice President as part of the Mandela 100 campaign. These actions are in support of local grassroots advocates and NGOs such as the Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Network, and the National Food and Nutrition Commission. The campaign is led by Global Citizen local campaigner, Mwandwe Chileshe, who is a Zambian native working with Global Citizen.

“Stunting limits children’s potential in school, in employment, and development throughout life,” said Michael Sheldrick, Vice President of Policy & Advocacy at Global Citizen. “It also costs the Zambian economy 2-3% of its potential GDP per year in lost productivity. Prioritizing funding for nutrition in the national budget is a smart investment — for every R14.50 (USD$1) invested, the median return is R233 (USD$16).”

In addition, Global Citizens have been calling on the Government of Kenya to reach 10% for agricultural spending as outlined by the Malabo Declaration. The actions have asked to move from current spending of 3% to 5% with an initial ask of $70M. For Nutrition, Global Citizens are asking for an additional spending of R145 (USD$10) per child totalling R1.05bn (USD$73M).

Global Citizens are calling on the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta to attend GCF: Mandela 100 and announce an additional R1.05bn (US$73M) in nutrition spending and R1bn (US$70M) in agricultural spending.

The issue will be highlighted at World Food Day events in both Lusaka, Zambia and Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday 16th October. The events will gather actors from across nutrition, agriculture and food to showcase the two countries’ commitment to addressing hunger and malnutrition. Speakers at the Lusaka event will include Siya Kolisi South African Rugby Player and Captain of the Springboks; as well as Nandi Madida, South African Singer/Songwriter; Television Presenter; and Cleo Ice Queen Zambian Singer/Songwriter; Radio Personality.

Global Citizen’s Mandela 100 Festival is presented by major partner the Motsepe Foundation with support from major partners Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Nedbank, Vodacom, Coca Cola, Big Concerts, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Eldridge Industries, with associate partners from HP and Microsoft.

Since the first Global Citizen Festival in New York in 2012, Global Citizen has grown into one of the largest, most visible platforms for people around the world calling on world leaders to honour their responsibilities in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and ending extreme poverty by 2030.

Global Citizens have generated commitments and policy announcements from leaders valued at over R546bn ($37.9bn) that are set to affect the lives of more than 2.25 billion people. This year alone Global Citizens have secured 29 commitments totaling over R41.8bn ($2.9bn) that are set to affect the lives of more than 501 million people by 2030.

For more information on how to join the movement, please visit www.globalcitizen.org.za and follow @GlblCtzn on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, using #BeTheGeneration