Malala Tasks Jonathan to Raise His Game Ahead of 2015

Malala Tasks Jonathan to Raise His Game Ahead of 2015

Child and education rights activist, Malala Yousafzai



Nobel Prize winner, child and education rights activist, Malala Yousafzai, has charged President Goodluck Jonathan and other world leaders to up the ante in providing leadership for their nations and making their countries safer for children and other vulnerable groups in the society.

Malala’s charge was conveyed in a letter sent to Jonathan as well as other global leaders Wednesday as she accepts the Nobel Peace Prize awarded her along with Kailash Satyarthi for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

Malala, in her letter to Jonathan, sets out the main theme of her speech and stresses the need for him to “raise his game in 2015, a make or break year for global decisions making”.

The letter issued on the day she accepts the peace prize in Oslo, is a call to action and a demand that leaders raise their games. She called on world leaders to make 2015 the year in which they, and the rest of the world “commit to seeing the last child out of school, the last child forced into slavery and the last child forced to flee their home because of the danger of climate change”.

The Nobel laureate focused on the two opportunities of the two global summits in 2015 to achieve action on poverty and climate change, stating: “If the right decisions are made and kept we could see the beginnings of a better future in 2015. A future of ‘lasts, rather than half measures’.”

The letter is her attempt to urge leaders to “raise their ambition” and seize the opportunity.

The summits are the UN summit on the new global framework for sustainable development, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations in September and December, respectively.

The letter also expresses Malala’s support for a new global movement- Action/2015. Action/2015 is a campaign backed by hundreds of organisations from around the world, from the Global Call to Action Against Poverty to the African Council of Churches, Save the Children to The ONE Campaign.

It will be launched in January 2015 and aims to be one of the biggest campaigns in history. It is focused on seizing the opportunities presented by the summits in 2015 to secure concrete action and ambitious agreements to tackle the root causes of inequality, injustice, poverty and climate change.