Graça Machel, the chairman of the GAVI Fund Board, the funding arm of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), and winner of the Príncipe de Asturias Prize for International Cooperation in 1998, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the UB. The degree ceremony will be held at 12 noon on 23 April in the Paranimf of the University’s Historic Building. Graça Machel, founder and president of the Fundaçao para o Desenvolvimiento da Comunidade (FDC), is a reference point all over the world for her defence of the rights of children and women. During the ceremony she will be sponsored by Professor Pedro L. Alonso of the UB’s Department of Public Health.

Dr Alonso is head of the Tropical Medicine and International Health Service at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and director of the Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB). The event will be attended by Her Royal Highness Princess Cristina, Director of the Social Area of the “la Caixa” Foundation. The “la Caixa” Foundation is the GAVI Alliance’s main partner in Spain in the fight against child mortality in low income countries. Currently, Graça Machel (Mozambique, 1946) is the chairman of the GAVI Fund Board, the funding arm of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, an international body devoted to providing access to vaccines for children in the world’s poorest countries. She is also founder and president of the Fundaçao para o Desenvolvimiento da Comunidade (FDC), the first institution created in Mozambique to contribute to development, democracy, social justice, the eradication of poverty, and the promotion at local level of the capacities of the most disadvantaged communities. The Foundation places special emphasis on strengthening the role of women and young people through education and training programs. Machel is also Rector of the University of Cape Town and a member of the African Peer Review Mechanism, the audit system promoted by the continent’s leading countries inside the framework of the African Union.

Graça Machel is known throughout the world for her dedication to the rehabilitation of children affected by military conflict, the education of African women, and the promotion of literacy throughout the world. A graduate in German Philology at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, she began her professional career as a teacher in her country and was a leading member of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO). After independence, Graça Machel was Secretary of State for Education and Culture from 1983 to 1989. Under her guidance, schooling rates rose from 40% in 1975 to more than 90% in the case of boys and 75% in the case of girls by 1989. In 1996, as president of the UN Commission on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, she presented a report that turned out to be decisive in persuading governments to modify their policies and in raising the awareness of civil society of the importance of providing protection for children in warring countries. In 1998 she was the UNICEF delegate at the Zimbabwe conference and was president of the UNESCO National Commission.

            Graça Machel has also played a leading part in the creation of other bodies devoted to improving the living conditions of African women and children. Examples are the Microbicides International Network, formed by leading women from all over the world, which promotes the development of new instruments to fight AIDS; the African Foresight Group, a group of African leaders working together to raise the profile of women in African society, and the Global Elders Network, a group of world leaders who contribute their wisdom, leadership and integrity to tackling some of the world's most difficult problems. She is a member of the management councils of organizations such as the United Nations Foundation which promotes prosperity, peace and justice in the world; the Forum of African Women Educationalists, set up in 1992 to promote the education of girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa; the African Leadership Forum, which improves the skills and competences of African leaders facing the challenges of development; and the International Crisis Group, which works in conflict prevention and mediation.

            Graça Machel’s achievements have been recognized all over the world. She has received the African Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger (1992), the Nansen medal for her work in defence of human rights, especially the rights of refugee children (1995); the Inter Press Service International Achievement Award for her work with children (1998), the Africare Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award, and the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe (1998). In 1998 she shared the Príncipe de Asturias Prize for International Cooperation with Fatiha Boudiaf, Rigoberta Menchu, Fatana Ishaq Gailani, Somaly Man, Emma Bonino and Olayinka Koso-Thomas for their work in defence of women.
 
Health and training are key factors in the fight against the vicious circle of disease and poverty in the countries most in need. To promote biomedical research, the training of professionals, and health care, the UB and the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona are currently cooperating with the governments of Spain and Mozambique in the development projects at the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM), run by Dr Pedro L. Alonso. Since 2006, with the support of Graça Machel, an action plan involving the Fundaçao para o Desenvolvimiento da Comunidade (FDC) and the Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB) has been underway, seeking to improve the health of African women and adolescents. The CRESIB is a global health research centre promoted by the UB, the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and the Generalitat, the Catalan government.

During her stay in Barcelona, Graça Machel will also participate in the scientific symposium entitled Advancing Immunization in Developing Countries: New Horizons in Children’s Health, on 24 April, at the CosmoCaixa Science Museum.