Graca Machel to be awarded Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2025

• Mozambican rights activist Graca Machel will be awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace Disarmament and Development for 2025.

• She has been chosen by the international jury of the prize, chaired by former National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, for her path-breaking work in the field of education, health and nutrition, economic empowerment and humanitarian work under difficult circumstances.

Indira Gandhi Peace Prize

• The Indira Gandhi Peace Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development was instituted in 1986 to commemorate Indira Gandhi’s outstanding contribution to national and global well-being. 

• It is administered by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

• The Prize is awarded annually to a person or organisation without any distinction of nationality, race or religion.

• The Prize includes a cash award of Rs 1 crore and a trophy with a citation.

• The trophy is a square piece of banded Haematite Jasper, the same stone which is used at the samadhi of Indira Gandhi at Shakti Sthala, New Delhi. 

• Haematite Jasper is one of the hardest varieties of stone found in India and is estimated to be 2,000 million years old.

Who is Graca Machel?

• Machel is a distinguished African stateswoman, politician and humanitarian whose life’s work is rooted in the struggle for self-rule and protection of human rights.

• Machel was married to Samora Moises Machel, who served as the first President of Mozambique and passed away in 1986. 

• Later, she married former South African President Nelson Mandela.

• Born Graca Simbine on October 17, 1945, in rural Mozambique, she attended Methodist mission schools before receiving a scholarship to study German at the University of Lisbon, where her political consciousness regarding independence was first ignited.

• Upon returning to Mozambique in 1973, she joined the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) as a freedom fighter and teacher.

• Following independence in 1975, she became Mozambique’s first Minister of Education and Culture.

• Under her tenure, there was a massive increase in school enrolment, with primary and secondary student participation rising from 40 per cent to over 90 per cent for males and 75% for females.

• In the 1990s, Machel transitioned to the global stage and was appointed by the United Nations to lead a seminal study on the impact of armed conflict on children.

• Her 1996 report, The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, fundamentally impacted how the UN and its members operate in war zones. For her tireless work, she was awarded the UN's Nansen Refugee Award and made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1997.

• Her leadership and efforts extending to several high-level international bodies, has brought about transformational socio-economic development.

• She is a founding member of The Elders and played a key role in establishing NGO, Girls Not Brides. 

• She also serves as a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group.

• In recent years, Machel has focused on social transformation through her own organisations and academic leadership. 

• In 2010, she founded the Graca Machel Trust, which promotes women’s economic empowerment, food security and good governance.

• She also founded the Zizile Institute for Child Development. 

• Among numerous awards, Machel has received the United Nations’ Nansen Refugee Award in recognition of her long-standing humanitarian work. 

• In 1997, she was made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. 

• She is a member of the Ambassador David M. Walters International Paediatric Hall of Fame. 

• In 2018, she was awarded the World Health Organisation’s highest honour, the WHO Gold Medal, for her enormous contributions to the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents.