The 2019 Oxford Peace Talks is organized under the theme: Africa Leading for Peace, and held in honour of Kofi Annan, the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations and founder of the Kofi Annan Foundation.  Through a series of 8-minute talks, young Africans will share their personal stories and experiences, to highlight their efforts to promote peace in Africa.

The event will take place at the The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Mansfield College on 16 May 2019, from 17:30 to 19:00 followed by a reception. This is the first time the Peace Talks travels to a university campus. This is a satellite event of the 9th edition of the Oxford Africa Conference (OAC).

The Oxford Peace Talks will also help shift the needle on the narrative of Africa being a continent in need to a continent of global relevance with best practices and models of peace. Speakers come from across different professional and personal backgrounds to emphasize that each and every one of us, regardless of our age and background, can contribute to promoting peace in our communities and beyond. This is something Kofi Annan strongly believed in as he often said: “You are never too young to lead and never too old to learn”.

Kofi Annan’s legacy is an illustration of the essence of the Peace Talks’ theme: his contribution to peace has truly transcended borders and has contributed to asserting Africa’s relevance globally.

The Oxford Peace Talks is co-organized by Interpeace, Oxford Africa Conference, Kofi Annan Foundation and hosted by the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and in partnership with OxPeace and Mirabaud.

The event will feature the following speakers:

• Sadat Zagah Zziwa, former gang member turned peace ambassador who recruits gangsters and people from the ghetto in order to engage them productively and contribute to Uganda's development.
• Fatima Al Ansar, Mali's youngest diplomat serving as head of mission at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, social entrepreneur and activist for girls’ education and women’s rights.
• Daniel Mpilo Richards, award winning South African actor who currently serves as the creative director for the Ruben Richards Foundation – a non-profit organization that aims to heal the hearts, minds and souls of traumatized communities through various programs in the areas of Therapy, Job Creation, Conflict Mediation and Art Therapy.
• Anupah Makoond, peacebuilder from Mauritius who has worked on projects in conflict affected societies, Co-chair of the 2019 Oxford Africa Conference, and currently pursuing an MA in Evidence Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation.
• Sellah King’oro, Assistant Director of the Research, Policy and Planning Department of Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and social researcher with interests in measuring peace, ethnic relations, genocide prevention and social cohesion.
• Hajer Sharief, Founder of Libyan organization "Together We Built it" that promotes the role of women and youth in peace, Young Leader from Kofi Annan Foundation’s Extremely Together Initiative.

Learn more about the speakers at the event page on peacetalks.net.

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