April 11, 2025

GAHM SAH HAHM NEE DAH 

Dr. Moon for this honour. 

I accept this SUN-hak Peace Prize with gratitude. 

I accept it on behalf of our team at Global Citizen, our private sector partners and the artist and advocacy communities who selflessly help make our work possible. 

At the beginning of my career, I had the opportunity to live and work in Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa. 

It was a period of renewed optimism following Nelson Mandela’s leadership in the 1990s. 

But it was also a period of great despair at the epicentre of the HIV / AIDs epidemic leading to massive inequality and a generation of children orphaned. 

And while I have been passionate about ending poverty all my life, the founding principles of Global Citizen were inspired by the words of Mandela when he said in one of his final speeches that: 

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, but it’s an act of justice. He said, like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. 

Mandela’s vision has remained a north star for me throughout my life, inspiring so much of Global Citizen’s mission and my work. 

Succeeding on critical global issues like a sustainable climate and giving every child access to a quality education - much like achieving lasting peace - demands an unwavering commitment to justice. 

A collaborative effort that doesn’t stop at promises-made, but ensures leaders turn their commitments into real, measurable action.

The movement we have built at Global Citizen is testament that anyone can drive significant impact and create meaningful change for our planet and our most vulnerable.

 After having seen first hand - in South Africa and the Philippines - the systemic issues that keep people trapped in poverty, I teamed up with a friend while I was at University to launch our first major campaign ahead of the G20 leaders coming to Australia. 

We created a rallying cry for the world’s most marginalised, a concert - Make Poverty History - headlined by Bono and Pearl Jam. 

To our amazement, the Australian Government heard our collective voices and agreed to double its investment in International Development - an additional $6.2Bn to end extreme poverty. 

Following that campaign we had the opportunity to bring our advocacy model to New York City and we have used our platform in Central Park for over a decade to campaign on some of the greatest issues of our time. 

But today, our reach goes far beyond our annual festival on the Great Lawn in New York City. 

At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Global Citizen brought Coldplay and Jay Z to Mumbai for one of the biggest concerts the country has ever seen, gathering 150,000 people in support of their Clean India campaign. 

To celebrate Mandela’s centenary we convened a spectacular event in Johannesburg headlined by BeyoncĂ©, JAY-Z, Ed Sheeran, Eddie Vedder, Pharrell Williams, Chris Martin, and Usher. 

The event galvanised hundreds of thousands of global citizens to take action, calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to commit $129million towards menstrual health hygiene programs - impacting millions of girls across their country by preventing them from missing school. 

And…when the world shut down with the Covid 19 pandemic, Global Citizen produced One World: Together at Home. 

It was the only broadcast during lockdown to be on in Russia, China and the United States simultaneously, it aired on all the major US networks, broke two Guinness world records and was seen in over 400 million homes. 

It was a global moment that raised more than $127m for first responders in one night. 

Through partnership and collaboration, we have built the world’s largest movement of action takers impacting billions of lives by defeating poverty. 

And over the last decade, we have mobilized and distributed $49 billion, improving the lives of 1.3 billion people worldwide. 

Our organisation empowers individuals to take action to tackle the world’s greatest challenges, so that global citizens, no matter where they were born, have the basic tools to succeed. 

We believe development is the only way to enshrine a lasting peace. 

But peace is not just the absence of violence or conflict. 

Peace is freedom and dignity, and I believe it is something that only comes about through true global citizenship. 

During challenging geopolitical times, we see close up the dangers of parochialism and isolationism. Look what happens when we ignore humanitarian crises or when we turn a blind eye to climate change. 

Leaders who do so, do at their peril, and that of global stability. 

These are all ultimately man-made global issues, and as such, they can ultimately only be solved by global citizens demanding global solutions from their leaders. 

I’d like to commend the work of my fellow SUNhak laureates Dr. Mathai and Dr. Awuah. It is a great honour to be recognised alongside you. 

As Mandela said, we must never forget that that which is man-made can be overcome by the collective actions of humanity. 

Global Citizen is humbled by this recognition of our work to achieve this mission. 

GAHM SAH HAHM NEE DAH.