The Sunhak Peace Prize Committee has announced the selection of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and Waris Dirie as its 2019 laureates at the Cape Town International Convention Center.
53-year-old Waris Dirie is a world-class supermodel and anti-FGM activist while Dr. Akinwumi Adesina currently serves as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The Sunhak Peace Prize honours individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the peace and the welfare of the future generations.
The Sunhak Peace Prize includes a cash prize totaling $1 million.
As an agricultural economist, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, a former minister of agriculture in Nigeria, has been a leader in agricultural innovation for over 30 years.
For over 30 years, he has contributed greatly to food security and agricultural innovation in Africa, aimed at improving the lives of millions currently living in poverty, throughout the African continent.
The Sunhak Committee acknowledges the former Nigerian minister’s achievements in promoting good governance of Africa, which boosts Africa’s capacity to feed itself and transform its total economies for generating wealth for millions of rural and poor African farmers.
He pioneered major transformations in the agricultural field, including expanding rice production by introducing high yielding technologies, designing and implementing policies to support farmers’ access to technologies at scale, increasing the availability of credit for millions of smallholder farmers, attracting private investments for the agricultural sector, rooting out the corrupt elements in the fertilizer industry, and assisting in establishment of major agricultural policies for Africa’s green revolution.
The “Africa Fertilizer Summit,” which he organized in 2006, was one of the largest high-level meetings in Africa’s history that had a focus on solving Africa’s food issues. During this Summit, Dr. Adesina was instrumental in developing the “Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution”, whereby the participants stated their commitment to the “eradication of hunger in Africa, by 2030.”
As an economic commander of Africa, he promotes the “High 5 Strategy” that include: light up and power Africa; feed Africa; industrialize Africa; integrate Africa and improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. As a result of his work, the lives of millions of people throughout Africa have been improved.
The Chairman of the Sunhak Peace Prize Committee, Il Sik Hong, stated:
“The Sunhak Peace Prize was established based upon the vision of ‘One Family Under God’.
The 2019 Sunhak Peace Prize gives special attention to peace and human development in Africa.
In order for us to build an era of peace and coexistence in the 21st century, we want to encourage continuous development in Africa. Africa is a rising star and its growth will contribute global progress and development throughout the 21st century.”
The 2019 Sunhak Peace Prize Award Ceremony will take place in February, 2019 in Seoul, Korea.
