President Museveni, Celina Cossa win Africa Prize
July 17, 1998 - with links to full texts of speeches
The Hunger Project today named President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and Ms. Celina Cossa of Mozambique as the co-winners of the 1998 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger.
The winners were announced by the chairman of the jury and former UN Secretary-General, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, at a ceremony in Blantyre, Malawi presided over by Malawi's president, Dr. Bakili Muluzi and organized by 1997 Africa Prize laureate Mrs. Joyce Banda. The Hunger Project was represented at the ceremony by Dr. Peter G. Bourne, vice-chair of the Global Board of Directors and Vice Chancellor of St. George's University.
Ms. Cossa and President Museveni join 20 other distinguished African men and women who have received the Africa Prize since it was established in 1987, including President Mandela of South Africa, Wangari Maathai of Kenya and Olusegun Obasanjo, recently released from prison in Nigeria.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has emerged as a model of modern African leadership. He has been a force for stability, not only in Uganda, but in the Great Lakes Region, a fact that was underscored by President Clinton's 1998 visit. President Museveni has made it his mission to ensure peace and stability, adequate social services, support for farmers and diversification of the economy.
Museveni became president of Uganda in 1986 after a prolonged struggle against the regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote. When he took power as president, Uganda was in ruins. President Museveni faced the huge tasks of revitalizing the country's agricultural economy, bringing a powerful but completely undisciplined army under control, reestablishing relations with bilateral and multilateral donors, developing social services for the country's 18 million people and rebuilding Uganda's economy from the ground up. Economic growth reached 10% in 1995, with inflation cut to 5%.
Celina Cossa is the founder and leader of the General Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, an organization of 10,000 peasants, 95 percent of whom are women. The 200 cooperatives produce food for members and their families, and are generating a surplus that enables them to supply the markets in Maputo, the Mozambican capital.
The movement has played a crucial role in reducing hunger and despair in the area, where the population has swollen to many times its original size by displaced war refugees from the countryside. Ms. Cossa's work is also a beacon for women throughout Africa, who admire her fortitude and are learning from the example of her cooperatives.
The Africa Prize is annually awarded by The Hunger Project as an initiative designed to call forth the committed leadership Africa needs at all levels and sectors of society to build a future free from hunger.
The announcement in Blantyre was broadcast across Africa through USIA's Worldnet satellite television service. Events were organized to view the ceremony in Ethiopia, Uganda, Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana and Senegal.
The two 1998 laureates will share a $100,000 cash award for their continuing work for the end of hunger. The Africa Prize will be presented on 3 October 1998 in a ceremony at the New York Hilton Hotel.
The Hunger Project is a global, not-for-profit organization committed to the end of world hunger. Founded in 1977, it empowers people in developing countries to create lasting, self-reliant solutions to challenges of health, education, nutrition, family income and women's empowerment. With headquarters in New York, The Hunger Project has offices in 16 countries.
Click to obtain hi-res photo of President Museveni and Celina Cossa.
Video tape copies of the announcement ceremony are available from The Hunger Project global office.