A Zambian postgraduate student at the University of Malta’s Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development was recently nominated as one of the top two Mandela Washington fellows to speak at the first Impact Africa Social Entrepreneurship Summit in South Africa, which was recently co-hosted by the British Council and Ashoka, the largest global network of Changemakers.

The student, Shola Precious Mwamulima, is conducting research on comparative food consumption as part of an MSc in Sustainable Development at the University institute. The research is funded by the Climate Action Scholarships offered by the Maltese government to support for capacity building in developing countries through academic research.

The summit in South Africa focused on advancing economic, social and environmental change through leadership, strong ecosystem and collaboration. In her talk Mwamulima spoke on the creation of solutions that make Africa the protagonist in the global ecosystem of players in sustainability, education, digital innovation and opportunities for young people to fulfil their potential to accelerate innovative solutions to Africa’s pressing challenges.

Mwamulima is a Mandela Washington Fellow, a programme launched in 2014 in honour of Nelson Mandela by former US President Barack Obama to invest in the future of Africa. It empowers outstanding sub-Saharan African leaders with a record of accomplishments to improve their skills at US universities.

She was the first female Zambian fellow chosen to study energy policy at the University of California-Davis for her work in linking renewable energy in off-grid communities to advance education with the creation of a rural school offering free primary education to 324 children, and a bio-diesel mine project that is a world first for tailing phytoremediation using Pongamina.