"“My dream is to see every African connected and to have regulations and policies that are progressive, to enable innovation and not hamper it. I want to enable small and medium-size businesses by making it easier for them to connect to their customers and even see them go beyond connectivity through open application programming interfaces, digital marketplaces, easy-to-consume clouds and AI-enabled business tools. Ultimately, we need to increase productivity and the economic outcomes for Africa, improve education outcomes and reduce unemployment and the under-employment of our youth."

"“Your biggest asset is your people, and they choose to come to work for you every day. Treat them as such, so that they can choose you every day.” “With so many people in Africa still not connected, the telecommunications market still has a lot to do,” says Cuba."

"“My job, every day, is to ensure that people are connected to the people and the things they love and that they’re able to transact, educate, entertain and improve their economic position. That job doesn’t stop, but evolves as we get more and more people connected. I’m excited by the prospect of being part of the 4IR journey and being key in driving it for the continent.”"

"“My role is around specifically driving the digital operator,” she says. “My biggest lesson as a leader is that it doesn’t matter how good you think you are; real progress and success depend on working in teams,” she says."

"Mohammad Ali can’t even think about begging forgiveness from the British. If he does so then my old hands have enough strength to strangle him."

"We are the only people on Earth asked to guarantee the security of our occupier… while Israel is the only country that calls for defence from its victims."

"In Madrid, Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi and I also sparred it out in endless television appearances that were broadcast around he world. She was a worthy opponent."

"Thirty years later, she resigned from her position in the Palestinian Authority, explaining that "it's not a question of peace,. It's a question of democratization. It's a question of good governance." Complaining that there had been no Palestinian elections for more than fifteen years, she vowed, "I won't be part of it anymore". The Palestinian Authority was a morally bankrupt tyranny, but at the time she spoke passionately of its sincere desire to advance peace, as opposed to Israel, represented by me, which obstructed peace."

"I had just entered my car then rolled down the window. That was at Langata mall, outside a supermarket called Cleanshelf at 8pm. Some well built, tall and dark man just approached me. I had seen him standing near my car but he was not a suspicious person. He then mumbled something like Wacha kelele, ama tutakumaliza (stop making noise otherwise we will kill you). He hit me on my left eye and walked away. He was not in a hurry to run or hide"

"The public support I get is what keeps me going"

"you don’t wake up and say, I’m going to be an activist, that is the career that I want. It doesn’t work like that really. You find yourself in these spaces because you’re angered by something or you want to change something"

"extremely personally lewd, body shaming me and my family"

"I kept asking myself if there was anything I could have done. Perhaps if I had stepped in, he would still be alive"

"not being able to sleep well and sometimes, not sleeping at all! When I get any of these episodes online, I am hardly able to sleep. I spend my nights worrying and dreading getting back online when morning comes"

"“We are tried of being bombarded every single day with news of how much money we are losing that should be going to fight the COVID pandemic,”"

"“Theft doesn’t even stop during a pandemic,”...“We have people dying while some are stealing.”"

"And once they see these videos, that's when they see the pain that these girls undergo, and that's when they say: 'I will not allow my daughter, or I will not allow my sister to undergo the same"

"We are simply saying let's retain the good part of our culture, because we have so much that is good in our culture that we don't have to do away with"

"In the whole process of circumcision, what we hate is the cut. All the rituals, blessings from cultural leaders, people dressing in their traditional clothes as dancing and singing our beautiful songs — it's not harmful. It's good"

"Remember, they don't know how circumcision is done for girls or women, because they are not allowed to be there. ... They don't know where it's cut, or what is being done to them"

"“This is about the countless girls, women, boys, men, and elders all over Kenya and Africa who dare today are working to bring female genital mutilation and child marriage to an end,”"

"“They will say, ‘We did this because we believed in it, but now we want to encourage girls to go back to school,”"

"Was when I was eight years old, my sister and I ran away at four a.m. and hid in a tree to escape from the cut. The next day I went to him, my grandfather was the first person who I could convince that the cut was not necessary, and was the first person who listened to me. He changed my life, and that’s why today I am the woman of my dreams. Thank you"

"And the second toast is to my elder sister, Soila, she was with me the first time I ran away, but the next time I escaped, she gave up because of the beatings we received from our family members. She was first one that got the cut at the age of ten, and since that was the only way she will be considered a woman in my own community, and that’s why I do this work today because of the sacrifice she made for me then"

"as long as large swathes of humanity remain underrepresented and unsupported, action at Cop will have little meaning."

"A climate justice approach is the single-best hope the world has."

"Justice is about having your voice heard and being included in the process."

"Women, in particular, have been systematically excluded from the decision-making table"

"The future for people living in poorer countries has become increasingly precarious"

"When humanitarian crises deteriorate and hunger levels increase, women and girls will shoulder the burden"

"Poorer countries, which contribute least to global emissions, must be supported so they can adapt to the growing consequences of a warming world."

"The fight cannot be won through well-meaning words, one-off programmes or snappy press releases. It requires a strategic, systematic approach that builds alliances of the willing and drives catalytic change."

"We believe in the power of empowering local communities"

"Impact matters most at the grassroots level"

"The world is watching, young people are watching"

"The government can’t do it alone–and neither can we"

"This is the harsh reality we are facing. If we want to fight the climate crisis and talk about climate justice, then we need to ensure that girls’ education is put at the heart of the discussions. We have been talking for a long time, but what we need now is real action."

"We cannot talk about addressing the most pressing challenges of our time while leaving out the group that makes up more than half of Africa’s population"

"Leaders are failing to grasp the urgency of the crisis before us."

"Much of the innovation we are seeing today—whether in the circular economy, education, waste management, or climate-smart agriculture—is already being led by young people"

"There is no age when you cannot use technology. A professor at my university asked me if, at 70, he was too old to learn technology. I told him no, technology is accessible to everyone – and these days that professor carries a laptop. As long as somebody gives you the confidence you can do it. This is what is so mis- sing from so many of our girls. They need confidence. We need to de-mystify technology, there is nothing hard about using a computer."

"At some point, you have no choice but to be involved in climate advocacy, because whether you like it or not, it directly affects your livelihood and your wellbeing"

"Cultural expectations on women to care for their families will not fall, even when livelihoods are destroyed as a result of the climate crisis"

"Women’s rights must be respected and their place should not be in the shadows, but in the light."

"She largely set aside her writing after the full-scale Russian invasion of 2022, to focus on documenting [alleged] war crimes and working with children on or near the frontline."

"Her work included unearthing the diary of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a fellow writer who was illegally detained and killed by Russian soldiers in the city of Izium in early 2022. The diary, which was buried in his garden, served as a real-time document of Russian atrocities."

"The war is when you can no longer follow all news and cry about all neighbors who died instead of you a couple of miles away [..] Still, I want to not forget to learn the names."

"Amelina put her commitment to her country and its most vulnerable people ahead of her personal safety, training to gather evidence of [alleged] war crimes that could be used in future prosecutions."

"As for me, I don't hate Russians at all; I'm so exhausted by the war they have waged on us that I cannot feel anything. I am numb. There’s a beautiful song by the Ukrainian band Kozak System, a wartime song with many profanities but no hatred. It starts like this: "Our national idea— fuck the hell off!""