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Top 20 of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy
Alaa Murabit is a Libyan-Canadian physician, and a Meritorius Service Cross recipient. In 2019 Murabit was selected as one of the Top 20 of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy alongside Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Melinda Gates, and Michelle Obama. Her TED Talk, released in July 2015, "What my religion really says about women" has been viewed over five million times on TED.com and YouTube combined.
On March 2 2016 Alaa Murabit became the youngest appointed High-Level Commissioner on Health and Economic Growth, chaired by the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and International Labour Organization (ILO).
As a Commissioner Alaa has been tasked with stimulating the creation of health and social sector jobs as a means to advance inclusive economic growth, paying specific attention to the needs of low- and lower middle income countries.
In 2016 Alaa founded a global Mentorship Programme for emerging leaders and co-founded The Omnis Institute, an independent non-profit organisation committed to challenging critical global issues through the empowerment of emerging local leaders.
Providing a voice and platform for local leaders, particularly women and youth leaders, Omnis offers leadership acceleration and mentorship opportunities to those with an interest in international peace and security, human rights and sustainable development. Omnis also works closely on the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), illustrating women and youth leaders as fundamental to the achievement of these goals.
In September 2015 world leaders unanimously adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In January 2016 Alaa became the youngest of 17 eminent appointees of the UN Secretary General, alongside Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Richard Curtis, Paul Polman, Jack Ma, Leo Messi, Jeffrey Sachs, Shakira Mebarak, Forest Whitaker, Muhammad Yunus, Leymah Gbowee and others.
With a mandate from the Secretary-General to generate momentum and commitment to achieve the SDGs by 2030, the SDG Advocates work to promote the universal sustainable development agenda, to raise awareness of the integrated nature of the SDGs, and to foster the engagement of new stakeholders in the implementation of these Goals.
Alaa founded the NGO The Voice of Libyan Women. The Voice of Libyan Women (VLW) is a Non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in order to advance and protect women's rights in Libya. VLW is a youth-led organization which continues to advocate for women's development and to challenge the prevailing norms of Libyan society. VLW works to spread information at a national level by creating local teams made up both of individuals and organizations.