Alaa Murabit

Alaa Murabit M.D. (; born October 1989) is a Libyan-Canadian physician, policy maker, and strategist focused on health, inclusive security, and sustainable development. She created the Voice of Libyan Women at age 21 and played a key role in advancing multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions and the Sustainable Development Goals into global policy frameworks.

Murabit was appointed the youngest of the 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocates by the UN Secretary-General. Appointed in 2016, she has served as a UN High-Level Commissioner on Health, Employment, and Economic Growth. She was also the inaugural Director of Global Health Advocacy, Policy, and Communications at the Gates Foundation, where she led major global health and development initiatives.

Murabit is credited for mobilizing billions of dollars for global health and development initiatives, including creating For Mama (now Every Pregnancy) and the Beginnings Fund, driving numerous global policies for equitable access and systemic change through high-level leadership roles.

Her 2015 TED Talk, ''"What My Religion Really Says About Women,"'' has been viewed over nine million times and was selected as the TED Talk of the Day and The New York Times listed it among "Four Moving TED Talks You Should Watch Right Now" and it was named one of '12 TED Talks That Define the Future of Feminism.'

Murabit was awarded the Canadian Meritorious Service Cross, named to the TIME100, is a James Joyce Awardee, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a BBC Top 100 honoree, a two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader. Her leadership has been acknowledged by The Lancet, World Economic Forum, CNN, the Canadian government, and Harvard Law.

Early life and education

Murabit was born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, as the sixth of eleven children.David Crow (31 May 2018)
UN worker’s headscarf brings out racism in Boston
''Financial Times''. Her parents played a key role in shaping her perspective on leadership and gender equality. She has stated that she initially had no plans to advocate for inclusive security or women's rights.

After completing high school at age fifteen, she moved with family members to Zawiya, Libya, in 2005. She studied at the College of Medicine at Al Zawiya University in Libya from 2006 to 2013 and worked at Zawiya Teaching Hospital and various makeshift clinics during the 2011 Libyan War. When the war began, her father became involved almost immediately with the rebels, providing medical care for rebel soldiers, appearing in SkyNews footage with Alex Crawford under the name "Dr. M" creating insecurity for her family.

Murabit received her Doctor of Medicine from Zawia University in 2013 and her master's in International Strategy and Diplomacy with distinction from the London School of Economics in 2016 with research focused on inclusive security, crisis response, and securitization. In 2020, Murabit was named a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where she focused on inclusive peacebuilding, community-led response, and global security frameworks.

Career

Voice of Libyan Women and Community-led Crisis Response (2011–2015)

In 2011, while in medical school and during the Libyan Revolution, Murabit founded the Voice of Libyan Women (VLW), an organization focused on inclusive security during and after the Libyan Civil War. VLW launched the Noor Campaign, which engaged faith leaders in advocating for women's rights.VLW's Noor Campaign was the focus of Murabit's 2015 TED talk. Her leadership in bringing coalitions of faith actors together to challenge the suppression of women's rights perpetuated by religious text interpretations was hailed as a “turning point in women’s rights globally” by Human Rights Watch. The Noor Campaign is based on community leaders and "brought together over 600 local community leaders, including those who had never worked in civil society before". Working with a network of hundreds of community organizations throughout Libya, including Ayadina Charity in Benghazi, Mothers for Martyrs, and The Southern Women's Forum, the campaign reached over 35 cities and communities as far south as Ghat, Libya, on the southern Libyan border, Tobruk and Bayda on the Eastern border and Nalut and Ghadames in the west. The campaign and methodology have since been awarded and replicated internationally.

Murabit has worked closely on inclusive security, peace processes, and faith-supported peacebuilding alongside President Jimmy Carter, Leymah Gbowee, and others. In 2013, Murabit spoke at the Women in the World Summit: "During the revolution, I saw phenomenally brave women taking a leading role," Murabit told Lesley Stahl. "Often when violence happens, people excuse it with religion," Murabit said. "Young girls need to know that they can fight fire with fire and say, 'No, my religion is not why you are doing this.'"

She has maintained that peace is only achievable through communities, "The only real solution, the only way to get that grenade or gun put down safely, is by filling his hands and head with something else. A pencil, a paycheck, a diploma, a dream – by building up people, by creating institutions, we break down wars. By strengthening local peacebuilders, we give them the tools to change their communities from within."

In 2012, she became an International Criminal Court Hauge certified sexual and gender-based violence investigator. In September 2014 Murabit was named an Ashoka Fellow. She was an Advisor to UN Women Global Civil Society Advisory Group in 2014, and is a founding coalition member of Harvard University's "Everywoman, Everywhere" initiative.

United Nations: Security Council and the Sustainable Development Goals (2013–2019)

In July 2014, Murabit was appointed to the United Nations 1325 Advisory Board, which monitors the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. In October 2015, Murabit was selected as the Speaker for the 15th Anniversary Open Debate of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.

In 2016, Murabit was appointed as a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, following years of advocacy for the Goals, and appointed again by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada - Co-Chairs of the Sustainable Development Goals Advocates group
United Nations, press release of 6 April 2022.Ellen Wulfhorst (23 June 2016)
Supporters of global sustainability ask businesses to step up
''Reuters''. In 2016, she was appointed as a UN High-Level Commissioner on Health, Employment, and Economic Growth.

Murabit has advised the UN Security Council on the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda, humanitarian crisis, and health security. She has worked extensively on integrating SDGs into global policy frameworks, successfully negotiating, passing, and supporting numerous resolutions through the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, including Resolutions 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), 2467 (2019), and 2493 (2019).

In May 2015, Murabit addressed an official TED audience, released in July 2015 as an official ''"Ted Talk of the Day"''. ''The New York Times'' selected it as one of the "4 moving TED Talks you should watch right now," spurring inclusive security and religious peace-building efforts globally. She was an International Deliver for Good Influencer and a board member of International Alert, Keeping Children Safe, Malaria No More, and the Malala Fund.

From 2016 to 2019, Murabit served as the Executive Director of Phase Minus 1, a global initiative focused on preventing conflict escalation by addressing systemic root causes. She collaborated with policymakers, security experts, and grassroots leaders to develop governance, resilience, and crisis response strategies in fragile and conflict settings.

In 2017, Murabit was a founding member of The NewNow, a coalition of rising global leaders established to tackle contemporary global challenges modeled after The Elders. She created the Emerging Leaders Lab, a mentorship and leadership initiative supporting women community peacebuilders and social entrepreneurs, collaborating with organizations including Google, TED, Nike, ID-PR, and supporting leaders including Fawiza Farhan, Adwoa Aboah, Jaha Dukureh, and Roya Mahboob.

Global Policy Leadership, Global Health, and Sustainable Development (2019–2025)

From 2019 to 2021, Murabit served as the CEO of IMPACT 2030, leveraging private sector engagement for social impact and hosted "At The Table" podcast, interviewing global changemakers such as Malala Yousafzai, Layla Saad, Eddie Ndopu, Najwa Zebian, and Dr. Rana el Kaliouby. The podcast explored themes of inclusive leadership, social justice, and mental health, amplifying the voices of women and marginalized communities.

In 2020, she joined the Gates Foundation as a Director of Global Policy and Advocacy; she led a $350 million cross-cutting global portfolio. Murabit led global advocacy and research for women's health, ideating and shaping the early strategy behind the $300 million Beginnings Fund for maternal and child health. In 2023, she also founded For Mama, a faith-based philanthropic collaborative, which raised $13 million in its first year to improve healthcare access in fragile settings. In 2020, Murabit became a board member for Women for Women International, and in 2021 became an alternate board member for GAVI.

In 2022, Murabit was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, one of Canada’s Women of Impact. In 2023, she was selected as a Rockefeller Bellagio Fellow. In 2024, Murabit was named to the TIME 100 most influential people and as a Lancet global leader.

Leadership in Sustainable Finance and Global Development (2025–Present)

In October 2024, Murabit was announced as the new Chairperson of the Board of Girls Not Brides, leading the global partnership to end child marriage and was named a Commissioner for the Commission on Faith, Trust and Health. Alaa Murabit provides policy and strategic guidance on sustainable development, crisis response, security, health, innovation, education, and equity. She works extensively with governments and private sector stakeholders, is a WEF Global Expert, and a member of the Systemic Inequalities & Social Cohesion Council, and serves as an external senior expert advisor with Bain & Company on financing, sustainability, health, resilience, philanthropy strategies.

Murabit has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, TIME, BBC, CNN, The Financial Times, The Lancet, and Vanity Fair and has spoken at leading international conferences including TED, World Economic Forum, WIRED, Munich Security Conference and ilton Foundation Symposium.

Murabit has written articles for ''The Boston Globe'', ''Wired'', Project Syndicate, WEF, the Carter Center, ''NewAmerica'', ''Chime for Change'', ''Huffington Post'', ''The Christian Science Monitor'' and ''Impakter.'' She is a contributing writer for the bestselling feminist anthology ''Feminists Don't Wear Pink (and other lies)''. In 2025, Murabit launched an online newsletter titled Radical Resilience.

Honors and awards

Murabit is widely recognized for her contributions to global security, sustainability, health, development, and gender equality. In 2024, she was named to the TIME100, selected as a Lancet Global Leader and a Rockefeller Bellagio Fellow. In 2022, she was recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Her leadership in inclusive security earned her the Harvard Law Women Inspiring Change Award (2017), and Forbes 30 Under 30 (2017).

She is the first civilian from Saskatchewan to receive the Canadian Meritorious Service Cross (2018) for her work in international peace and development and was honored as a Vanity Fair Global Goals Leader (2023). She was named a BBC Top 100 Woman (2014), received the TED Talk of the Day (2015) distinction, the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award, the Marisa Bellisario International Humanitarian Award by the President of the Italian Republic (2013) and WIRED World Global Thought leader.

Murabit's sustained global impact has also been recognized with the James Joyce Award (2019). In 2018, she was named one of 100 Women of Impact by the Government of Canada, recognizing the most influential women in Canadian history and as one of Canada's nine Trailblazers in 2020. In 2019, she was named one of the World's Top 20 Most Influential People in Gender Policy alongside Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Angela Merkel, and Michelle Obama (2019). In 2013, she was named the New York Times TrustWomen Hero, and was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2012 and 2017.

Murabit was inducted into the Institute for Inclusive Security Women Waging Peace in 2012, an Ashoka Fellow in 2014, and an MIT Media Lab Fellow in 2016. She has addressed the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, European Council, African Union, COP, and other global fora numerous times

See also

* List of peace activists

References

External links

*

Alaa Murabit (NGO Voice of Libyan Women) on Women, Peace and Security – Security Council, 7533rd meeting

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murabit, Alaa
1989 births
Living people
Canadian women's rights activists
People from Saskatoon
Canadian Muslims
MIT Media Lab people
Canadian motivational writers
Women motivational writers
21st-century Canadian physicians
21st-century Canadian women physicians
Canadian women non-fiction writers
21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers
21st-century Canadian women writers
Canadian people of Libyan descent
Canadian emigrants to Libya
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Social entrepreneurs