Canadian philanthropist, diplomat and politician, Stephen Lewis, whose advocacy in the field of HIV/AIDS has garnered international acclaim, will speak at the third World Social Sciences Forum (WSSF) to be held in Durban from Sunday 13 to Wednesday 16 September.

Lewis, the co-director of AIDS-Free World, will be joined by other notable speakers such as Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO; Jomo Kwame Sundaram, assistant director-general and coordinator for Economic and Social Development of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization; Marcelo Neri, former Minister for Strategic Affairs, Brazil; and Achille Mbembe, professor at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER). 

Patrons of the event include George Monbiot, environmental activist and award-winning writer and journalist; Sir Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity; Professor Thandika Mkandawire, chair in African Development at the London School of Economics; Navanethem Pillay, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Pierre Sané, founder and president of Imagine Africa Institute. 

The Forum, with its overarching theme ‘Transforming global relations for a just world’, is hosted by the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), together with a consortium of universities and research centres from across the African continent. The Forum has the formal patronage of UNESCO – a status granted to demonstrate UNESCO’s moral endorsement of an exceptional activity. 

“The action orientated nature of the theme will allow for interdisciplinary and interrogative interrogation,” says Professor Olive Shisana, CEO of the HSRC and chair of WSSF 2015. “We’ll be taking a close look at issues of global inequality as they relate to governance as well as patterns of consumption, health and education, climate change and adaptation and human rights and social justice.” 

The programme will build on the work of WSSF I (Bergen 2009) and WSSF II (Montreal 2013) with a strong emphasis on bridging divides between the global north and south, between urban and rural communities and between races and genders. 

“We are honoured that the family of Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai, has agreed to name the closing lecture of the meeting after this visionary leader,” Shisana says. 

For more information on the World Social Sciences Forum, visit www.wssf2015.org.