Dr. Bogaletch Gebre is the recipient of this year's King Badouin African Development Prize. She is a passionate women’s rights activist from Ethiopia and has been recognized for her efforts to transform the lives of women through innovation and altering traditional conceptions of a woman’s role in shaping her political, economic, and social destiny.

Over the past decade, nearly 58 million girls were married before the age of 18. Child marriage is a truly global problem: In Africa, 42 percent of girls are married before turning 18, but it is also prevalent in parts of Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (in South Asia, for instance, 46 percent of girls are married). Child brides often start childbearing early, leading to complications and producing high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality among girls in developing countries. Married girls are often forced to leave school, negatively affecting their ability to work and provide for their families. The panelists will describe current policies and programs working to support young women and delay marriage whenever possible.

In remote Kalimantan, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, rare species, virgin rain forests, and rich bio-diversity abound, as do abject poverty and steady destruction of natural habitat. But two women, initially interested in researching threatened species, saw the complex and interconnected relationships between the health of the forest and its inhabitants and developed programs that are successfully and sustainably tackling both health and environment issues.

Panelists will examine how African nations can manage structural and spatial change to broaden economic growth.