Naza Alakija

Naza Alakija is a humanitarian and philanthropist deeply committed to three areas of impact: education, empowerment of women and girls and the environment.
She believes a sustainable, prosperous and equitable world is within our grasp, if we can provide women and girls with the education they deserve, and lead communities towards an environmentally resilient future. As founder of Sage Foundation, she finds and funds grassroots movements with creative solutions to the climate crisis and beyond.

Naza is a Senior Advisor for UNICEF, and in her advisory work, she has travelled to some of the worst conflict zones of the 21st century. She has always been amazed and humbled by the people she’s met and the stories they have to tell. Naza has visited Afghanistan several times, a country she calls one of the most beautiful places in the world. Here she had the privilege of meeting and offering her support to some of the most resilient and innovative groups of people she’s ever met, including the Afghan Girls Robotics team.

Naza was born in Iran and moved to the UK aged nine. She is deeply grateful for the role education has played in her life, and became a fierce defender of a girl’s right to a full education. Naza supports a number of educational programs which help girls to fulfil their potential, such as GIGA, a global connectivity expansion project designed to connect every young person in the world to the internet. Recently she sponsored Nanosatellites, an initiative in Kazakhstan which encourages girls into STEM, through launching satellites into the upper atmosphere to collect data.