 Director, I have the honour to request that you confer the degree of Doctor of Literature Honoris Causa upon Sanda Ojiambu. By virtue of the authority invested in me, I confer the degree of Doctor of Literature Honoris Causa on Sanda Ojiambu. May I now invite you to present your remarks. Greetings and good morning to you all, fellow graduates, faculty, friends, family, all the distinguished guests. I'm truly honoured and grateful to SOAS for this recognition. Of course I will not be here today without the loving support of family and friends and so great to see family and friends of many others here. To those present and those joining online, for me personally, for my family and friends I send you all my love and thanks because you've been my greatest critics but also my greatest cheerleaders. So let me be vulnerable and reveal to you a childhood memory and a question that remains with me to date. Very much in line with Lord Michael's comments about inquiry and learning. I must have been around nine years old in primary school in Nairobi, Kenya, where I come from. When I first asked myself why it was that some people had more than others or even why some people had some and others had none. But that question in a variety of nuanced ways has framed my life experience professionally and personally. The question of why is our world built like this has been a constant voice in my mind and has influenced and guided me through all my big life decisions and certainly through all my inquiry and search for knowledge. The first of this decision was the direction that my education has taken from being a student of economics to a student of international development and a student of public policy. I along with many of you in this room I'm very sure have always sought to inquire and in an increasingly complex world, questions such as how are productive resources generated? How are decisions on the application of these resources taken? I along with others have sought to inquire about policies. Can a policy be neutral or neutral yet inclusive or neutral and inclusive and redistributive? Many have committed research and practice on how to sustain and redistribute productive resources. Thousands of hours of academic inquiry have been spent in asking whether productive resources should trickle down, trickle up or trickle across actually and whether access to productive resources truly means access to a better quality of life. I along with millions of others I'm sure have sought to inquire as to how long productive resources can be sustained, regenerated, multiplied and under what circumstances. But the underlying question still goes back to my nine year old question which is why is the world built like this and why do inequalities still exist? Education has provided all of us with a path to grow, to inquire and to reflect. I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to advance this path of inquiry through my work in the non-profit sector, the private sector and now the United Nations under the incredible leadership of the Deputy Secretary General Amina Muhammad. The opportunity of inquiry and the opportunity to contribute towards making a difference I'm sure shape and ground many of us here. So as I stand here today reflecting on this great honour, I'm conscious of another opportunity that it bestows upon me and certainly upon all of us who indulge in inquiry. It is the opportunity that at this most crucial time for humanity we must deepen our individual and collective endeavours in the areas that matter most for communities, for economies and for the world. To pursue that elusive question of inequality and to encourage more people to challenge themselves through addressing the social, economic and political disruption that inequalities create. I'm deeply reflective that a question that occurred to me as a young girl has been so hard to answer. But then again look around us. The world has never been so wealthy, so full, or so full of productive resources. It was estimated in 2022 that the global GDP was over $100 trillion. But yet, we live in times when the global public good is most challenged. We live in times when global inequality is at its most evident. We live in times when global solidarity is at its lowest ebb. There's some staggering statistics for us all to reflect on. Over 160 million children are in child labour. It'll take over 132 years to change the global gender gap. The COVID pandemic has pushed over 93 million people into extreme poverty. There is no simple answer to why the world is like this, but there are many solutions to changing it. And I firmly believe that the foundations you all have here as graduates puts us on a great path. I firmly believe that we must come together, that we must mobilise all and continue to challenge our thinking, our modelling, our inquiry, our partnerships and our systems from the private sector through to government to civil society and multilateral organisations. If we can do that, not just at the global level but at the grass roots, we may just be on the way to creating a fairer, more resilient and sustainable world. Is this a pipe dream, sitting in this hallowed hall of like-minded thinkers perhaps? I don't know, but I trust that we have more believers than cynics here today, filled with inquiry and the quest for great solutions. But is the question of my youth still remains with me? Why is the world built like this? I know that it's a question that can either build or break. It can build or break families. It can build or break communities. And it can build or break economies. I'm sure I've overrun my time, but before I go one last thing, and let me reflect on, perhaps recommend a remedy that I believe is as old as the rolling hills of the savanna where I come from, and one which I believe can really put us on the path of solution finding. It's called solidarity, and I've learned on my road through life that solidarity really can solve problems. And indeed, it might even be the answer to that question that took hold of me as a child. Thank you so very much.