Maria Horne

Horne graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mass Communication from Makerere University.[3]

In 2018 after attending a Parks for the Planet[4] Salzburg Global Seminar that focused on the inter-linkages between activism and policy, she partnered with IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) to deliver a world environment day session[5] at Hill Preparatory School, a special needs school to teach children how they can keep their environment free of plastic waste under the theme "Beat Plastic Pollution". In April of that year Horne started the Global Ambassador Program (GAP) to equip young people from the global south on skills and tools to take action in their communities.

In August of the same year Horne took the challenge to get over 100,000 postcards from children in the Guinness World Records 100,000 post card challenge.[6] The project was initiated by the Swiss Agency for Development and she felt the need to help raise voices of children and youth from the global south that have been heavily underrepresented so political leaders could take urgent action to fight climate change. Through the GAP, Horne worked with young people from ten countries including Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Libya, Lebanon, Nepal and Bangladesh going to schools to get children's opinions what climate action means to them. The Swiss project ended up mobilizing over 125,000 post cards in total which were displayed on the Aletsch Glacier.[7] Her participation in this advocacy campaign propelled her to the global stage[8] where she attended the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) conference[9] in Poland.

Through BLI Global, Horne continued her climate action work participating in the "Beat Air Pollution" campaign in 2019. She also became involved in lobbying governments for environmentally friendly policies and participated at the fourth assembly of United Nations Environment (UNEA4) conference in Nairobi, Kenya where she met the incoming Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Anderssen at the time.

On September 27, 2020, in celebration of World Water Week, Horne facilitated the launch of the data4WASH platform in partnership with Media for Community Change Initiative, WaterAid Nigeria and the University of Ibadan. The technology is built to cluster locations from vulnerable communities that need improved water and sanitation facilities installed while driving finance to invest in solving the problem of clean water poverty.[10][11] The project is an initiative of both BLI Global and Media for Community Change.[12]

In early January 2020, Horne launched the Global Youth Climate Action Fund initiative (GYCAF) hosted by BLI Global. The goal of the fund is to raise and deploy over USD 100,000,000 by 2030 to youth organizations and activities.[13] The GYCAF has garnered attention from the COP26 Presidency and support from constituencies and organizations like UNEP, Slycan Trust, GEFI and Citizens Climate International.

In 2019 Horne participated at the Africa Climate Week[14] and the ECOSOC Youth Forum where together with the Youth Climate Movement (YOUNGO) constituency organized the Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG13) Climate Action break out session. She would attend the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) session and the United Nations Climate Action Summit where she advocated for more financing into youth-led climate action.[15] She also participated in the climate change conference later that year in Madrid where together Plant-for-the-Planet, Youth Climate Lab and Hatof Foundation and with support from the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) Presidency they organized a fireside event for young people to understand how business friendly CEOs can work with youth activists.[16] Together with Seyifunmi Adebote from Media for Community Change she helped organize and moderate a session with the Republic of Nigeria at the South African Pavilion on "Understanding Climate finance." As one of the ambassadors of the Africa Youth Climate Hub Initiative,[17] she spoke alongside Oladuso Adenike on the kind of support that young people need to push for climate action.[18][19] Horne continues to share knowledge to young people on how to lobby governments at grassroots level for youth-inclusive financing.[20] She is a strong advocate for financing as a catalyst of climate action.[21]

Horne is married to Robert Horne, an American investor and businessman.

In 2020, Horne published and co-authored books on climate action and her understanding of racism in the wake of the Black Lives Matter resurgence. James The Steward[22] is a children's story taken from a real life occurrence in Uganda co-authored with Herbert Murungi from Rural Environment Sustainability Initiative (RESI-Africa). James and Sarah have an awakening and begin to become Stewards of Change. A Dream[23] is also inspired by a true story and draws on the emotions of losing love and finding it again. Love Games[24] is the first book from the Seeing Grey Chronicles that explores Belinda's journey on race, relationships and life growing up as a teenager in America. On June 23rd, 2020, Horne together with RESI Africa published the second series in the James The Steward children's book, Keeper of The Forest.[25] The book teaches families the importance of protecting trees and draws on the real life threat to Bugoma Forest in Uganda.

• June AfCFTA has the potential to unite the continent[26] – Interview by Stiftung Entwicklung und Frieden
• Finding our Future Leaders – Impakter Interview[27]
• Becoming Self-Employed is one of my goals – She Leads Africa interview[28]
• Building African Businesses – Interview with Theonera[29]

• Maria Horne on Twitter
• Maria Horne on Instagram