Nominations are now open for the 2020 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Prize for Girls' and Women's Education.
The UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education honours outstanding and innovative contributions made by individuals, institutions and organizations to advance girls’ and women’s education. It is the first UNESCO Prize of this nature and is unique in showcasing successful projects that improve and promote the educational prospects of girls and women and in turn, the quality of their lives.
Funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, the Prize is conferred annually to two laureates and consists of an award of US $50,000 each to help further their work in the area of girls’ and women’s education. The Director-General of UNESCO awarded the Prize for the first time in 2016.
Eligibility Criteria
Nominations can be made by Governments of UNESCO Member States via their Permanent Delegations to UNESCO, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO. Nominations must focus on an established project or programme of the candidate specifically advancing girls’ and women’s education.
Governments of UNESCO Member States and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO are now invited to nominate up to three individuals, institutions or organizations who have made strong, innovative contributions in favour of girls’ and women’s education.
The two Prize laureates will be selected by UNESCO’s Director-General on the basis of recommendations made by the independent International Jury of the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education, consisting of five experts from all geographical regions.
The nominations will only be considered if the project/programme:
has a clear focus on advancing girls’ and women’s education, and the promotion of gender equality in and through education, and contributes to one or more of the five priority areas of the Prize:
Participation: Supporting girls to transition from primary education to lower-secondary education and to complete full basic education
Literacy: Supporting adolescent girls and young women to acquire literacy skills
Environment: Supporting the creation of a gender-responsive and safe teaching-learning environment
Teachers: Engaging teachers to be change agents with gender-responsive teaching attitudes and practices
Skills: Supporting girls and women to acquire knowledge/skills for life and work
has already been running for at least two years; and
shows evidence that it may be replicable, scalable and/or provide significant learning potential for initiatives in other contexts
Selection Criteria
Impact: The project/programme’s impact should be qualitatively and/or quantitatively measureable, and deliver tangible results relative to the invested resources. This can include demonstrable changes in:
attitudes, beliefs and practices in favour of girls’ and women’s education;
girls’ educational participation, attendance, completion and learning outcomes; and/or
removing barriers to girls’ and women’s education, such as gender bias and stereotypes.
Innovation: The project/programme stimulates, and/or draws on, innovative approaches advancing girls’ and women’s education. This includes new ways of working where “business as usual” has failed, and transformative “out-of-the-box” thinking and actions. The project/programme can demonstrate innovation in terms of:
the themes covered;
the methodology employed;
the channels used to create change for girls’ and women’s education;
the specific knowledge mobilized about gender-related aspects of girls' and women's education in order to elaborate innovative solutions; and/or
other aspects, such as tools and products advancing girls’ and women’s education.
Sustainability: The project/programme has taken steps, ideally from its design or implementation phases, to ensure it will have a lasting impact on girls’ and women’s education beyond the project lifecycle. This may include efforts to ensure the:
continuation of local action in favour of girls’ and women’s education;
institutionalization of approaches, tools and products, to advance girls’ and women’s education;
sustainable ways to ensure stakeholders’ mobilization; and/or
generation of further initiatives to advance girls’ and women’s education as a result of the project/programme.
Nominations must be submitted in English or French via an online platform, accessible only to Permanent Delegations to UNESCO and NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO.
Based on the recommendations of the Jury, the Director-General of UNESCO will announce the 2020 laureates who will receive the award at an official ceremony on 11 October 2020 as part of International Day of the Girl Child celebrations.
Focus areas of interest: Education, Women & Gender
Category: Awards, Prizes and Challenges
Deadline: May 26, 2020
For more information, visit UNESCO Prize.
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