Applications invited for UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education 2020

About the Organization:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris. They declared purpose is to contribute to promoting international collaboration in education, sciences, and culture in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter.

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.

Who can nominate?

• Governments of UNESCO Member States via their Permanent Delegations to UNESCO  and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO can make up to 3 nominations. Self-nominations are not accepted.

Who can be nominated?

• Individuals, institutions or organizations advancing girls’ and women’s education. Nominations must focus on an established project or programme of the candidate, which has been running for at least two years, and meets the selection criteria.

Selection Criteria:

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:

1. 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

2. Has already been running for at least two years; and

3. Shows evidence that it may be replicable, scalable and/or provide significant learning potential for initiatives in other contexts

Once it has passed the basic eligibility requirements, the project/ programme of the candidate will be assessed by the Jury based on the following three criteria:

• Impact
• Innovation
• Sustainability

Deadline: Midnight of 26 May 2020 (UTC+1, Paris time)

For any question regarding the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education or the submission process, please contact the Secretariat of the Prize at the Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality at UNESCO: Mr. Yuchi Zhao or Ms. Rebekah Cameron, Tel: +33 (0) 1 45 68 10 08; e-mail: GWEPrize@unesco.org.

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