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 USD 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.
Programme Details
Organizer: UNESCO.
Area: Education.
Number of Prizes: 2.
Duration : One time.
Eligible countries: Open to all Nationalities.
UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education Award
Laureates will receive USD 50,000 each. Nominations can be made by Governments of UNESCO Member States via their Permanent Delegations to UNESCO and National Commissions for UNESCO, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO. Nominations must focus on an established project or programme of the nominee specifically advancing girls’ and women’s education. Each permanent delegation or NGO can make up to three nominations for any edition of the Prize. Self-nominations are not accepted.
UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education Selection Criteria
The two Prize laureateswill be selected by UNESCO’s DirectorGeneral on the basis of recommendations made by the independent International Jury of the UNESCO Prize 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 riority areas of the Prize:
Participation: Supporting girls to transition from primary education to lowe-secondary education and to complete full basic education
Literacy: upporting 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 gende-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 eplicable, scalableand/or provide significant learning potential for initiatives in other context.
Once it has passed the basic eligibility requirements, the project/programme of the nominee will beassessed by the Jury based on the following three criteria: Impact, Innovation and Sustainability
Application instructions
To nominate someone, you must follow steps below:
The nomination form must be completed online in English or French via a platform accessible through the apply button below
Nominations must be submitted online by the Permanent Delegation to UNESCO of the concerned Member State, or by an NGO in official partnership with UNESCO, through their official UNESTEAMS account.
It is possible for National Commissions for UNESCO to access and complete the online form. However, any nomination by a National Commission will need to be submitted by the Permanent Delegation to UNESCO of the respective Member State. An automatic notification message will be sent to the official e-mail address of the Delegation to this end.
If a National Commission or Permanent Delegation to UNESCO wishes that the form be completed electronically by the nominees, UNESCO can create a UNESTEAMS account for each nominee. A request should be sent to [email protected] before 20 May 2020. After completion of the online form by the nominee, the concerned National Commission and Permanent Delegation will receive a notification e-mail and can review the nomination before the Permanent Delegation submits to UNESCO.
Attention should be paid to presenting the project/programme of the nominee in a clear and structured way, following the instructions given in the form and respecting the indicated word limit. All supporting material (e.g. action plans, publications, videos) must be transmitted electronically through the online system.
Kindly note that each Permanent Delegation or NGO may not submit more than three nominations.
The deadline to submit nominations is (midnight, Paris time). For more details on the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education, please visit the official page.
