The Zayed Sustainability Prize Calls for Submissions from the African Continent

Applicants are encouraged to submit their entry   for consideration with a submission deadline of 9^th August 2018. With a total prize fund of US$3 million, the Prize awards winners across five distinct categories that include: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools.

The interconnected pillars of health, food, energy and water represent the basic needs essential to human survival where innovations will yield progress in sustainable development. The evolution from the Zayed Future Energy Prize into the Zayed Sustainability Prize addresses the inter-related nature of the world’s global resource systems that determines progress of social, economic and environmental improvements.

The annual Prize provides a platform for recognising the next generation of sustainability innovators and leaders across the world. The Prize network and fund allow organisations and enterprises with existing innovations or high schools with project ideas in the defined sectors to amplify their work, expanding the reach and impact of the innovations.

The target for the Zayed Sustainability Prize is to attract applications from all countries across Africa opening up new opportunities for innovators in organisations, enterprises and high schools to amplify their impact and reach. The Prize awards unique, pioneering innovations that have the potential to affect a positive impact on humanity by helping entities scale up their efforts and yield greater success.

Dr. Lamya Fawwaz, Director of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, said: “The categories of the Zayed Sustainability Prize have been carefully selected to reflect the most pressing sustainability challenges and offer the greatest socio-economic impact on the lives of people around the world. The Prize will also look to inspire today’s youth to be forward-thinkers and cultivate within them a vested interest in becoming agents of change for sustainable development – after all, youth of today are leaders of tomorrow.”

“Africa represents the fastest growing region for entrepreneurship in the world.  With award-winning projects, our winners from the continent and globally have had positive and sustainable impact on its people. Over the last decade, we have witnessed a growing interest from participants across the African continent and we expect the momentum to continue growing this year. We hope to facilitate collaborations between our ever-growing network of innovators to build stronger, more sustainable innovations and projects that will propel the continent forward,” Dr. Lamya added.

The Zayed Sustainability Prize has a three-stage evaluation process, beginning with the due diligence that is conducted by a reputed international research and analysis consultancy. Following this, the shortlisted entries will undergo evaluations by a Selection Committee to determine the finalists. From these finalists, a Jury will select the winners in all five categories, including the winning schools from six world regions.

The deliberations on who wins the Zayed Sustainability Prize are set against three core criteria where entrants must demonstrate:

• Impact: Significant and tangible outcomes on the quality of people’s lives
• Innovation: Distinctive characteristics to change the “status quo” and potential to catalyse opportunities that will have a disruptive positive impact and transformative change
• Inspiration: The potential to scale up project outcomes in the next decade and the ability to inspire others

In the past decade, the Prize focused on closing the energy gap and ensuring energy security. Africa is an important continent as it is where access to energy has significantly improved the quality of life of its people. The evolution to the Zayed Sustainability Prize and its alignment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals allows the Prize and its winners to affect an even greater impact on humanity by increasing the influx of resources in Health, Food, Energy and Water into the region.

Winners of the Zayed Sustainability Prize will be announced at the awards ceremony during the opening of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week on 14^th January 2019.

Established by the UAE leadership in 2008, as the Zayed Future Energy Prize, the Zayed Sustainability Prize (www.ZayedSustainabilityPrize.com) is a global initiative inspired by the environmental stewardship and global sustainability vision and legacy of the UAE’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Culminating in an annual awards ceremony, held each year during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the Zayed Sustainability Prize invites pioneers and innovators from around the world to be part of a growing community, committed to developing impactful sustainability initiatives and accelerating the development of solutions that serve people across the world – for today and for the future generations to come.

The Zayed Sustainability Prize categories are: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools.