Global Citizen Prize
Global Citizen Prize
Global Citizen Prize is an awards program that shines a light on activists around the world who keep these world’s poor at the forefront of their life’s work. We bring together the winners from around the world to kick off a year of celebrating their incredible work at an awards reception and dinner in NYC. Successful candidates will benefit from the Prize program of support, including a year-long schedule of activities to champion and progress their campaigns; Prize winners will also receive a USD $10,000 unrestricted grant in support of their work. Unlike other awards, we do not garner nominations via the public. Instead open up the nomination process to Global Citizen partners across the sector to help us identify individuals.
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Global Citizen Prize Laureates (2030 ~ 2021)
Ricardo Enrique Alba Torres
Global Citizen Prize 2024
Ricardo is an environmental engineer from Bogotá, Colombia, and the Co-Founder and CEO of the social enterprise Eko Group H2O+. Through this company, he provides environmentally sustainable technologies to address global water access issues. His expertise has sensitized over 150 communities, with 15000 active users benefiting from the 350 Ekomuros H2O+ tanks installed across Colombia and LATAM, ultimately reaching over 85,000 indirect beneficiaries. In 2023, Eko Group H2O+ was honored for the second time as the national winner of the prestigious Energy Globe Sustainability Award, receiving support from renowned institutions such as the Royal Academy of Engineering in London and the organization One Young World. Ricardo's commitment to environmental sustainability and social impact underscores his powerful leadership in tackling one of the world's most pressing challenges.
Lydia Charles Moyo
Global Citizen Prize 2024
Lydia Charles Moyo is a 31-year-old Tanzanian feminist who is passionate about empowering girls and young women to achieve their full potential and financial freedom through strategic economic empowerment interventions. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Her Initiative, a Tanzanian non- governmental organization that works with and for young women and girls to break the cycle of poverty and achieve financial resilience. She is also the innovator behind Panda Digital, the first Swahili hybrid e-learning platform for women in Tanzania, providing access to skills, resources, and social justice through a website platform and AI-powered SMS technology. Lydia has been championing economic empowerment and technology to support young women unleash their full potential and fight against gender-based violence (GBV) through economic resilience programs and technology-GBV reporting. Her work has been recognized and awarded by various local and international organizations and platforms. She is an awardee of the +1 Global Fund, the Rodden Berry Foundation, UNDP Funguo Programme, the Government of Tanzania, and Mkuki Coalition Award for championing anti-GBV interventions. Lydia is also an activist who advocate for decolonization of funding for youth through social media and blogging. She mentors young women and girls who are running organizations and businesses and inspires them to pursue their dreams. She is welln experienced in public speaking, having moderated and facilitated events and panels focusing on gender equality, entrepreneurship and business, digital, and innovation.
Olivier Bahemuke Ndoole
Global Citizen Prize 2024
Olivier is a Congolese environmental rights defender and lawyer from North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has dedicated his life’s work to advocating for environmental rights, land rights and land justice, working on climate disputes, energy transition and legal protection of environmental and land defenders; pushing for transparent, accountable, and sustainable governance of land tenure regimes for the country’s lands. In 2008, he co-founded the NGO ‘’Alerte Congolaise pour l’Environnement et les Droits de l’Homme’’ , through which he has actively supported and represented local communities, groups and individuals working on the environment for over 15 years. Olivier has been persecuted and faced grave danger due to his human rights work, targeted by recurring death threats and an attempted assasination, which caused him to flee his home country and go into exile for his own protection. Despite these harrowing circumstances, he is hopeful and inspired to continue securing justice for the victims of land and environmental injustices in the DRC, especially at-risk and vulnerable groups like women and children.
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Vishal Prasad
Global Citizen Prize 2024
Vishal Prasad is the Campaign Director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, a youth-led organization campaigning for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on climate change and human rights. He is from Suva, Fiji, and has studied international politics and law at the University of the South Pacific. He has been part of the ICJ advisory opinion movement since 2019 and is also part of the global ICJ advisory opinion movement under the World’s Youth for Climate Justice. As part of the ICJ advisory opinion campaign, he has a strong focus on securing the Pacific youth demands on the protection of the rights of current and future generations from the adverse effects of climate change.
Sophie Healy-Thow
Global Citizen Prize 2024
Sophie is the Global Youth Campaigns Coordinator for the GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition). She founded Act4Food, a global youth led campaign which aims to transform food systems. This campaign has been mentioned on Forbes magazine and is being implemented globally. Sophie serves on the Board of the leading international charity ActionAid UK and the Emergency Nutrition Network. She was appointed by the United Nations Secretary general as a Lead Group member of the UNs Scaling Up Nutrition Movement and was co-chair of the UNs Food Systems Summit Youth Liaison group. Sophie is one of the 10 women leaders featured in the Disney book ‘Choose to Matter’ by ESPN presenter Julie Foudy which encourages young women to find the leader within and was recognised by TIME magazine as one of the most influential teens. More recently she was named by Food Tank as a Young Person Inspiring Change Across the Food System and spoke at the Nobel Peace Prize, the launch of the EAT Lancet 2.0 at Stockholm +50, COP28 and has made a TEDx talk titled ‘Food Security, Everybody’s Business’.
Andrew Ddembe
Global Citizen Prize 2024
Andrew Ddembe is a health equity advocate, health lawyer, CEO and founder of Mobiklinic Foundation , a digital health organization that strives for improved last mile health delivery and equitable vaccines access. Andrew founded Mobiklinic in 2018. His organization has unlocked access to health care and vaccines to people in Buikwe region Eastern side of Uganda. Mobiklinic is also present in Busia western Kenya.
Andrew has worked as a young expert in the African union and European union youth cooperation hub. He currently sits on the WHO Civil society and youth commission representing and advocating for digital health as a means to ease health and vaccines access. Andrew’s vision is to scale Mobiklinic across Africa and enable health equity right from the grassroot communities through creation, utilization and digital empowerment of Community health workers.
Ineza Umuhoza Grace
Global Citizen Prize 2023
Ineza is a 27-year-old eco-feminist and impact-driven actor in the climate change and environment sector based in Rwanda, and a researcher in the field of climate change with a focus on climate justice and its policies.
She believes in the power of sharing community voices and concerts to achieve climate justice through female, youth, and community-driven action. She is the co-founder and global coordinator of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition — a coalition of over 600 youth from more than 60 countries, advocating and taking concrete action to address loss and damage.
She is also the founder and CEO of The Green Protector, a Rwandan NGO working to increase active youth participation in protecting the environment through climate action. The organization has reached more than 3,000 children and young people, implementing activities and hosting youth engaged in climate policy negotiation on the international level.
Pashtana Durrani
Global Citizen Prize 2023
Pashtana Durrani is an Afghan feminist, activist, and educator. At the age of 21, she became the head of her family following her father’s death. By then she had already founded LEARN Afghanistan, the country’s first-ever digital school network.
As a human rights defender, she was forced into exile by the Taliban takeover in 2021 in order to continue her work safely from abroad. She is currently a visiting fellow at Wellesley Centers for Women where she is pursuing research on female education and maternal and newborn health. She also continues to provide education for hundreds of girls in Afghanistan despite the current ban on them attending school.
Known for her bluntness and courage, Durrani is a regular commentator on TV and radio and has been the subject of articles and profiles published by platforms including PBS, BBC, Elle, Der Spiegel, and Wellesley College.
Among her many achievements, Durrani has been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund for her outstanding work to advance Afghan girls’ education. The BBC nominated her as one of its 100 most influential women in 2021, and she was also included in #Times100Talks in 2022. Durrani is a member of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative’s (UNGEI) Feminist Education Coalition; an Aspen New Voices Fellow; and she received the 2021 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Emerging Leader prize.
Previously, she has served as a global youth representative for Amnesty International and as a board member of the steering committee for the Global Environment Facility. She is also a recipient of the UN Young Activists Award 2022.
Durrani’s biography, Last to Eat, Last to Learn, was published in 2022 in Germany and will be published in 2023 in the US and Italy.
Nkosana Butholenkosi Masuku
Global Citizen Prize 2023
Nkosana Butholenkosi Masuku is a 28-year-old STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teacher with three years of experience at a rural school in Zimbabwe.
Seeing the shortage of teaching resources for STEM subjects in rural schools first-hand, he created Sciency Learning, a platform that offers applied and practical STEM education to pupils across Zimbabwe at a low cost, to help in decreasing dropout rates and advancing STEM development in poor communities.
Masuku is also an alumnus of the Mandela Washington Fellowship and an award-winning entrepreneur.
As the winner of the 2023 Cisco Youth Leadership Award, Masuku will receive a $250,000 grant to enable his organization’s continued growth.
Wangari Kuria
Global Citizen Prize 2023
Wangari Kuria is Founder and CEO of Farmer on Fire Ltd, an organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, that provides access to information for farmers in Africa.
It also links established agribusinesses like AGRA, John Deere, Heifer international, and the Ministry of Agriculture to over 50,000 smallholder farmers that follow the brand through digital channels.
Wangari is also passionate about the vulnerable single mothers from the pastoralist communities who are most affected by climate change, and she incubates them in her model farms where she commercially produces mushrooms, BSFLarvae, and Azolla. She also trains women to empower them to launch their own mushroom farming businesses.
Deja Foxx
Global Citizen Prize 2023
Deja Foxx is 22 years old and leading thought at the intersection of social justice and social media. She is the founder of GenZ Girl Gang, a student at Columbia University, and a Digital Creator with Ford Models who got her start advocating for reproductive justice after experiencing homelessness in her teenage years.
At just 19, she worked for Kamala Harris as the Influencer and Surrogate Strategist and became one of the youngest presidential campaign staffers in modern history.
Global Citizen Prize Laureates (2030 ~ 2021)
Warren Buffett
Global Citizen Prize 2020
Ricardo is an environmental engineer from Bogotá, Colombia, and the Co-Founder and CEO of the social enterprise Eko Group H2O+. Through this company, he provides environmentally sustainable technologies to address global water access issues. His expertise has sensitized over 150 communities, with 15000 active users benefiting from the 350 Ekomuros H2O+ tanks installed across Colombia and LATAM, ultimately reaching over 85,000 indirect beneficiaries. In 2023, Eko Group H2O+ was honored for the second time as the national winner of the prestigious Energy Globe Sustainability Award, receiving support from renowned institutions such as the Royal Academy of Engineering in London and the organization One Young World. Ricardo's commitment to environmental sustainability and social impact underscores his powerful leadership in tackling one of the world's most pressing challenges.
Sesame Workshop
Global Citizen Prize 2020
Lydia Charles Moyo is a 31-year-old Tanzanian feminist who is passionate about empowering girls and young women to achieve their full potential and financial freedom through strategic economic empowerment interventions. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Her Initiative, a Tanzanian non- governmental organization that works with and for young women and girls to break the cycle of poverty and achieve financial resilience. She is also the innovator behind Panda Digital, the first Swahili hybrid e-learning platform for women in Tanzania, providing access to skills, resources, and social justice through a website platform and AI-powered SMS technology. Lydia has been championing economic empowerment and technology to support young women unleash their full potential and fight against gender-based violence (GBV) through economic resilience programs and technology-GBV reporting. Her work has been recognized and awarded by various local and international organizations and platforms. She is an awardee of the +1 Global Fund, the Rodden Berry Foundation, UNDP Funguo Programme, the Government of Tanzania, and Mkuki Coalition Award for championing anti-GBV interventions. Lydia is also an activist who advocate for decolonization of funding for youth through social media and blogging. She mentors young women and girls who are running organizations and businesses and inspires them to pursue their dreams. She is welln experienced in public speaking, having moderated and facilitated events and panels focusing on gender equality, entrepreneurship and business, digital, and innovation.
Black Lives Matter
Global Citizen Prize 2020
Olivier is a Congolese environmental rights defender and lawyer from North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has dedicated his life’s work to advocating for environmental rights, land rights and land justice, working on climate disputes, energy transition and legal protection of environmental and land defenders; pushing for transparent, accountable, and sustainable governance of land tenure regimes for the country’s lands. In 2008, he co-founded the NGO ‘’Alerte Congolaise pour l’Environnement et les Droits de l’Homme’’ , through which he has actively supported and represented local communities, groups and individuals working on the environment for over 15 years. Olivier has been persecuted and faced grave danger due to his human rights work, targeted by recurring death threats and an attempted assasination, which caused him to flee his home country and go into exile for his own protection. Despite these harrowing circumstances, he is hopeful and inspired to continue securing justice for the victims of land and environmental injustices in the DRC, especially at-risk and vulnerable groups like women and children.
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Temie Giwa-Tubosun
Global Citizen Prize 2020
Vishal Prasad is the Campaign Director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, a youth-led organization campaigning for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on climate change and human rights. He is from Suva, Fiji, and has studied international politics and law at the University of the South Pacific. He has been part of the ICJ advisory opinion movement since 2019 and is also part of the global ICJ advisory opinion movement under the World’s Youth for Climate Justice. As part of the ICJ advisory opinion campaign, he has a strong focus on securing the Pacific youth demands on the protection of the rights of current and future generations from the adverse effects of climate change.
Ursula von der Leyen
Global Citizen Prize 2020
Sophie is the Global Youth Campaigns Coordinator for the GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition). She founded Act4Food, a global youth led campaign which aims to transform food systems. This campaign has been mentioned on Forbes magazine and is being implemented globally. Sophie serves on the Board of the leading international charity ActionAid UK and the Emergency Nutrition Network. She was appointed by the United Nations Secretary general as a Lead Group member of the UNs Scaling Up Nutrition Movement and was co-chair of the UNs Food Systems Summit Youth Liaison group. Sophie is one of the 10 women leaders featured in the Disney book ‘Choose to Matter’ by ESPN presenter Julie Foudy which encourages young women to find the leader within and was recognised by TIME magazine as one of the most influential teens. More recently she was named by Food Tank as a Young Person Inspiring Change Across the Food System and spoke at the Nobel Peace Prize, the launch of the EAT Lancet 2.0 at Stockholm +50, COP28 and has made a TEDx talk titled ‘Food Security, Everybody’s Business’.
Elton John
Global Citizen Prize 2020
Andrew Ddembe is a health equity advocate, health lawyer, CEO and founder of Mobiklinic Foundation , a digital health organization that strives for improved last mile health delivery and equitable vaccines access. Andrew founded Mobiklinic in 2018. His organization has unlocked access to health care and vaccines to people in Buikwe region Eastern side of Uganda. Mobiklinic is also present in Busia western Kenya.
Andrew has worked as a young expert in the African union and European union youth cooperation hub. He currently sits on the WHO Civil society and youth commission representing and advocating for digital health as a means to ease health and vaccines access. Andrew’s vision is to scale Mobiklinic across Africa and enable health equity right from the grassroot communities through creation, utilization and digital empowerment of Community health workers.
Bryan Stevenson
Global Citizen Prize 2020
Ineza is a 27-year-old eco-feminist and impact-driven actor in the climate change and environment sector based in Rwanda, and a researcher in the field of climate change with a focus on climate justice and its policies.
She believes in the power of sharing community voices and concerts to achieve climate justice through female, youth, and community-driven action. She is the co-founder and global coordinator of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition — a coalition of over 600 youth from more than 60 countries, advocating and taking concrete action to address loss and damage.
She is also the founder and CEO of The Green Protector, a Rwandan NGO working to increase active youth participation in protecting the environment through climate action. The organization has reached more than 3,000 children and young people, implementing activities and hosting youth engaged in climate policy negotiation on the international level.
Richard Curtis
Global Citizen Prize 2019
Pashtana Durrani is an Afghan feminist, activist, and educator. At the age of 21, she became the head of her family following her father’s death. By then she had already founded LEARN Afghanistan, the country’s first-ever digital school network.
As a human rights defender, she was forced into exile by the Taliban takeover in 2021 in order to continue her work safely from abroad. She is currently a visiting fellow at Wellesley Centers for Women where she is pursuing research on female education and maternal and newborn health. She also continues to provide education for hundreds of girls in Afghanistan despite the current ban on them attending school.
Known for her bluntness and courage, Durrani is a regular commentator on TV and radio and has been the subject of articles and profiles published by platforms including PBS, BBC, Elle, Der Spiegel, and Wellesley College.
Among her many achievements, Durrani has been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund for her outstanding work to advance Afghan girls’ education. The BBC nominated her as one of its 100 most influential women in 2021, and she was also included in #Times100Talks in 2022. Durrani is a member of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative’s (UNGEI) Feminist Education Coalition; an Aspen New Voices Fellow; and she received the 2021 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Emerging Leader prize.
Previously, she has served as a global youth representative for Amnesty International and as a board member of the steering committee for the Global Environment Facility. She is also a recipient of the UN Young Activists Award 2022.
Durrani’s biography, Last to Eat, Last to Learn, was published in 2022 in Germany and will be published in 2023 in the US and Italy.
Sting
Global Citizen Prize 2019
Nkosana Butholenkosi Masuku is a 28-year-old STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teacher with three years of experience at a rural school in Zimbabwe.
Seeing the shortage of teaching resources for STEM subjects in rural schools first-hand, he created Sciency Learning, a platform that offers applied and practical STEM education to pupils across Zimbabwe at a low cost, to help in decreasing dropout rates and advancing STEM development in poor communities.
Masuku is also an alumnus of the Mandela Washington Fellowship and an award-winning entrepreneur.
As the winner of the 2023 Cisco Youth Leadership Award, Masuku will receive a $250,000 grant to enable his organization’s continued growth.
Amina J. Mohammed
Global Citizen Prize 2019
Pashtana Durrani is an Afghan feminist, activist, and educator. At the age of 21, she became the head of her family following her father’s death. By then she had already founded LEARN Afghanistan, the country’s first-ever digital school network.
As a human rights defender, she was forced into exile by the Taliban takeover in 2021 in order to continue her work safely from abroad. She is currently a visiting fellow at Wellesley Centers for Women where she is pursuing research on female education and maternal and newborn health. She also continues to provide education for hundreds of girls in Afghanistan despite the current ban on them attending school.
Known for her bluntness and courage, Durrani is a regular commentator on TV and radio and has been the subject of articles and profiles published by platforms including PBS, BBC, Elle, Der Spiegel, and Wellesley College.
Among her many achievements, Durrani has been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund for her outstanding work to advance Afghan girls’ education. The BBC nominated her as one of its 100 most influential women in 2021, and she was also included in #Times100Talks in 2022. Durrani is a member of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative’s (UNGEI) Feminist Education Coalition; an Aspen New Voices Fellow; and she received the 2021 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Emerging Leader prize.
Previously, she has served as a global youth representative for Amnesty International and as a board member of the steering committee for the Global Environment Facility. She is also a recipient of the UN Young Activists Award 2022.
Durrani’s biography, Last to Eat, Last to Learn, was published in 2022 in Germany and will be published in 2023 in the US and Italy.
Hamdi Ulukaya
Global Citizen Prize 2019
Pashtana Durrani is an Afghan feminist, activist, and educator. At the age of 21, she became the head of her family following her father’s death. By then she had already founded LEARN Afghanistan, the country’s first-ever digital school network.
As a human rights defender, she was forced into exile by the Taliban takeover in 2021 in order to continue her work safely from abroad. She is currently a visiting fellow at Wellesley Centers for Women where she is pursuing research on female education and maternal and newborn health. She also continues to provide education for hundreds of girls in Afghanistan despite the current ban on them attending school.
Known for her bluntness and courage, Durrani is a regular commentator on TV and radio and has been the subject of articles and profiles published by platforms including PBS, BBC, Elle, Der Spiegel, and Wellesley College.
Among her many achievements, Durrani has been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund for her outstanding work to advance Afghan girls’ education. The BBC nominated her as one of its 100 most influential women in 2021, and she was also included in #Times100Talks in 2022. Durrani is a member of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative’s (UNGEI) Feminist Education Coalition; an Aspen New Voices Fellow; and she received the 2021 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Emerging Leader prize.
Previously, she has served as a global youth representative for Amnesty International and as a board member of the steering committee for the Global Environment Facility. She is also a recipient of the UN Young Activists Award 2022.
Durrani’s biography, Last to Eat, Last to Learn, was published in 2022 in Germany and will be published in 2023 in the US and Italy.
Priya Prakash
Global Citizen Prize 2019
Pashtana Durrani is an Afghan feminist, activist, and educator. At the age of 21, she became the head of her family following her father’s death. By then she had already founded LEARN Afghanistan, the country’s first-ever digital school network.
As a human rights defender, she was forced into exile by the Taliban takeover in 2021 in order to continue her work safely from abroad. She is currently a visiting fellow at Wellesley Centers for Women where she is pursuing research on female education and maternal and newborn health. She also continues to provide education for hundreds of girls in Afghanistan despite the current ban on them attending school.
Known for her bluntness and courage, Durrani is a regular commentator on TV and radio and has been the subject of articles and profiles published by platforms including PBS, BBC, Elle, Der Spiegel, and Wellesley College.
Among her many achievements, Durrani has been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund for her outstanding work to advance Afghan girls’ education. The BBC nominated her as one of its 100 most influential women in 2021, and she was also included in #Times100Talks in 2022. Durrani is a member of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative’s (UNGEI) Feminist Education Coalition; an Aspen New Voices Fellow; and she received the 2021 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Emerging Leader prize.
Previously, she has served as a global youth representative for Amnesty International and as a board member of the steering committee for the Global Environment Facility. She is also a recipient of the UN Young Activists Award 2022.
Durrani’s biography, Last to Eat, Last to Learn, was published in 2022 in Germany and will be published in 2023 in the US and Italy.