Global Citizen Prize

Cisco Youth
Leadership Award

Recognizing the World's Most
Inspiring Youth Leaders

2020 Winner

Christelle Kwizera

Founder & Managing Director, Water Access Rwanda

Christelle is a Rwandan mechanical engineer and social entrepreneur. At 20, she founded Water Access Rwanda to solve the water crisis while also creating employment for young people. The social enterprise unapologetically designs for the bottom of the pyramid, offering simple and affordable solutions to meet the urgent need of 456 million Africans for safe water.

With the award, Water Access Rwanda will transition to scale, improving capacity to reach 30 million people and create 15,000 decent jobs by 2030.

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About

The Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award was established by Cisco and Global Citizen to recognize and lift up a young person positively impacting the world, demonstrate the impact that young people are having on achieving the United Nation's Global Goals, and accelerate global problem solving.

The Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award honors an individual aged 18-30 who has contributed meaningfully towards the goal of ending extreme poverty. The award includes a US$250,000 prize paid to the organization to which the individual contributes.

Tune in to Global Citizen Prize to find out who wins!

Criteria

IMPACT

Demonstrated track-record of measurable impact at scale over the last 3-5 years advancing one or more of the Global Goals. 

VISION

Compelling vision and concrete plans for how to extend this work in the next 3-5 years, including how the prize will advance efforts. 

CATALYST

Inspires other young people to have an impact on achieving one or more of the Global Goals.

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Demonstrates the values and embodies the spirit of a Global Citizen and a Global Problem Solver.

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION

Innovates with technology or Internet-based communications to improve efficiency, reach, and magnify impact. 

Join the Movement Changing the World

Cisco Youth Leadership Award Winners

Priya Prakash | 2019 Winner

Priya Prakash is a 29-year-old health care entrepreneur working to ensure every child across India can grow up healthy. 

She is the Founder and CEO of HealthSetGo, an organization integrating technology and health care to empower parents, doctors, schools, and governments to make data-driven decisions to improve the health and lives of children. 

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Wawira Njiru | 2018 Winner

Wawira Njiru is the Founder and Executive Director of Food for Education, an organization working with vulnerable children in Kenyan public schools to improve their lives by providing subsidized, nutritious school lunches. Food for Education has provided over 400,000 school meals, contributing to improved nutrition status, school attendance, and performance.

Her ambition, simplicity of mission, and proof of impact earned Njiru the first-ever Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award, awarded at the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100, presented and hosted by the Motsepe Foundation, in December 2018.

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About the Partnership

Cisco and Global Citizen are united in the belief that young people around the world are leading the way to create and implement solutions to achieve the Global Goals, and to accelerate global problem solving. That is why we created the Cisco Youth Leadership Award.