Global Citizen Prize
Recognizing the World's Most
Inspiring Youth Leaders
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.
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 to global problem solving. The award includes a US$250,000 prize paid to the organization to which the individual contributes.
IMPACT
VISION
CATALYST
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION
Hugh Evans
Francine Katsoudas
Nkosana Masuku
Phumzile Mlambo- Ngcuka
Honorable Erna Solberg
Nkosana is a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teacher with three years of experience at a rural school. Nkosana created Sciency learning in reaction to shortage of resources for teaching STEM subjects in rural schools. Sciency's ecosystem goal is to offer applied/practical STEM education to pupils across Zimbabwe at a low cost, which would help in decreasing dropout rates and advancing STEM development in poor communities. Nkosana is also an alumnus of the Mandela Washington Fellowship and an award-winning entrepreneur.
Nidhi Pant, our 2022 Cisco Youth Leadership Award winner, is a chemical engineer turned farmer turned entrepreneur and Co-Founder of S4S Technologies. S4S Technologies is a near-farm gate food processing platform, converting farm losses into value-added products through the intervention of sustainable solar-powered technology. S4S is working with over 6500 farmers, and 505 Women Entrepreneurs. Nidhi has also been listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia and was the Winner of the Unilever Young Entrepreneur Award in 2019.
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.
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.
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.
What is Global Citizen?
What is the judging process?
What does the judging criterion “Global Citizenship” mean? What does “Global Problem Solver” mean?
What does the Criterion “Technology Innovation” mean?
Do I have to be the founder/CEO of the organization to be eligible?
Do you accept people from any country?
Do you only accept non-profits?
Is this prize for individuals as well as organizations?
I have a lot of great ideas, but am just starting out. Am I eligible for the Prize?
What is needed for the application?
When does the application open? When does it close?
When will I find out if I have been selected?
What documents are required if I am a finalist? Should I prepare them now?
Can I nominate someone for this Prize?
Can I apply in a language other than English?
What happens to my application materials after I submit?
If I am selected as the winner, do I have to spend the Prize money in a certain way?
How do I make and send my video? Can I still apply if I cannot create a video?
Can I change my application after I submit it?
I’m having trouble submitting my application, what can I do?
Where can I ask questions not covered here?
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.
What is Global Citizen?
What is the judging process?
What does the judging criterion “Global Citizenship” mean?
What does the Criterion “Technology Innovation” mean?
Do I have to be the founder/CEO of the organization to be eligible?
Do you accept people from any country?
Do you only accept non-profits?
Is this prize for individuals as well as organizations?
I have a lot of great ideas, but am just starting out. Am I eligible for the Prize?
What is needed for the application?
When does the application open? When does it close?
When will I find out if I have been selected?
What documents are required if I am a finalist? Should I prepare them now?
If I’m selected as a finalist, who should provide the letter/video of endorsement?
Can I nominate someone for this Prize?
Can I apply in a language other than English?
What happens to my application materials after I submit?
If I am selected as the winner, do I have to spend the Prize money in a certain way?
How do I make and send my video? Can I still apply if I cannot create a video?
Can I change my application after I submit it?
I’m having trouble submitting my application, what can I do?
Where can I ask questions not covered here?