- Three Africans have been named the Global Citizen Prize Award winners 2023, a yearly award that recognizes and celebrates the unsung activists who are fighting the good fight, going above and beyond to tick things off the world’s most important to-do list: the United Nations’ Global Goals.
- Kenya’s Wangari Kuria, Rwanda’s Ineza Umuhoza Grace and Zimbabwe’s Nkosana Butholenkosi Masuku were recognized for profoundly impacting their local communities across food security, climate change, civic space, and sexual and reproductive health, in the fight to end extreme poverty, demand equity, and protect the planet, in line with Global Citizen’s campaign to End Extreme Poverty NOW.
- The award recipients will be honored at a ceremony taking place during the Global Citizen NOW summit at The Glasshouse in New York City on Thursday, April 27.
Three Africans have been named the Global Citizen Prize Award winners 2023, a yearly award that recognizes and celebrates the unsung activists who are fighting the good fight, going above and beyond to tick things off the world’s most important to-do list: the United Nations’ Global Goals.
Kenya’s Wangari Kuria, Rwanda’s Ineza Umuhoza Grace and Zimbabwe’s Nkosana Butholenkosi Masuku were recognized for profoundly impacting their local communities across food security, climate change, civic space, and sexual and reproductive health, in the fight to end extreme poverty, demand equity, and protect the planet, in line with Global Citizen’s campaign to End Extreme Poverty NOW.
Kenya’s 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.
Zimbabwe’s 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.
On her part, Rwanda’s 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.
The award recipients will be honored at a ceremony taking place during the Global Citizen NOW summit at The Glasshouse in New York City on Thursday, April 27. The ceremony will be hosted by actress, humanitarian, and Global Citizen Ambassador Nomzamo Mbatha and feature appearances by Sabrina Dhowre Elba, Chair of Global Citizen’s Europe Board of Directors and United Nations IFAD Goodwill Ambassador; Padma Lakshmi, producer, TV host, author, and activist; Bridget Moynahan, Global Citizen Ambassador; and Erna Solberg, Former Prime Minister of Norway; and will feature performances by Natasha Bedingfield, Chloe Flower, and Samara Joy.
Global Citizen NOW is a two-day summit taking place in New York City on April 27 and 28, convening government leaders, private sector executives, grassroots activists, cultural innovators, philanthropic experts, and leading journalists to set a global agenda for action on the most urgent issues facing humanity and the planet.
