Applications are now open for the UNESCO Prize for Global Citizenship Education (each prize winner will be awarded 50,000 USD)
Closing Date: 1 September 2025
Applications are now open for the UNESCO Prize for Global Citizenship Education (each prize winner will be awarded 50,000 USD)
Overview
The UNESCO Prize for Global Citizenship Education provides an exceptional global platform to promote the visibility and recognition of projects and initiatives in the field of Global citizenship education (GCED) from around the world.
Established in 2024 with the support of the Republic of Korea, the UNESCO Prize for Global Citizenship Education is the first of its kind. It will be awarded every two years and recognizes outstanding efforts in promoting and advancing GCED through two categories:
- Youth-led organisations
- Other: individuals, institutions, non-governmental organisations and other entities.
An international jury will select two best projects, one per category. Each prize winner will be awarded 50,000 USD.
2025 call for applications
Global challenges disrupting peace – such as escalating violence and conflict, worsening effects of climate change, and increasing discrimination and hate speech – can be traced back to entrenched societal inequalities and inequities. Global citizenship education (GCED) has a critical role to play in transforming education to help address these issues and the root causes of violence, and create more just, healthy, and peaceful societies. If achieved on a broad scale, GCED has the potential to impact future generations’ attitudes, skills, and priorities in a way that contributes to peace.
To help address inequalities and inequities and constructively work together to contribute to solutions, GCED builds cognitive, behavioural, and social and emotional skills to foster competencies for people to understand the connections between global, national and local developments.
Applying GCED means bringing multiple stakeholders together from various levels and types of education, formal and informal, to help ensure that every learner can receive an education that:
- is embedded with principles of respect for human rights
- fosters agency to redress inequities and injustice
- promotes inclusivity and reconciliation
- prevents violence, bullying, hate speech and discrimination
- fosters critical thinking, and
- promotes working together across groups and disciplines to find common solutions to local, national and global challenges.
Through this Prize for Global Citizenship Education, UNESCO promotes outstanding efforts in this area across the world.
Call for nominations for the 2025 inaugural edition
The inaugural cycle of the Prize will highlight and reward exceptional GCED initiatives.
Providing a framework for GCED efforts is the UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development (2023) which is embedded with an understanding of peace that is not just the absence of conflict or violence but a positive and participatory process built by the actions of everyone.
Nomination process
To apply for the category “Youth-led organization”: The applicant must be:
- An organization that is led by individual(s) aged between 18-30 years old
To apply for the “Other” category: The applicant can be either an:
- Individual,
- Institution,
- Non-governmental organization, or
- other entity.
If you are an applicant: submit your application to your National Commission or NGO in official partnership towith UNESCO well by 17 July 2025 ahead of the nomination deadline on1 September 2025.
If you are a National Commission OR NGO in official relation to UNESCO: submit your top three nominations to the UNESCO Secretariat by 1 September 2025.
Eligibility Criteria
The initiative must be:
- Relevant to GCED
- The initiative should have been implemented for at least 1 year with evidence of concrete activities
- The project and its organization should not be affiliated with, or receive any funding from, UNESCO
- Be nominated by either a UNESCO National Commission or an NGO in official relation with UNESCO
Click Here To Apply
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