UNESCO Prize for Girls and Women Education 2025 – How to Nominate : The UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education honours outstanding and innovative contributions made by individuals, institutions and organizations to advance girls’ and women’s education. It is the first UNESCO Prize of this nature and is unique in showcasing successful projects that improve and promote the educational prospects of girls and women and in turn, the quality of their lives.
The 2025 call for nominations for UNESCO Prize for Girls and Women Education is now open. Applications are hereby invited from suitably qualified candidates to participate in the UNESCO Prize for Girls and Women Education 2025. The full detail on how to register online is here on this page. Continue reading to find out more.
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UNESCO Prize for Girls and Women Education 2025 – How to Nominate.
Gender equality in education is a basic right and a prerequisite to build inclusive societies. Although notable progress has been made over the last 20 years, 16 million girls will never set foot in a classroom (UNESCO Institute for Statistics).
Funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, the Prize is conferred annually to two laureates and consists of an award of US $50,000 each to help further their work in the area of girls’ and women’s education. The Director-General of UNESCO awarded the Prize for the first time in 2016.
Established by UNESCO’s Executive Board, the Prize directly contributes to the attainment of the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda, particularly SDG 4 on education and 5 on gender equality. It also supports UNESCO’s global priorities included in the Medium-term Strategy 2014-2025 and the Gender Equality Action Plan 2014-2025 (GEAP II), as well as the UNESCO Strategy for Gender Equality in and through Education (2025-2025).
Benefits
The UNESCO Prize for Girls and Women Education annually awards US$ 50,000 to two outstanding laureates.
Eligibility
Who can be nominated?
- Individuals, institutions or organizations advancing girls’ and women’s education. Nominations must focus on an established project or programme of the candidate, which has been running for at least two years, and meets the selection criteria.
Who can nominate?
- Governments of UNESCO Member States via their Permanent Delegations to UNESCO and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO can make up to 3 nominations. Self-nominations are not accepted.
Selection Process for the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education.
The two Prize laureates will be selected by UNESCO’s Director-General on the basis of recommendations made by the independent International Jury of the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education, consisting of five experts from all geographical regions.
The nominations will only be considered if the project/programme:
- has a clear focus on advancing girls’ and women’s education, and the promotion of gender equality in and through education, and contributes to one or more of the five priority areas of the Prize:
- Participation: Supporting girls to transition from primary education to lower-secondary education and to complete full basic education
- Literacy: Supporting adolescent girls and young women to acquire literacy skills
- Environment: Supporting the creation of a gender-responsive and safe teaching-learning environment
- Teachers: Engaging teachers to be change agents with gender-responsive teaching attitudes and practices
- Skills: Supporting girls and women to acquire knowledge/skills for life and work
- has already been running for at least two years; and
- shows evidence that it may be replicable, scalable and/or provide significant learning potential for initiatives in other contexts
Once it has passed the basic eligibility requirements, the project/ programme of the candidate will be assessed by the Jury based on the following three criteria:
- Impact
- Innovation
- Sustainability
Standard timeline
- Launch of the call for nominations (8 March, International Women’s Day)
- Submission of nominations online (8 March – 26 May)
- Meeting of the International Jury (June/July)
- Announcement of the Prize laureates (September)
- Award ceremony (11 October, International Day of the Girl Child)
How to Participate in the 2025 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education
(1) Nominations must be submitted online in English or French by the Permanent Delegation to UNESCO of the concerned Member State, or by an NGO in official partnership with UNESCO.
(2) Permanent Delegations to UNESCO and NGOs in official partnership with UNESCO may access the online submissions platform through their official UNESCO account using the following link: https://www.unesco.org/gwe.
(3) It is possible for National Commissions for UNESCO to access and complete the online form. However, any nomination by a National Commission will need to be submitted by the Permanent Delegation to UNESCO of the respective Member State. An automatic notification message confirming the submission will be sent to the official e-mail address of the Delegation.
(4) If a National Commission or Permanent Delegation to UNESCO wishes that the candidate complete the online nomination form directly, UNESCO can create an account for each candidate. A request should be sent to GWEPrize@unesco.org (link sends e-mail) by the National Commission or Permanent Delegation before 20 May 2025. After completion of the online form by the candidate, the concerned National Commission and Permanent Delegation will receive a notification e-mail and can review the nomination before the Permanent Delegation submits to UNESCO.
(5) Attention should be paid to presenting the project/programme of the candidate in a clear and structured way, following the instructions given in the form and respecting the indicated word limit. All supporting material (e.g. action plans, publications, videos) must be transmitted electronically through the online system.
(6) Nominations must be submitted via the online platform by the concerned Permanent Delegations to UNESCO or NGOs by midnight of 26 May 2025 (UTC+1, Paris time). Kindly note that each Permanent Delegation or NGO may not submit more than three nominations. Any additional nominations will not be taken into consideration.
For any question regarding the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education or the submission process, please contact the Secretariat of the Prize at the Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality at UNESCO: Mr. Yuchi Zhao or Ms. Rebekah Cameron, Tel: +33 (0) 1 45 68 10 08; e-mail: GWEPrize@unesco.org (link sends e-mail).
For More information; GWEPrize@unesco.org (link sends e-mail) | Follow us on Twitter at #GWEPrize.
