ELIGIBILITY:

Nominations can be made by Governments of UNESCO Member States via their Permanent Delegations to UNESCO, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in official partnership with UNESCO. Nominations must focus on an established project or programme designed to advance girls’ and women’s education. Each Permanent Delegation or NGO can make up to three nominations for any edition of the Prize. Self-nominations are not accepted.

The nominations will only be considered if the project/programme:

has a clear focus on advancing girls’ and women’s education, 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 at the time of nomination (for example a project nominated in 2025 must have been active since May 2023); 

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: The project/programme’s impact should be qualitatively and/or quantitatively measureable and deliver tangible results relative to the invested resources. This can include demonstrable changes in: attitudes, beliefs and practices in favour of girls’ and women’s education.

girls’ educational participation, attendance, completion and learning outcomes; and/or

removing barriers to girls’ and women’s education, such as gender bias and stereotypes. 

Innovation: The project/programme stimulates, and/or draws on, innovative approaches advancing girls’ and women’s education. This includes new ways of working where “business as usual” has failed, and transformative “out-of  -the-box” thinking and actions. The project/programme can demonstrate innovation in terms of:    

the themes covered;

the methodology employed;

the channels used to create change for girls’  and women’s education; 

the specific knowledge mobilized about gender-related aspects of girls’ and women’s education in order to elaborate innovative solutions; and/or

other aspects, such as tools and products advancing girls’ and women’s education.

BENEFIT:

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.