Dubai – His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, presented awards to the 10 winners of the 2022 Zayed Sustainability Prize yesterday.
The Prize’s Awards Ceremony coincided with the start of the 2022 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW). The ceremony was also attended by H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum congratulated winners across the five categories reaffirming the Prize’s key role in realising the aspirations of participants to achieve sustainable development within their communities.
This year, the Zayed Sustainability Prize, along with ADSW, joined forces with Expo 2020 Dubai for hosting the ADSW Opening Ceremony and the 13th edition of the Prize’s Awards Ceremony, both of which took place on the morning of Monday, 17th January at the Dubai Exhibition Centre. The event brought thousands of attendees and more than 600 VIPs from around the world together, including heads of state, government ministers, industry leaders and country ambassadors, amongst others.
In his remarks on the Awards Ceremony, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said: “The UAE continues to make important strides and contributions to advancing the global sustainability agenda to stimulate economic and human sustainable development, under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Zayed Sustainability Prize remains at the forefront of these efforts as it continues to set the course for alleviating hardships and improving lives by rewarding impact and innovation through a platform that can reach a much larger number of beneficiaries.”
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid highlighted the support, involvement and directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, while underscoring how the hosting of the Awards Ceremony at Expo 2020 Dubai coupled with the recent announcement of the Principles of the 50, which marked the UAE’s Golden Jubilee last month, provide an optimal backdrop to this year’s awards, as all these national efforts share one single goal – to create a more sustainable future for all.”
His Highness continued: “Over the last 14 years, the wise and long-term vision and legacy of the UAE’s Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed, has ignited the passions of millions of sustainability pioneers the world over, inspiring us to take the Prize to new heights by strengthening and diversifying its offerings to become the all-encompassing award it is today.”
The event was also attended by H.H. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior; H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs; H.H. Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council; and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, in addition to various heads of state, ministers, and other senior-level dignitaries from the UAE and abroad, in addition to past winners, and the 2022 finalists.
The US$3 million Prize is the UAE’s pioneering sustainability award that recognises small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), non-profit organisations (NPOs), and global high schools for their innovative, impactful, and inspirational sustainability and humanitarian solutions. Through its 86 former winners, the Prize has transformed the lives of more than 370 million people, across 150 countries, since 2008. In the Health, Food, Energy, and Water categories, each winner receives USD 600,000, while the Global High Schools category has six winners, representing six world regions, with each winner receiving up to USD 100,000.
In terms of the Global High School category, His Highness highlighted the importance of strengthening the youth’s capacity as a driving force for future sustainable development to shape tomorrow’s leaders and effectively empower them to play a larger role in advancing their impact on socio-cultural and economic development, in a rapidly changing world.
On a broader level, His Highness also praised the level of foresight and sophistication that many of the student-led proposals displayed, noting their potential impact on an individual, community and global level.
In the ‘Health’ Category, Argentina’s Mamotest was awarded the Prize for its efforts to increase access to diagnoses and life-saving services in tele-radiology and remote analysis. Mamotest is currently deploying centres that are providing 582,697 beneficiaries affected by breast cancer access to quality healthcare, with plans to scale this to over 1 million people over a period of five years. Mamotest also enjoys robust patient-journey follow up as 87% of women diagnosed within their system could receive lifesaving treatment on time. Furthermore, Mamotest has successfully carried out more than 5,000 diagnoses to date while creating awareness in millions of women.
