The Global Citizen Prize celebrates remarkable changemakers who are taking exceptional actions to end extreme poverty NOW.

These extraordinary activists keep the world’s poor at the forefront of their life’s work, take exceptional actions to end extreme poverty in their own communities, and foster social change across the globe.

INTRODUCING THE 2025 WINNERS

Cisco Youth Leadership

Esther Kimani

CEO & Founder | Farmer Lifeline Technologies

Esther Kimani, CEO and Founder of Farmer Lifeline Technologies is revolutionizing agriculture in Kenya through cutting-edge AI solutions. She is fiercely committed to eradicating hunger and poverty by empowering smallholder farmers with tools to protect their crops and increase their income. Kimani’s vision prioritizes women farmers, ensuring they thrive in an unpredictable climate. Recognized globally for her work, including the UN FAO Achievement Scroll and the Waislitz Global Citizen Disruptor Award, she continues to lead the charge for a sustainable, prosperous future for rural communities.

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Citizen Award Ukraine

Valeriia Rachynska

Director of Human Rights | 100% Life

Valeriia Rachynska, Director of Human Rights, Gender and Community Development at "100 PERCENT LIFE," is a passionate champion for human rights, leading efforts to protect vulnerable communities in Ukraine. She has dedicated her career to supporting HIV-affected populations and advocating for decriminalizing sex work and HIV transmission, introduction of civil partnerships and access to treatment in her country and globally.
Valeriia’s leadership during the war has supported over a million Ukrainians, all while driving legal reforms and promoting civil rights. Honored with the World Without AIDS Award, Ms Rachynska's unwavering commitment to justice, health, and equality continues to have a profound impact globally.

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Citizen Award Brazil

Taily Terena

Anthropologist, Earth and Climate Defender | Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN)

Taily Terena, an Indigenous woman from the Terena Nation, has dedicated her life to amplifying Indigenous voices and their participation in the fight for climate, land and Indigenous Peoples rights. With 15 years of tireless advocacy, she represents her People in global forums like the UN Climate Change Convention. Terena is passionate about upholding and safeguarding Indigenous cultures and knowledge systems while empowering youth and women to lead the fight against climate change. Her work strives to support her People against the impacts of colonization and climate crisis, ensuring that future generations carry forward their ancestral wisdom and resilience.

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Citizen Award Nigeria

Omowumi Ogunrotimi

Executive Lead | Gender Mobile Initiative

Omowumi Ogunrotimi, a fearless feminist lawyer and founder of the Gender Mobile Initiative, is transforming Nigeria’s fight against gender-based violence. With over 10 years of advocacy, she has championed the adoption of sexual violence policies in 22 states and over 150 universities. Ogunrotimi’s leadership helped pass the Sexual Harassment Bill in Tertiary institutions at the Federal House of Representatives. As an Ashoka Fellow and award recipient, she remains dedicated to eradicating gender inequality, passionately driving legal reforms, and empowering communities to demand justice and change.

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Citizen Award Ghana

Lydia Kekeli Amenyaglo

Creative Director | Ghana Food Movement

Lydia Kekeli Amenyaglo is a creative force at the crossroads of food, culture, and design. As Creative Director of Ghana Food Movement, she’s shaping Ghana’s food future through bold campaigns, community-driven projects, and a thriving food education hub. Her Buy Ghana, Build Ghana initiative fosters pride in local ingredients and an abundance mindset. She also founded plentyplenty.africa, a regenerative cocoa farm and creative studio reclaiming cocoa for Ghanaians. Committed to transforming African food narratives, she’s here to empower the next generation and make Ghana’s food culture bold, beautiful, and globally celebrated.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Global Citizen Prize?

Global Citizen Prize is an awards program that shines a light on activists around the world who keep these world’s poor at the forefront of their life’s work. We bring together the winners from around the world to kick off a year of celebrating their incredible work at an awards reception and dinner in NYC.

Successful candidates will benefit from the Prize program of support, including a year-long schedule of activities to champion and progress their campaigns; Prize winners will also receive a USD $10,000 unrestricted grant in support of their work.

Unlike other awards, we do not garner nominations via the public. Instead open up the nomination process to Global Citizen partners across the sector to help us identify individuals.

What is the Cisco Youth Leadership Award?

The Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award was established by Cisco and Global Citizen to recognize and lift up a young person positively impacting the world, demonstrate the impact that young people are having on achieving the United Nations’ Global Goals, and accelerate global problem solving.

The Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award honors an individual aged 18-30 who has contributed meaningfully towards the goal of ending extreme poverty. The award includes a US $250,000 prize paid to the organization to which the individual contributes.

What is Global Citizen?

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty NOW. The voices of millions of Global Citizens around the world are driving lasting change towards sustainability, equality, and humanity by taking action every day. 

We post, tweet, message, vote, sign, and call to inspire those who can make things happen to act — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and citizens — together improving lives. 

By downloading our app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards with tickets to events, products, subscriptions, and more. 

Global Citizens have taken over 30.4 million actions since 2009. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have led to over $41.4 billion being distributed to our partners around the world, impacting 1.15 billion lives in the fight to end extreme poverty.

You can learn more about our impact here: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/impact/

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