AMCOW or the African Ministers’ Council on Water is organizing the AMCOW AfricaSan Awards 2009 for “recognizing sanitation and hygiene achievements in Africa.” It recognizes the outstanding achievements made by organizations and individuals in Africa in the area of hygiene and sanitation that “result in large-scale, sustainable behavior changes and tangible impacts.” The awards are part of the AfricaSan Movement, which is a regional initiative led by AMCOW that works to “place sanitation and hygiene at the top of the development agenda in Africa.
Following are the award categories announced under the AMCOW AfricaSan Awards:
– Leadership and Ministerial Award: to honor individuals or institutions who provided strong leadership to sanitation and/or hygiene improvement through policy and strategy development, advocacy, institutional arrangements, financing, coordination and capacity development. Nominees may include policy makers, leaders, and other personalities.
– Technical Innovation Award: to honor individuals and institutions who contributed to the improvement of technical solutions for sanitation services and products to make them affordable, reliable, and sustainable. Nominees may include individuals, communities and organizations such as training/research institutions, technical enterprises, etc.
– NGO/Civil Society Award: to honor individuals and institutions who supported and mobilized communities for the improvement of their sanitation and hygienic conditions. Nominees may include community/youth/women associations, NGOs, and non-profit organizations.
Nominations and self-nominations are accepted for the awards. Entries need to have the information about the nominee, the name and contact details and a short statement of no more than 500 words about the work and the justify the reason for nominating them. Winners will be announced in mod-October 2009 and they will be sponsored to attend the Second African Water Week to be held in South Africa from 9-13 November 2009. The last date to apply here is 9 October 2009. All nominations should be sent by email to nominations@africasanawards.org.
