São Paulo – The deadline for submissions or the 2021 Zayed Sustainability Prize has been moved ahead to June 11 as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic. The new deadline was announced during the webinar “Sustainability as crisis response,” hosted by the Prize this Monday (4) and featuring Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce secretary-general Tamer Mansour. The former submissions deadline was May 21.
Created in 2008 in the United Arab Emirates, the Zayed Prize goes out to groundbreaking sustainable and humanitarian solutions around the world. It rewards innovative projects designed to develop or accelerate impactful solutions to help the underprivileged and leave a legacy to upcoming generations. The Prize is named after the founder of the UAE, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
The Zayed Sustainability Prize features five categories: Health, Food, Energy, Water, and Global High Schools. Small and mid-sized entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations and high schools can apply here. Entrants must submit an existing sustainable solution project with demonstrable impact in one of the categories. The Global High Schools category is intended for student-led projects or proposals, focusing in one or more of the four fields of sustainability mentioned above.
The Prize supplies funding to help develop or improve projects for local schools or communities. The USD 3 million prize will be split in equal parts between the winners of the five categories, with each winner getting USD 600,000. Global High Schools will have six winners from around the world, and each gets USD 100,000. To make a submission, just go to the Zayed Prize website and click on Apply.
This year’s award ceremony (pictured above) was held in January. Several Brazilians have been runners-up for the Prize. Find out more from ANBA.
Webinar
The webinar was organized by the MET Community, which promotes the Zayed Prize in Latin America. MET personnel Fernando Fuzaro and Yanire Braña presented the webinar on behalf of the Zayed Prize. Speakers included Dubai Chamber São Paulo office chair João Paulo Paixão, SP Negócios Business and Export Promotion director Silvana Scheffel and manager Márcia Gomide, and Mansour of the Arab Chamber.
According to Fuzaro, this was the first in a series of webinars to be hosted by the Prize. “These days, new businesses, particularly small and mid-sized companies, need innovation to some extent when they are starting out, whether it be in their line of work or in the context of business itself. Innovation, in turn, of necessity entail technology and sustainability, to an ever greater degree,” he said.
During the webinar, Tamer Mansour mentioned that the Chamber is conducting a study on the viability of direct shipping lanes linking Brazil to the Arab countries. The study is due for completion by the end of this year.
“The Arab world is one of the biggest partners of Brazil’s agribusiness industry,” he said, in reference to the fact that Brazil exports commodities to and imports fertilizers from the Arab countries.
He also said the Chamber is working on an online platform to help small and medium businesses connect with prospective clients and export product to Arab countries. “Our crisis committee is in talks with other entities to come up with even more solutions,” he said.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
