Established in 2018, the Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award is an annual award that celebrates the significance that young people are having on achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and accelerating global problem-solving. The award honours an individual aged between 18 to 30 who has contributed meaningfully towards the goal of ending extreme poverty through their leadership, dedication, and innovation and includes a $250,000 prize paid to the organization to which the individual contributes.
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 Sustainable Development Goals, and accelerate global problem-solving.
As the past few years have highlighted, young people are the influential, resilient, determined spirits that the world needs right now to defeat poverty, demand equity, and defend the planet. Whether it has been young activists calling for climate policy change or defending their local communities against destructive inequalities, young change-makers have opened the world’s eyes to what matters most and have helped highlight what needs to be done to end extreme poverty.