The Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, has announced an initiative to give an annual award for the advancement of economic, social, human resources and infrastructure development in Africa
The award has been titled as “Dr Abdulrahman Al-Sumait Prize,” after a Kuwaiti physician who spent his lifetime dedicated towards helping the poor in Africa in the fields of health and education.
The prize is to be awarded annually to individuals or institutions within one of the proposed three fields including food security, health and education, with a total value of US$1mn. The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) and the Board of Trustees (BOT) for the prize will oversee the prize. KFAS will provide administrative and logistic support.
The objective of the prize is the appreciation, recognition of the best studies, scientific projects, applied research, and innovative initiatives, which within the announce field have made significant impact and lasting influence in advancing progress to economic and social development in Africa. The awarded projects should help African nations to overcome poverty, hunger, lack of potable water, injustice or to improve health care, literacy and the allocation of economic resources.
The subject for the 2019 prize is Food Security:
The prize is to be awarded to individuals or institutions which, through their research projects or initiatives, have made significant advancement within one or more of the following areas of Food Security on the African Continent:
– Developing new varieties of seeds, crops or livestock which can improve the food security of the poor population in Africa by increasing the calorific and nutritional value of food produced and consumed domestically.
– Improving farmers’ access to agricultural inputs, techniques, technologies and markets so as to increase the availability of staple products which form a core part of the diet of the poorest people in Africa.
– Improving farmers’ resilience to climate change and extreme weather conditions.
– Improving marketing and adopting modern business strategies.
– Addressing issues relevant to gender equity in the field of the Prize.
