A South African NGO, the Social Change Assistance Trust (Scat), was on Monday placed on the shortlist for the $1-million Alcan Prize for Sustainability by The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF).
Of almost 500 entries received from 79 countries around the world, only 12 organisations made the shortlist of candidates being considered for the Alcan Prize.
Cape Town-based Scat supports more than 60 rural community organisations in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape.
Its acting director, Nyame Goniwe, said: “We are thrilled to be on the shortlist for the Alcan Prize for Sustainability. Winning the prize or an Alcan bursary would be a major impetus for our work. But just to be considered puts us on the international map. And that, alone, has enormous value.”
The convenor of Scat’s trustees, Barry Streek, commented: “This announcement is an enormous tribute to our partners, who are located in some of the most marginalised areas of South Africa, and to the Scat staff.”
“Through our innovative fund-raising incentive scheme, through which rural communities are rewarded with a R5 grant for every R1 raised by them, we believe we have promoted a measure of sustainability in some very poor areas of South Africa.”
Alcan, a global leader in aluminum and related products, created the Alcan Prize for Sustainability in January of this year to recognise outstanding contributions to the goal of economic, environmental and social sustainability by not-for-profit, non-governmental and civil society organisations.
“We have a very aggressive sustainability agenda within Alcan,” said company CEO Travis Engen. “The Alcan Prize is one way to demonstrate our sustainability commitment to the world outside our plant gates, and to recognise that we all have a role to play in preserving our planet for future generations. On behalf of Alcan, I extend our congratulations to the Social Change Assistance Trust and wish them every success in the final phase of the competition.”
Alcan engaged the IBLF to manage the Alcan Prize for Sustainability. Since the March 31 closing date for entries, the IBLF has coordinated assessment panels in the United Kingdom, Poland, the Philippines and Canada to review entries and select finalists.
The adjudication panel, chaired by World Economic Forum co-chairperson José-Maria Figueres and composed of international experts in sustainability issues, fully endorsed the assessment process adopted by the IBLF and has acknowledged the 12 shortlisted organisations as a result of the process.
The panel will now conduct an in-depth review of the shortlist and select the winner of the Alcan Prize and up to four recipients of Alcan bursaries.
These $15 00 bursaries will allow a senior representative of each selected organisation to earn a post-graduate certificate in cross-sector partnerships from the University of Cambridge.
The Alcan Prize winner and Alcan bursary recipients will be announced at the World Economic Forum annual general meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2005. — I-Net Bridge