Nominations are currently open for the third Community and Human Rights (CAHR) Awards. Now in its third year, the annual CAHR Awards has been extended to cover the entire African continent.

CAHR Awards is Nigeria’s first event dedicated to celebrating outstanding individuals and organisations that have performed excellently in engaging their communities creditably through inclusion, equity, environmental awareness, poverty alleviation, education and the general promotion of human dignity. Previous winners include Agip Oil Company Ltd, Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, WTO Director-General, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Nigerian human rights activist, Aisha Yesufu.

“It is now ever more pertinent to promote a keen sense of community, human empathy, integrity and in our pan-African societies amidst intensifying conversations around insecurity, poverty, injustice and inequality,” said Bekeme Masade-Olowola, the Chief Executive of CSR-in-Action Advocacy and chief host of the CAHR Awards.

“The CAHR Awards seek to celebrate individuals and organisations, either big or small, famous or unsung, who have contributed immensely, either through their leadership or advocacy, to engendering development, justice and fairness in communities across Africa. We are calling you to nominate your community development and human rights heroes,” CSR-in-Action Advocacy Chairman, Prof. Wale Omole, added.
There are seven different award categories, but at least nine awards, to be won by individuals and corporates, each dedicated to a late historically prominent personality. Categories include the Ken Saro-Wiwa Environmental Management Award, MKO Abiola Community Engagement Award, Hajiya Gambo Sawaba Community Impact Award, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti Human Rights Award, Mallam Aminu Kano Award for Leadership, Josephine Nkemdilim Equal Rights Award, and Apostle Hayford Alile Humanitarian Award.

To nominate their Community and Human Rights heroes, members of the public are to visit https://csr-in-action.org/sitei/cahrawards/ , click on the ‘Nominate now’ button, and follow the directions.

Selection of winners and presentation of the CAHR Awards follow a rigorous six-step process. First is the current phase where individuals and organisations are nominated by themselves or by the general public for suitable award categories. Then, the internal review process of sieving multiple nominations, verification of persons and their qualification for the category entered, and selection of the most impressive/suitable profiles based on available resources online.

Next is the voting stage where the voting portal is opened to the public to allow the selection of deserving recipients of the various categories of the CAHR Awards. After that, shortlisted award nominees will be asked to documentary proof to validate their qualification to the categories for which they have been nominated. In the final stage the CAHR Awards, Jury will scrutinise information provided by the award nominees and will judge based on a set criteria. The winners will be presented their awards at a colourful ceremony in October 2021.

The CAHR Awards is organised by CSR-in-Action, a foremost African sustainability advocacy and consulting firm, and funded by Ford Foundation and Global Rights.

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Nice. Looking forward to the winners

Photos from 2020 CAHR Awards

1. Award plaque

2. Chairman, organizing committee, Meka Olowola

3. Brother of WTO Director-General, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who received the award on her behalf

4. LR: Host and Chief Executive, CSR-in-Action, Bekeme Masade; brother of WTO Director-General, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Board member, CSR-In-Action Advocacy, Dr Nechi Ezeako; and Lead Pastor of The Elevation Church, Godman Akinlabi.

CAHR Awards 2020

Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, former Minister of Finance and Director-General World Trade Organisation (WTO), won the Aminu Kano Award for Leadership. In a video broadcast from the United States, Dr Ngozi Okonji-Iweala expressed gratitude and said: “I am sorry I cannot be with you there, but I must say I am delighted.”

The Apostle Hayford Alile Humanitarian Award, in the Individual category, went to Safiya Ibn Garba, Founder of Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative (EWEI), a non-governmental organisation which provides multisectoral intervention for girls and women empowerment. “We will continue to work for the betterment of our communities and nation, and in doing so, model the values which this award represents,” an excited Ms Garba remarked.

Aisha Yesufu, a prominent figure in the EndSARS movement and Co-Founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement, won the Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti Human Rights Award for her relentless drive for the defence of human rights and justice in the country. ” This award makes me feel that there is so much more we need to do… I will never stop until we get a Nigeria where a child of nobody can become somebody without knowing anybody,” Yesufu said as she received her award.