The Humanitarian Water and Food Award

The Association

It has a growing membership base and is a registered non-profit association: Registration: 31 35 39 20.

Statutes are available WAF Statutes

Alliances

The Association of the Humanitarian Water & Food Award is member of United Nations Global Compact.

Keystones

sponsors their expertise by assisting in evaluating and short-listing Award Applicants. Their business is helping innovative companies with business development and financing.

Faculty of Life Sciences

LIFE lets WAF use their auditorium for free and are happy to post articles in their news letter. Professor Anders Dalsgaard is applying for the award. We are working on establishing strategical collaboration with LIFE; them being an institutional partner.

Maqs Law Firm

sponsors the handling of legal affairs

Merkur Bank

Merkur handles WAF’s banking affairs. It is an ethical bank committed to social justice within a sustainable economy

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Board

Chair Person, Tina Lindgreen: I got the idea for the award shortly after attending a peace summit in Australian Bush in September 2006. I decided to make the award reality. I clearly saw, how it would raise awareness of solutions that work and help these poor people.

I started gathering a team of professionals in areas within research and documentation, water and food in developing countries, evaluation of relief initiatives, The Web, PR and media, sponsoring, project management, musical performance, internet technology, mobile marketing, event management and many more.

Since water and food are important and something we all need it was simply named the Humanitarian Water & Food Award.

Copenhagen is a good choice as the location for the presentation of The Water & Food Award. Denmark enjoys international recognition for its work in international development, innovation and humanitarian aid projects”.

Denmark is one of the countries in the world spending the most, percentage-wise, of its gross national product on development aid. We have a long tradition of a social sense of community and of showing concern for the needy. From childhood we are taught to present a front of solidarity. Denmark also has many sustainable companies that work with water and food.

Vice Chairman, Søren Christensen

Søren is Professor at The Institute of Organisation & Work Sociology, Copenhagen Business School.

Søren undertakes consulting work in the area of organisation and leadership and guides PhD. students at CBS. He is author of articles and books on decision processes, company culture, project management and other organisational topics, some of which are mandatory literature for university business students.

Candidate Members

Preben Gamst is partner in Maqs Law Firm, www.maqs.com. As a lawyer (L), Preben specialises in Mergers and Acquisitions, Real Property and Construction, Sports and Entertainment.

Hanne Lund Madsen

Hanne has broad international experience within social responsibility, human rights and democratization efforts. She holds a M.Sc. in International Development Studies (IDS) & Geography as well as an LLM in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

For 18 years Ms. Lund Madsen has been servicing partners in the public and private sector, national governments, local movements and international NGOs, donors and institutions of the United Nations in advancing social responsibility and sustainability, human rights and democratization. Due to the broad international experience, Hanne has a unique network and knowledge of the many stakeholders relevant to the mission of WAF. She is strongly committed to fostering change and she has thematic expertise in the field of Right to Food and Water.

Hanne Madsen has worked and undertaken assignments as team leader in a wide number of countries in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, South Asia, Southern & Eastern Africa, the Sahel, Central America, Australia and the Pacific.

Beyond the functions as Board Member, Hanne will support the WAF team in building a solid platform for social responsibility, in ensuring the sustainability of the WAF initiative and finally developing the relationships with key institutional partners.

Nighat Kamal

Nighat, a trained Civil engineer, has worked the last 12 years in the coinstruction industry, most recently with NCC.

Her roles have included: unit manager, department manager, production manager and project manager.

She has worked with strategy and business development as well as optimisation of department operations.

Her responsibilities have included  positions reporting directly to management, budget and operational responsibility along with cross departmental collaboration, both internal and external

Ivar Samrén - Advisor

Ivar Samrén has been on the board of 35 different corporations in 15 countries and 10 different branches of business. Until April 2009 he was Chairman of Egmont Fonden for 10 years, of DFDS and Nuance Group AG in Switzerland. He was Chairman of the Governing Council of the Van Leer Group Foundation since 1987. 1996-1999 he served as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Royal Packaging Industries Van Leer N.V. 1996-2000 as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bernard Van Leer Foundation.

Mr. Samrén graduated as an economist from the University of Lund in Sweden. He joined the Mölnlyske Group and worked in different countries as a sales executive, marketing manager and general manger.

He served as member of the Executive Board of N.V. Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer KBB, and until 1984 he was Chairman of the Ececutive Board of Magazijn de Bijenkorf B.V. in The Netherlands. 1984-94 he was Predident and DEO of SAS Service Partner AS in Copenhagen and Vice-Predident of Scandinavian Airlines Group (SAS) in Stockholm.

He has served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Gate Gourmet International AG in Switzerland. He has also served as a non-executive *Director of several other Scandinavian-based companies.

The Award ceremony

The award ceremony will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. The date will be decided as soon as sponsors are able to provide enough fiscal support for the nominees.

Water and Food for All

It will be a very special occasion that conveys a message of hope

We are looking forward to welcoming guests and sponsors. Artists will express the message through their artistic and musical expressions. The themes are  The Joy of Participating in the Solution – Water and Food for All – Dignity, Peace and Prosperity.

Many people have joined and more will come! We will be showcasing the nominated projects from around the world and meet the pioneers.

It is a unique occasion to meet big-hearted people who are helping to set the agenda for a sustainable world and a much better life.

What we want to achieve

• Support and recognise ground-breaking and sustainable humanitarian projects that provide a means for self-help. We want to create projects that make a considerable difference in supplying water and food to people in severe need.
• Encourage a dialogue and innovative collaboration between humanitarian initiatives and the Danish business world in order to get this help to the 1+ billion people who starve and drink contaminated water every single day. (This number remains constant in spite of the fact that relief work is increasing).
• Show that it pays to be creative, innovative and charitable: for the giver as well as the receiver.
• Bring the joy of giving into focus
• Practice social and humanitarian responsibility and innovation.

Water and Food Award – Why and Who