The Humanitarian Water and Food Award

THE HUMANITARIAN WATER & FOOD AWARD (WAF)

Water and food are essential for mankind; yet almost 1 billion people starve every day and do not have access to clean water.

The Humanitarian Water and Food Award was created to highlight and reward groundbreaking projects that are using effective solutions to conserve water and grow food sustainably. The purpose is to make the knowledge and technology from these projects globally available for those communities that are struggling to provide clean water and healthy food for their people.

In order to strengthen and expand these initiatives WAF aims to facilitate sustainable shared value CSR Business opportunities between award finalists and corporations.

The first Award Event successfully took place on November 25th 2010.

The Organisation

WAF is a registered non-profit volunteer association: Registration: 31 35 39 20

Statutes are available WAF Statutes

Vision

Water and Food for All

Mission

To create awareness and motivate action toward the global Water and Food challenge by awarding and empowering sustainable and innovative initiatives through a yearly or bi-yearly Award Event – and enable these community-based organizations, the business sector, knowledge institutions and social entrepreneurs to collaborate in order to create shared value and resolve this challenge.

Values

Sustainability

Is achievable when the people are empowered to fulfill their Human Right to Water and Food and the awarded initiatives are creating positive impacts at the environmental, social and economic levels of a society.

Innovation

New tools, methods and approaches are needed in order to solve the Water and Food situation at a global scale. As an organisation, WAF is innovative based on its network-oriented approach and is the first to create a Water and Food Award.

Working together

We can create greater social impacts by joining our efforts, resources, knowledge and passion. WAF offers a platform for collaboration across boundaries for businesses, governments, institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), individuals, artists etc.

Passion for life

Our vision for Water and Food as Human Rights is a response from the heart with a passion for life where Water and Food are seeds for life in peace. Volunteers, sponsors and other stakeholders who join WAF become part of the organisation in their own free way and are encouraged to explore and fulfill their own passion for life.

Principles

WAF is independent from political and religious movements. We believe in three principles:

1) Respect for Water and Food as Human Rights

We commit to advocate for Water and Food as Human Rights. Water and Food are prerequisite for a healthy, productive and dignified life and therefore should be accessible for every human being.

2) Contributing to sustainable development

We believe that the Water and Food situation can be solved by innovative and sustainable solutions. As a result, we recognize, reward and empower initiatives that create and increase positive social impacts for the needy communities.

3) Joint efforts through respective dialog

We believe that the Water and Food situation can be solved by joint efforts between the business, citizen and the public sectors. WAF functions as a facilitator and capacity building partner between the various actors in order to empower the identified initiatives.

Alliances

The Water & Food Organisation is member of United Nations Global Compact

Faculty of Life Sciences

LIFE sponsors WAF’s use their Marble Hall and auditoriums for free including the Award Event November 25th 2010. Students from Associations of Natural Resources, Foodstuffs and Biology-Biotech (LSF, FN and BIO) have been helping with promotion, live performance and setup.

Merkur Bank

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

The Award ceremony

The first award ceremony took place in Copenhagen, Denmark November 25th 2010.

Water and Food for All

It was, and in years to come, will continue to be a very special occasion that conveys a message of certainty and practical solutions.

We are welcoming sponsors, students, politicians, celebrities and many others. A Call to Peace-Multi Media Events expressed the message through their heartfelt Afro-Uruguyan music and rhythms. LIFE Choir  directed by Astrid Nora sang beautifully. Sara, a young talented singer lend her voice  to a passionate call for action.

The Joy of Participating in the Solution – Water and Food for All. Peace, then prosperity.

Many people joined and more will come! We showcased the nominated projects from around the world and met the pioneers.
It was 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 are achieving

• Support and recognize 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 business world in order to get sustainable 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