The Humanitarian Water and Food Award

Background

More than 1 billion people do not have enough food to live an active life. More than 1,4 billion do not have access to clean water. Famine and malnutrition are the main health hazards globally – larger than aids, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

More than 153 million children under the age of five suffer from chronic famine and six million of these children die from hunger every year. That is one child every 6 seconds.

Sufficient food is produced globally to supply every single human being with 2,720 calories every day. But many people do not have access to this food; they do not have the land to grow crops or the money to buy food. Poverty is the primary cause of starvation. Even though governments and humanitarian organisations work for solutions, the situation does not seem to improve. We need new thinking, innovation, awareness and support from new parties to break the curve. There is more and more talk about Corporate Social Responsibility. Doing business is not just about making profit for shareholders. It is also about giving something back to the world from which we borrow.

The purpose of the Water & Food Award

To support and recognise groundbreaking and sustainable humanitarian projects that provide a means for self-help. We want to award projects that make a considerable difference in supplying water and food to people in severe need.

We want to encourage a dialogue and innovative collaboration between humanitarian initiatives and the business community in order to get this help to the 1 billion people who starve and more than 1,4 billion who drink contaminated water every single day. (This number encreases in spite of that relief work is increasing).

• We want to show that it pays to be creative, innovative and charitable: for the giver as well as the receiver.
• We want to bring the joy of giving and passion of participating in a solution into focus
• We want to practice social and humanitarian responsibility and innovation.