Meet Our Champions Celebrate the progress
2023 Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards
The Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards are an annual recognition of remarkable individuals taking action to help achieve the Global Goals by 2030.
The approach of these individuals and organizations is key because they center the voices and needs of others. Take a moment to read their incredible stories and celebrate this new cohort of Global Goals Award winners.
Watch the Awards Ceremony
The 2023 Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards Ceremony was held on September 19, 2023. Watch as Danai Gurira, Sabrina Elba, Yusra Mardini, and Melinda French Gates recognize six remarkable individuals and organizations taking action to help achieve the Global Goals.
2023 Goalkeepers Global Goals Award Winners
Lifetime Achievement Award
President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter
The Goalkeepers Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes leaders who have demonstrated commitment to the Global Goals, over the course of their lives, in their country and globally.
This year, the Goalkeepers Lifetime Achievement Award Winners are Former President and First Lady of the USA, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who have epitomized peace and humanitarianism throughout their lives. Since establishing The Carter Center in 1982, the Carters have shown their tireless dedication to humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts globally, as well as fighting neglected tropical diseases, including Guinea worm disease, which has been nearly eradicated as a direct result of the Carters' determined efforts.
Jimmy Carter has pioneered projects which have strengthened democracy and fueled diplomacy across the world. Rosalynn Carter has been dismantling stigma around mental health issues since the 1970s, and has also been a strong advocate for gender equality and child immunization for decades. In addition to all of this, the Carters are also lifetime volunteers for Habitat for Humanity and have helped over 46 million people gain safe and affordable shelter.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter fully embody the Carter Center's motto of “Waging peace, fighting disease, building hope,” and are truly deserving of the Goalkeepers Lifetime Achievement Award.
Progress Award
Eden Tadesse
More than 100 million people are displaced worldwide today. Eden Tadesse, a social entrepreneur, digital innovator, and human rights activist from Ethiopia aims to address one of the biggest challenges facing refugees – finding a job and integrating into their new homes. In 2019, Eden founded Invicta, a global impact platform that promotes digital financial inclusion for urban refugees. The platform offers online courses in design, marketing and other areas to help young refugees develop remote working skills, connects them with international companies for job opportunities and helps female entrepreneurs to gain access to business development and banking support. To date, more than 35,000 people from 90 countries have registered on Invicta, with 7,000 of them completing online courses and more than 2,200 refugees finding meaningful employment online.
Eden is active in her advocacy for refugee rights and reframing the narrative around refugees on an international level, including speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. She imagines a world where millions of marginalized and economically disadvantaged refugees have equal opportunities to secure fair wage jobs.
Voice Award
Bono
The Goalkeepers Voice Award is a special recognition for a prominent figure who has had a significant impact on progress towards the Global Goals through advocacy, campaign, and/or communications tactics, using their platform, their influence, and most importantly, their voice to raise awareness and drive policy change.
In 2023, the inaugural Goalkeepers Voice Award recipient is pioneering activist and music legend Bono. The co-founder of sister organizations ONE and (RED), Bono has used the power of his voice and global platform to help build a movement of millions of people dedicated to ending extreme poverty and the AIDS pandemic.
From his leadership in the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign that helped erase $40 billion in debt for the world’s most impoverished countries, to lobbying governments across parties and continents to pass and fund programs that remove roadblocks to economic development, Bono has been a relentless, creative and effective campaigner. He played a critical role in the creation of the historic US PEPFAR AIDS program, which has saved more than 25 million lives to date, and with (RED), he has recruited some of the biggest companies in the world into the AIDS fight, raising more than $750 million for the Global Fund to fight AIDS. The impact of his continued advocacy — and the ongoing work of ONE and (RED) — cannot be overstated.
Bono is also the Co-Founder of the Rise Fund — a global impact fund investing in entrepreneurial companies driving positive and environmental social change in alignment with the SDGs. Over decades, Bono has continued to push for global development and health equity and has worked tirelessly to ensure it is achieved, advancing the SDGs by utilizing his platform for good.
Global Goalkeeper Award
Prime Minister of Japan Kishida Fumio
The Global Goalkeeper Award celebrates a global leader who has shown their commitment to the Global Goals in their country and globally. Since taking office in 2021, Prime Minister of Japan Kishida Fumio has continued to champion Japan’s leadership in global health and universal health coverage (UHC), strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, response, and resilience in a post-COVID-19 era by fostering global partnerships. A Prime Minister from Hiroshima, Prime Minister Kishida is a key advocate for justice and strong institutions with a vision of a world without nuclear weapons. He has led world leaders to address the increasing geopolitical tensions, and emphasized Japan’s global agenda in poverty alleviation, climate change, and education. In addition, Prime Minister Kishida puts an emphasis on diversity and inclusion as part of the social reform, including advancement of employment of women, promotion of women’s economic empowerment, and elimination of gender-based violence.
Changemaker Award
Ashu Martha Agbornyenty
Cameroon’s maternal mortality rate is high at 438 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020, with 33% of the deliveries handled at home by unskilled helpers. Ashu Martha Agbornyenty is a registered midwife in Cameroon, as well as an author, a blogger at Marthie’s Midwifery Diary, and founder of the For Mom and Baby Foundation. She writes about the work of midwives and shares her knowledge on pregnancy; through her blog, she has reached over 2,000 people nationwide. Her Foundation provides community workshops and distributes emergency kits to pregnant women in crisis-stricken areas; since 2021, it has reached over 1,000 women and girls in the region.
Ashu Martha is also an advocate for midwifery education. She has led national meetings that engaged schools and media to call for government support. She is a Young Midwife Leader at the International Confederation of Midwives, representing Cameroon at global conferences to speak about the high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Ashu Martha imagines a world where no mother or child dies from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Campaign Award
The Farmlink Project
Nearly 35 million Americans faced hunger in 2021, while over 100 billion pounds of food goes waste every year in the United States. Ben Collier, Aidan Reilly, and James Kanoff started the Farmlink Project out of their college dorms with their classmates in 2020, when food insecurity was on the rise amid the pandemic. They saw transportation and logistics as a missing link between hunger and food surplus – as an opportunity to fight hunger.
What started with kids renting a Uhaul truck is now a rapidly growing non-profit organization with over 20 employees and more than 600 student fellows. It provides swift and nationwide logistics solutions for not just farmers, but also big food corporations, organizing shipping and assisting them in optimizing tax benefits from donating surplus food to food banks. To date, Farmlink has provided over 130 million pounds of nutritious food to communities facing hunger. Farmlink also pioneers fellowship programs to raise awareness about food equity and empower young changemakers to be a part of the solution. They imagine a world where every person has access to the food they need to succeed.