Kuwait Al-Sumait Prize For African Development To Continue With Nomination Process Opening For 2017 Education Award

Kuwait City, Kuwait, December 6, 2016 – Kuwait’s Al-Sumait Prize for African Development said today it will open its 2017 award for education for nominations during December 2016. Al-Sumait’s education prize will be awarded to individuals or organizations delivering pioneering contributions in the field of education in Africa, encompassing both basic and applied educational systems as well as projects aimed at building a faculty of teachers and qualified trainers in applied and social fields and crafts.

“The Al-Sumait Prize for African Development is designed to help advance economic and social development, human resources development and infrastructure on the African continent,” said Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Director General of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), which administers the prestigious prize.

Dr. Shihan-Eldin added that the education award, which is worth one million US dollars, will build on the success of the recently awarded Al-Sumait 2015 health and 2016 food security awards in creating a legacy of solid transformation in the lives of countless underprivileged individuals and societies.

The recipients of Kuwait's Al-Sumait Prize for African Development awards for the Health and Food Security categories received their awards at a special ceremony during the Fourth Africa-Arab Summit in Equatorial Guinea's capital Malabo on November 22, 2016.

His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah the Amir of Kuwait presented the 2015 Al-Sumait Health category award to Professor Kevin Marsh of the University of Oxford and African Academy of Sciences, Kenya, for his sustained efforts to control and eradicate malaria, which affects the health of tens of millions of African children.

The 2016 Al-Sumait Food Security category award were handed over to representatives of the two winners, the Sweet Potato-for-Nutrition-Team at the International Potato Centre (CIP), Lima, Peru and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.

“The winners of Al-Sumait’s health and food security awards set a high benchmark thanks to their unwavering commitment, ground-breaking applied research and field work to tackle and overcome the scourges of two major impediments to development in Africa, malaria and under-nourishment. Now it will shortly be the turn of educationalists to put forward their frontline approaches to furthering knowledge in Africa,” said Dr. Shihab-Eldin.