News
CEB Award for Social Cohesion shortlisted projects announced
25 May 2020
PARIS - The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) is pleased to announce the shortlisted projects for the CEB Award for Social Cohesion, an annual competition launched this year to acknowledge outstanding social projects in Europe. The Award will bestow a €25,000 prize on a project that addresses pressing social issues in one of the CEB’s 41 member countries.
The diversity of nominated projects is remarkable - from a startup manufacturing drones for afforestation through cultural festivals for getting together migrants and local communities, to social enterprises and conventional businesses that promote the integration of disabled people in the workforce.
We received applications from people and organisations with early, first ideas for promoting social cohesion but also well-established, long-running projects from all parts of Europe, spanning a wide range of our member countries.
Selected among nearly 90 eligible applications, the shortlisted entries for the 2020 competition include:
- Bongo Art Project
- Ecording
- Hedona
- Meet my Mama
- Restarting Life
- Soliguide – la cartographie de l’action sociale
- www.filminhospital.eu
A Preselection Panel comprising three CEB members of staff with relevant expertise in social projects and development reviewed all applications and assessed the overarching theme of ‘social cohesion’ by scoring each entry on criteria related to impact, sustainability and innovation/replicability.
An independent Jury of experts will meet in a few weeks to select one single award winner. Our Jury members come from the fields of social development, social entrepreneurship, academia or civil society and include:
- Snežana Samardžić-Marković, Director General of Democracy at the Council of Europe, President of the Jury
- Guillaume Capelle, Founder of SINGA and CALM
- Dominique Lamiot, Chair of the Governing Board, CEB
- Eva Maydell, Member of the European Parliament/President of European Movement International
- Christine Whitehead, Emeritus Professor in Housing Economics, London School of Economics
The winner of the CEB Award for Social Cohesion will be announced on 15 June.
CEB Governor Rolf Wenzel said: “We are very pleased with the number and quality of applications received for this very first CEB Award for Social Cohesion. The independent jury members will have a difficult task on their hands. We all look forward to the announcement of the results.”
For more information visit award.coebank.org.
Set up in 1956, the CEB (Council of Europe Development Bank) has 41 member states. Twenty-two Central, Eastern and South Eastern European countries, forming the Bank's target countries, are listed among the member states. As a major instrument of the policy of solidarity in Europe, the Bank finances social projects by making available resources raised in conditions reflecting the quality of its rating (AA+ with Fitch Ratings, outlook positive, AAA with Standard & Poor's, outlook stable and Aa1 with Moody's, outlook stable). It thus grants loans to its member states, and to financial institutions and local authorities in its member states for the financing of projects in the social sector, in accordance with its Articles of Agreement.