MultiChoice, the official African broadcast partner and member of The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance, is issuing a call for entries from African organizations, businesses, governments, and individuals who are doing scalable and impactful work in this capacity. 

Potential nominees can enter into any of the five categories of the Earthshot Prize, including: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean our Air, Revive our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World and Fix our Climate. The Prize is awarded annually to five winners, each receiving a $1.2 million/R 20 million (£1 million) prize grant to scale their projects.

Each year, The Earthshot Prize launches a global search for breakthrough solutions, with a worldwide network of more than 350 nominating individuals and organizations from 66 countries tasked with ushering the process through. 

As an official nominator, MultiChoice has established an official entry portal and asks that all submissions be submitted by 27 January 2023. Representatives from MultiChoice will then review these entries and officially nominate selections directly to The Earthshot Prize.

“By entering this prestigious prize, African innovators will be afforded the platform to pitch their solutions, inspire other corporates to join the fight against climate change and motivate governments to prioritize climate change as part of their national agendas,’’ said Imtiaz Patel, Chairman, MultiChoice Group. “If you have a worthy intervention whose solution makes significant progress towards achieving any of the five Earthshots, we urge you to send in your nomination and be part of the solution.’’

When The Earthshot Prize was first launched in 2021, three African organizations were selected as finalists namely, Sanergy (from Kenya), Reeddi Capsules (from Nigeria) and Pole Pole Foundation (from the Democratic Republic of Congo).

On December 2, 2022, Prince William and The Earthshot Prize revealed the 2022 winners. African-based Mukuru Clean Stoves, a start-up providing cleaner-burning stoves to women in Kenya to reduce unhealthy indoor pollution and provide a safer way to cook, won the coveted environmental prize during the inspirational awards ceremony hosted in Boston.

In addition to the $1.2 million/R20 million (£1 million) prize, Mukuru Clean Stoves will benefit from a global network of professional and technical support to scale their work.

This includes access to resources across numerous professions and sectors including manufacturing, retail, supply chains, legal advice, digital technology, business strategy and government relations via The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance. The Prize will allow Mukuru Clean Stoves to create an even cleaner stove that burns ethanol, and within three years, they hope to reach one million customers. Within the decade, they hope to expand their impact to ten million people all over Africa.

The final five winners were selected from a group of 15 finalists from 10 different countries by The Earthshot Prize Council – a global team of influential individuals committed to championing positive action in the environmental space.

The five Earthshot Prize Winners for 2022 are:

• Protect and Restore Nature: Kheyti, India: A pioneering solution for local smallholder farmers to reduce costs, increase yields and protect livelihoods in a country on the frontlines of climate change. 
• Clean our Air: Mukuru Clean Stoves, Kenya: A start-up providing cleaner-burning stoves to women in Kenya to reduce unhealthy indoor pollution and provide a safer way to cook. 
• Revive our Oceans: Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia: An inspiring women-led programme that combines 60,000 years of indigenous knowledge with digital technologies to protect land and sea.
• Build a Waste-free World: Notpla, United Kingdom: A circular solution creating an alternative to plastic packaging from seaweed.
• Fix our Climate: 44.01, Oman: Childhood friends who have developed an innovative technique to turn CO2 into rock, and permanently store it underground.

How to apply

Submit your entry while applications are still ongoing.

The Earthshot Prize aims to find scalable solutions to address the world’s biggest environmental problems and repair the planet over the next 10 years. 

The Prize is awarded to winners in five categories, with each winner receiving a £1 million grant to scale their work. 

The partnership aims to raise awareness and understanding of The Earthshot Prize across Africa, supporting local finalists and highlighting their innovative solutions and mobilizing communities to address sustainability challenges. 

“As the leading entertainment company in Africa, we have an extensive footprint on the continent – we reach 21.8 million households across 50 countries. We are well-positioned to make a meaningful contribution to create a sustainable future in Africa.

This partnership will enable us not only to educate communities on climate change, but to also encourage innovators to pitch their solutions, inspire other corporates to join the fight against climate change and to motivate governments to prioritize climate change as part of their national agendas”, said Imtiaz Patel, MultiChoice Group Executive Chairman.

MultiChoice is a Member of The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance, a global network of nonprofit and international organizations committed to the environment and sustainable development.

The collective power of the Global Alliance gives the winners and finalists of the Prize access to resources across numerous professions and sectors including manufacturing, retail, supply chains, legal advice, digital technology, business strategy and government relations. 

“There are thousands of game changers and entrepreneurs committing their lives to solving our generations’ biggest challenges; investment and support is critical for each of them to fulfil their vision,” said Hannah Jones, CEO of The Earthshot Prize.

“MultiChoice is a deeply impactful partner and we are inspired by their incredible investment into The Earthshot Prize, one which will shine a spotlight on a multitude of solutions that might otherwise go unseen, pull hundreds of others into focus across the continent, and inspire a new generation of innovators.”

For the next eight years, The Earthshot Prize will launch a global search every year for groundbreaking solutions to five Earthshot goals – Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World and Fix Our Climate.

The Earthshot Prize was first launched in 2021 with three African organizations selected as finalists – Sanergy (from Kenya), Reeddi Capsules (from Nigeria) and Pole Pole Foundation (from the Democratic Republic of Congo). 

By spotlighting these innovators and their solutions, the Prize aims to spark the world’s collective imagination to drive a collective mindset of urgent action on the issues surrounding the climate crisis. 

MultiChoice recognizes the importance of collaboration and partnerships to address socioeconomic challenges. In the last 30 years, it has consistently partnered with non-profit organizations, civil society and governments to drive social change.