myAgro Founder and CEO Recognized as Social Innovator of the Year by Schwab Foundation
Bamako, 22 September 2020 – The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship today announced 23 awardees for social innovation in 2020.
Among the distinguished is myAgro CEO and Founder, Anushka Ratnayake.
The news of Anushka’s distinction comes amid the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit, where she is co-chair alongside an esteemed cohort that includes Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid Al Futtaim; Ivan Duque, President of Colombia; and Grace Forrest, Founding Director, Walk Free Foundation.
From building hospitals in rural India, empowering Black-communities in Brazil, providing financial resources to last-mile communities in Ghana, harnessing AI and big data to promote equity in education in South Korea, to breaking the glass ceiling in the public sector in Spain, the 2020 Social Innovators of the Year includes a list of outstanding founders and chief executive officers, multinational and regional business leaders, government leaders and recognized experts.
This ecosystem of change-makers is being recognised for driving significant social and environmental impact in service of vulnerable and excluded communities and have been well placed to respond to the needs of those disproportionately affected by the COVID pandemic.
The awardees were selected by Schwab Foundation board members in recognition of their innovative approach and potential for global impact. Some of these Board members include Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark (2011-2015), and social innovation expert Johanna Mair, Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School of Governance in Germany, and H.M. Queen Mathilde of Belgium (Honorary Board Member).
“The Schwab Foundation Social Innovators stand for trust, truth and service. They truly devote their lives through innovative actions to improve livelihoods,” says Hilde Schwab, Co-Founder and Chairperson of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. “The Social Innovators of the Year 2020 represent a new ecosystem of leaders who are driving change and shifting organizations and systems towards a more just, inclusive, sustainable future”.
“Farmers are at the heart of a livable planet,” says myAgro CEO and Founder, Anushka Ratnayake. “They grow the food that we eat, usually for razor thin margins, and now, they need our support to at once cope with climate change and reset from the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership between myAgro and the Schwab Foundation is a model of how organizations can come together to deeply listen to those who are most at risk. We are helping farmers invest in themselves to feed their families and build resilience for our global community.”
“The Schwab Foundation’s Social Innovators of the Year 2020 are pioneering agents of change, re-setting the way our institutions operate. Their work is incredibly pertinent as we respond, recover and reset from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, that has disproportionately affected excluded and vulnerable populations,” says François Bonnici, Head of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
The 2020 Schwab Foundation Awards are hosted in partnership with the Motsepe Foundation, founded on the philosophy of ‘ubuntu’, the African concept of giving and caring for your neighbour and other members of your community. “The 2020 Social Innovators of the Year prove that the complex work of reducing inequality and transforming society is possible by instilling human-centred innovation with principles of equity and justice into the levers of policy, finance, and research,” says Precious Moloi-Motsepe, Co-Chair, Motsepe Foundation.
Follow this link to read the full press release and list of the 2020 Social Innovators of the Year.
For more information about myAgro, please contact: info@myAgro.org
For more information about the Schwab Foundation Awards, please contact: Chloé Laluc, Public Engagement, clal@weforum.org, +41 79 589 7002
