Global Economy Prize 2023 to honor personalities for their commitment to Africa

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, together with its partners, the state capital Kiel and the Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Commerce and Industry today announced the winners of the Global Economy Prize 2023. This year, the award focuses on the development of Africa. The Global Economy Prize is awarded in the categories of politics, business, and economics and is non-endowed.

The following personalities are to be honored for their outstanding achievements and tireless commitment to the sustainable development of Africa and as thought leaders of a cosmopolitan, free-market, and just and inclusive society:

• Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General, World Trade Organization; Category: Politics.
• Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, Chief Innovation Officer, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa; Category: Business.
• Prof. Leonard Wantchekon, Ph.D., Princeton University; Category: Economics.

The award ceremony of the Global Economy Prize will take place during Kiel Week on Monday, June 19, 2023, at 5 p.m. in the State House in Kiel. The award winners are expected to attend in person.

Personalities to be honored are proposed from the network of the Kiel Institute and finally selected and nominated by the jury of the Global Economy Prize. This jury consists of, among others, the Vice President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Stefan Kooths, Kiel's Lord Mayor Ulf Kämpfer, and the Vice President of the Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Knud Hansen. In accordance with their profession, the above-mentioned members take care for the award winner in the category of politics, business, and (economic) science.

Commenting on the nomination in the policy category, Kämpfer said, "Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was being key to developing the reforms that helped stabilize Nigeria’s economy and improve fiscal transparency. She is a firm believer in the power of multilateral trade to lift developing countries out of poverty and help them achieve robust economic growth and sustainable development."

Hansen said of the upcoming award winner in the business category, "Eleni Gabre-Madhin has made a name for herself as an innovative and socially responsible entrepreneur, but above all as an assertive pioneer. Her commitments, be it the founding of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, promoting other commodity exchanges, or her work as Chief Innovation Officer of the UN in Africa, have one thing in common: they rely on offers, incentive systems and functioning structures that promote, flank and stabilize entrepreneurial initiative and processes. In doing so, she achieves nothing less than a concrete improvement in the situation and prospects of people on the ground."

Kooths gave the following reasons for the nomination in the science category: "Leonard Wantchekon is an outstanding political economist, economic historian, and development economist. His innovative scientific methods and his resulting groundbreaking work, for example in development economics or in the emerging discipline of cultural economics, have earned him worldwide recognition in the profession. As founder and director of the African School of Economics, he opens the way for African students to receive an internationally recognized education in economics.

More information about the Global Economy Prize and the nominated personalities.