Finally Partos and Voice are able to announce the ten finalists for the NOthing about us Without Us or NOW-Us! award. We received an overwhelming number of 319 applications from all across the world, wow and thank you! 

An inclusive jury had the impossible task to select ten frontrunners in inclusive development, but they succeeded.  Ten teams have been shortlisted to win the NOW-Us! Award 2018, following the principle of Nothing About Us Without Us. This means that only initiatives, developed and led by one of the target groups for the benefit of those same target groups, are in the race . The NOW-Us! Award is for initiatives that empower thus far unheard voices to express their view and demand their right to be heard and included.

What next? 

The shortlisted ten initiatives come to the Netherlands in the second week of October 2018 to attend the ‘NOW-Us! week’, a week full of inspiring workshops, debates and unconference days preceding the Partos Innovation Festival. They bring their initiative to the next level and get the chance to connect with other inspiring innovators that work in the field of inclusive development cooperation.

The ten teams will pitch their initiative on the 5^th Partos Innovation Festival 2018 in Amsterdam on October 11^th, where we celebrate and highlight innovative ideas in the field of development cooperation. Expect inspiring talks and follow sessions on new ways of working together, inclusion, digitalization & data, youth movements, activism, SDGs and storytelling.

The teams are in the running to win the NOW-Us! Award 2018 in the presence of peers from around the world, a delegation of the most important Dutch NGOs and win a grant for the numbers 1,2 and 3 of respectively €25.000, €15.000 and €10.000.

Let’s make some room on the stage for southern initiatives that are taking inclusive approaches to catalyse change for the most marginalised and discriminated groups!

And the groups are truly inspiring: from a beekeeping initiative for the visually impaired in Uganda to an LGBTI radio show for young people in DRC. For a snapshot of the ten finalists please click here.