Global Citizen, the world’s largest movement to end extreme poverty, and the Waislitz Foundation, working to create a positive impact locally and globally through innovative projects that empower individuals to make a difference, has announced the recipients of the 2026 Global Citizen Waislitz Awards. According to the announcement, Smart Israel, Founder & CEO of Smartel Agri Tech, won the 2026 Global Citizen Waislitz Grand Prize award, while Diana Yousef, Founder and CEO of change:WATER Labs, received the Global Citizen Waislitz Disruptor Award. The Global Citizen Waislitz People’s Choice Award went to Oghenekevwe William Emadago, Founder and COO of Girlified LTD.

From growing food without soil to waterless sanitation and turning agricultural waste into affordable and accessible sanitary pads, the winners of the Global Citizen Waislitz Awards for 2026 are developing practical solutions to help end extreme poverty.

Now in its twelfth year, the Global Citizen Waislitz Award continues to recognise individuals taking transformative action to address extreme poverty and create lasting change in their communities. With a total of USD $300,000 awarded annually, each of the three prize winners receives USD $100,000 to further advance the laudable work being carried by their organisations. Applicants are evaluated on individual merit across five key criteria: global citizenship, proof of concept, disruption, scalability, and adaptability.

Since inception, the Global Citizen Waislitz Awards have honoured 35 changemakers from around the world including Bangladesh, Colombia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, the United States and more, with the Waislitz Foundation disbursing over USD $2.65 million in support of grassroots solutions to end extreme poverty.

“The Global Citizen Waislitz Award continues to remind us that some of the most powerful solutions to global challenges are being created by entrepreneurs and community leaders closest to those challenges,” Alex Waislitz OAM, Chairman and Founder of the Melbourne-based Waislitz Foundation, stated. “Since 2014, the Waislitz Foundation and Global Citizen have partnered to support remarkable leaders creating change in their communities. Over the past 12 years, we have recognised 35 remarkable young leaders from 15 countries, each representing the ingenuity, determination and creativity needed to build a more equitable future. The Waislitz Foundation is proud to champion this year’s winners and provide the resources needed to help them expand their impact and reach more communities around the world,” he added.

Also speaking, Simon Moss, Co-Founder & COO, Global Citizen said: “For twelve years, our partnership with the Waislitz Foundation has enabled us to identify, support, and scale the work of exceptional leaders creating meaningful impact in their communities. This year’s winners are creating remarkable impact across food security, sustainable sanitation and women and girls’ health, from solutions they designed for the communities they serve. Together with the Waislitz Foundation, we are proud to help these leaders take their impact even further and accelerate progress toward a world free from extreme poverty.”

The Grand Prize Winner, Smart Israel, is a Nigerian innovator and entrepreneur who founded Smartel Agri Tech after growing up in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and witnessing how resource conflict, displacement and climate change fuelled hunger and malnutrition in his community. Inspired by these experiences, he founded Smartel, a climate-tech enterprise enabling climate-vulnerable communities to grow food without soil in almost any environment through AI-enabled, solar-powered hydroponic systems, through which he has deployed more than 3,000 systems to help thousands of farmers and families gain sustainable access to nutritious food. The prize will propel Israel towards reaching 5,000 more households with affordable, climate-smart food production and expand Smartel’s community hydroponic hub model.

Diana Yousef, the Founder/CEO of change:WATER Labs, who clinched the Global Citizen Waislitz Disruptor Award, realised that astronauts face the same challenge as half the world’s population: they cannot simply flush away waste, while working for NASA. Diana and her team developed the “iThrone”, a waterless, sewerless toilet that rapidly shrinks waste by evaporating its water content, thereby making safe sanitation cheaper, cleaner and more deployable beyond the limits of infrastructure. iThrone toilets have already improved safe toilet access for more than 20,000 people across Uganda, Panama and the United States. The award will help Diana scale iThrone distribution to millions more people by next year, accelerating the mission to make safe, sustainable sanitation possible for everyone, everywhere.

For Nigeria’s Oghenekevwe William Emadago, who won the Global Citizen Waislitz People’s Choice Award, he is an O’Shaughnessy Fellow, PhD researcher, and co-founder and COO of Girlified, who saw first-hand how girls miss school simply because they could not afford or access sanitary pads while growing up in Northern Nigeria. Determined that no girl should have to choose between her education and her period, he founded Girlified, transforming agricultural waste into affordable and accessible sanitary pads that address both period poverty and plastic pollution. Since 2021, Girlified has produced over 2.8 million sanitary pads and reached more than 70,000 women and girls. The Global Citizen Waislitz People’s Choice Award will help him scale the innovation to reach 10 million women and girls annually by 2030.

Global Citizen is powered by a worldwide community of everyday advocates raising their voices and taking action. The movement is amplified by campaigns and events that convene leaders in music, entertainment, public policy, media, philanthropy and the private sector. Established in Australia in 2008, Global Citizen operates in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, the UAE, and across Asia. Over $50 billion in commitments announced on Global Citizen platforms has been deployed since the movement began, with the impact reaching 1.3 billion people.

The Waislitz Foundation was founded in 2013, following many years of Australian investor and businessman Alex Waislitz’s involvement in private philanthropic giving. To this end, the foundation represents a new approach to giving and aims to invest in and have a direct social impact on some of the world’s biggest social problems through active participation in the projects it supports towards improving the quality of people’s lives through innovative initiatives and partnerships.

Some of the previous winners of the Global Citizen Waislitz Grand Prize Award include: Dysmus Kisilu, Founder and CEO of Solar Freeze; Peter Njeri, CEO of Mega Gas Alternative Energy; Kristin Kagetsu, Co-Founder and CEO, Saathi; Bina Shrestha, Co-Founder, Build up Nepal; Haroon Yasin, Co-Founder and Chairperson of Orenda; Charlot Magayi, Founder and CEO of Mukuru Clean Stoves;

Koketso Moeti, Founder and Executive Director of amandla.mobi; Caitlin Barrett, CEO of Love Mercy Foundation; Tabitha Mpamira-Kaguri, Founder and Executive Director of EDJA Foundation; Wilma Rodrigues, Founder/CEO of Saahas Zero Waste; Clarisse Uwineza, for her work converting organic waste into fertiliser in Rwanda; and Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, Director of Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project.

Others are Anoop Jain, Founder of Humanure Power, for his work in rural India building sanitation facilities; OseI Boateng, Founder & Executive Director, OKB Hope Foundation, to expand health care access in Ghana.