UNESCO Prize for girls’ and women’s education - International jury
The International Jury for the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education is appointed by the Director-General of UNESCO on the basis of their reputation in the advancement of education for girls and women, and with consideration for equitable geographical distribution and gender balance.
Composed of five independent experts, the jury meets once every year to assess nominations for the Prize and presents its recommendations to the Director-General of UNESCO.
In accordance with the , the Director-General of 91鶹Ʒ appointed the jury for the 2025 Prize cycle.
Its members are:
Mayyada Abu Jaber (Jordan)
Mayyada Abu Jaber is the founder of , a non-profit organization to foster mindset change towards greater women’s economic participation, and also the founder of , a social enterprise that provides equity and justice to youth and women in the Middle East and North Africa region. She is an and conducted research to evaluate gender bias in the national Jordanian curriculum. Mayyada served as an educational consultant at the office of Her Majesty Queen Rania Abdullah II. In 2017, Mayyada was recognized by the as an inspirational leader in the Middle East and North Africa. Mayyada is also recognized as one of the women leaders in the Arab World by .
Christina Ting Kwauk (United States of America)
Christina Ting Kwauk is an education consultant, Research Director at and a Future Rising Visiting Scholar at . Formerly, she was a fellow in the .
She is an expert on girls’ education in developing countries, 21st century skills and youth empowerment, sport for development, and the intersections of gender, education, and climate change. Christina is a co-author of and has published numerous policy papers and academic articles on gender and education. She also chaired the , advised the , and the .
Alex Munive (Colombia)
Alex Munive is the Senior Technical Lead at the , where he leads the Feminist Leadership Pillar and team in developing solutions and curricula for advancing gender transformative change. Prior to this role, Alex served as the Head of Gender Equality and Inclusion for , where he provided thought leadership on gender equality and led the development of Plan International's global, gender transformative initiatives, including "" and the programmatic Theory of Change for "," the world's largest youth-led feminist global campaign for young women's empowerment. These initiatives are now being implemented worldwide. Alex has also worked as a consultant for organizations such as the , the , , , and the Finnish government.
Simone Yankey-Ouattara (Côte d'Ivoire)
Simone Yankey-Ouattara is currently the Acting Coordinator of the . She is also the Senior Policy Officer at the AU/CIEFFA in charge of various portfolios. Prior to this position, she was a Senior Programme Officer at the Women and Gender Directorate at the in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She has also been a social worker in a non-profit organization in Belgium and served as a legal advisor on Arts, Culture, and Human Rights in Côte d’Ivoire. Her vision is to see “an Africa in which girls and women are socially, economically and politically empowered through quality education throughout their lives”.
Zuoyu Zhou (People’s Republic of China)
Zuoyu Zhou is the Vice President of , where he is also a professor in the Faculty of Education. He chairs the Educational Evaluation Branch of the and works as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese International Education Foundation, the Vice-President of the Chinese Minority Education Society, as well as an alternate member on the Governing Board of the . He has led several major research projects on philosophy and social sciences funded by National Natural Science Foundation and . He has authored over 90 Journal papers and several books and served on the editorial boards of the KEDI Journal of Educational Policy, and the Journal of Education, Teacher Education Research and Comparative Education Research.
