We launched the Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value to help innovative, commercially viable and high impact initiatives linked to water, nutrition or rural development achieve social scale and financial sustainability.
The Nestlé CSV Prize is awarded every two years and is open to individuals, government bodies, non-governmental organisations, academia and private and social enterprises.
The Nestlé CSV Advisory Board selects the Prize Laureate and the winning entry receives an investment of up to CHF 500,000 (approx USD 540,000) to develop and scale up its initiative.
More information is available in the Official Rules (pdf, 106 Kb) and in the Frequently Asked Questions (pdf, 155 Kb) Frequently Asked Questions.
You can also contact us at CSVPrize@nestle.com
2014 Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value
The nomination period for the 2014 Nestlé CSV Prize is now closed. We thank all 739 applicants for sharing their projects with us. We will announce the Prize Laureate in 2014.
Past prize winners
2012 Winners
2012 Prize winner: Schools set up by Fundación Paraguaya give high school students in rural communities the entrepreneurial and practical skills they need to lift themselves out of poverty.
The 2012 Nestlé CSV Prize was awarded to Fundación Paraguaya de Cooperación y Desarrollo for its ‘self-sufficient agricultural school’ model.
These schools, set up by Fundación Paraguaya in poor rural areas of Paraguay, give students a platform to develop the entrepreneurial and practical skills they need to lift themselves out of poverty. The ‘self-sufficient school’ initiative implements on-campus micro-businesses that teach teenagers the skills they need to find a job or set up their own businesses. Each school, together with Fundación Paraguaya, creates a ‘teaching and production’ business plan to define which small enterprises it will set up. These micro-businesses range from agricultural technical assistance, milk production, farming, organic gardening, hotel services, bee keeping and chicken egg production.
Money generated from the enterprises enables the schools to be self-sufficient and cover their operating costs – such as salaries, administration and school maintenance – without the need for government funding.
The project has already reached more than 500 students in Paraguay. It was first established in 2003, at the Escuela Agrícola San Francisco. The school has been financially self-sufficient for more than five years. The Nestlé CSV Prize will help to scale up the project with the funds being used to recreate the winning model in the Paraguayan city of San Pedro.
In addition to the overall winner, the CSV Advisory Board selected two runners up:
arcenciel is a Lebanese non-profit organisation that helps farmers and small food-processing business owners improve the sustainability and competitiveness of Lebanese agriculture throughout the value chain.
Excellent Development is a non-profit organisation that helps rural communities in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Uganda gain access to clean water through the construction of sand dams. This is carried out through a community self-help approach alongside soil and water conservation activities and training in climate-smart agricultural techniques.
2010 Winner
2010 Prize winner: The first Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value was awarded to IDE Cambodia for its innovative approach to increasing agricultural productivity and income for Cambodian farmers
iDE Cambodia was awarded the inaugural Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value in May 2010, for their programme aimed at increasing agricultural productivity and income for Cambodian smallholder farmers.
Starting in 2005, IDE Cambodia developed a network of independent small rural entrepreneurs that it calls: Farm Business Advisors. These advisors give technical advice to the small scale farmers to help them boost their productivity while selling them products such as high-quality seeds, fertilizer, plastic fencing and irrigation equipment and services. More than one hundred FBAs are now working with 15,000 farmers. During the period of Nestlé involvement (2011-2012), total FBA sales to farmers doubled annually - from USD 65,000 in 2010 to a 2012 forecast revenue of USD 440,000.
The demonstrated effectiveness of the model has attracted further investment from other development partners, and the program will grow from its current size to 330 agents in eight Cambodian provinces by mid-2013.