The Right Livelihood Award _ Deadline: 1-Mar-2012

The idea of 'right livelihood' is an ancient one. It embodies the principle that each person should follow an honest occupation, which fully respects other people and the natural world. It means being responsible for the consequences of our actions and taking only a fair share of the earth's resources. 

In every generation, there are groups of people and individuals around the globe who valiantly uphold these principles of right livelihood. They should be the stars in our human cosmos; instead their work often entails personal sacrifice, being opposed by powerful forces around them. The Right Livelihood Award exists to honour and support such people. 

Proposals & Selection Process

Anyone - except Right Livelihood Award Jury and staff members - can propose anyone (individuals or organisations), except themselves, close relatives or their own organisations, to be considered for a Right Livelihood Award. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation reserves the right to refuse clearly unsuitable proposals. Proposals must not be publicised, except to the candidate and possible referees. Failure to observe this invalidates a proposal. 

In this way, the Foundation receives proposals from all around the world. Projects from “Third World” Countries and grassroots activists have the same chance of being proposed as, for example, a First World scholar or entrepreneur. Through this open nomination process, the Foundation gets a sense of what people around the world perceive as the most urgent problems - and who develops ways to solve them. 

In any year, there are some 70-100 proposals for the Right Livelihood Award. After careful research by the Foundation’s research team, reports on all current proposals are submitted to the international Jury. The Jury meets annually at the end of September to select the Recipients. The year's Awards are announced at a press conference in Stockholm ten days later. 

The following guidelines are for anyone wishing to propose a candidate for the Right Livelihood Award. Prospective proposers who have not had previous contact with the Foundation are advised to write to the Foundation with brief information before making a formal submission. Proposals, preferably written in English, cannot be accepted by e-mail. Please send them by regular mail to our office.

Anyone - except Right Livelihood Award Jury and staff members - can propose anyone (individuals or organisations), except themselves, close relatives or their own organisations to be considered for a Right Livelihood Award. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation reserves the right to refuse clearly unsuitable proposals. 

Normally, the Foundation makes three Cash Awards and one Honorary Award each year. The Cash Awards are intended for work in progress or the extension of existing activities; they are never given for personal use. 

At the sole discretion of the Jury, an unsuccessful candidate may be held over for consideration in the following year. Otherwise an unsuccessful candidate can be proposed again after three years, if there is substantial new work to report. 

It is in the interest of candidates to ensure that up-to-date information about their work and future plans is sent to the RLA office by June 1 every year. The Jury is unlikely to consider seriously for an RLA a person or organisation about whom such information has not been received. 

Because of our open process of proposals, the simple fact of a proposal says nothing about a candidate's suitability for an Award or his or her likelihood of receiving it. Proposals must therefore not be publicised, in order to avoid confusion with those who actually receive Awards. Infringement of this rule will make a candidate liable to disqualification.

From the Proposer:

The proposer should be someone who knows the proposed person/organisation well, is familiar with their aims and goals and can vouch for their bona fides. A proposer can propose no more than one new candidate in any one year. 

The proposer may consult the candidate in advance but may also choose to be anonymous. For a proposals to be valid for the current year, the proposer should send in the following information by March 1. Any proposals received after this date will normally be held for consideration in the following year.

1. Full address, e-mail, phone and fax (if available) of self and proposed candidate.
2. Nature and length of relationship with the candidate, mentioning professional, financial or political links, if any.
3. Indication, with brief reasons, of whether the proposal is intended for a Cash or Honorary Award, or whether either would be appropriate. The Honorary Award is for candidates whose primary need is not cash support but who would benefit from the considerable recognition and publicity which a Right Livelihood Award generates.
4. A statement setting out the reasons for the proposal and the candidate's special qualifications for an Award.
5. A brief summary (no more than 200 words) of what you wrote under point 4.
6. An assurance that the candidate's work is sufficiently mature to justify a Right Livelihood Award. An Award is likely to generate enquiries, requests for visits etc., from people wanting to learn about the project. We do not expect candidates to have facilities for visitors or for dealing with large numbers of enquiries, but we do expect them to be ready and able to share their knowledge.
7. The proposer's expertise relevant to this proposal, mentioning his/her occupation.
8. The Jury cannot make an Award in a particular area unless it has comparative knowledge of individuals/organisations engaged in similar work. Submission of such information by the proposer, where possible, is therefore very valuable.
9. Wherever possible, the names and addresses of two other qualified persons from different organisations who have agreed to support the proposal. At least one of these, again where possible, should come from the candidate's country.

From the Candidate:

The following information is required from the proposed candidate. The candidate may submit this information jointly with the proposer. Otherwise, we will ask the candidate to submit this information after we have received a valid proposal.

1. A short history of your work/organisation, giving full address, e-mail, phone and fax.
2. Biographical data on yourself/organisation's founders and current leaders.
3. Written material produced by or about your project/organisation. (Materials submitted cannot be returned. If you wish to submit books, please send no more than two. In general it is not possible for the Jury to view videos.)
4. Duration of relevant activities, number of staff and volunteers, current budget and most recent annual accounts.
5. Names, addresses and contact persons of the main donors (if any) from which funding has been received in the past three years.
6. Details of any financial connection between officers/staff members and the government or a political party.
7. A commitment not to publicise the proposal on CVs, websites or in any other way, except for the specific purpose of obtaining references in support of the proposal.

It will facilitate the processing of information if it is numbered to correspond with the above questions.

Thank you for your co-operation. We look forward to hearing from you.

Postal Address

Right Livelihood Award Foundation
PO Box 15072
104 65 Stockholm
Sweden

Street address:
Right Livelihood Award Foundation
Hornsgatan 15
118 46 Stockholm
Sweden

Moreinfo:  http://www.rightlivelihood.org/right_livelihood.html