Namatai Kwekweza has won the prestigious Next Generation Foresight Practitioners award that has also landed her a spot as a fellow on the panel of 2020 School of International Futures. Kwekwedza ward the award for driving a youth-friendly constitutional and governance reforms in Zimbabwe according to the Next Generation Foresights organisation.
This was revealed by the organisation on its website. The organisation revealed that Namatai received the Walkabout Prize which is a price given to practitioners aged between 18 and 25 for doing great things to create a better future and that she bit 15 other contestants to win the prize which also includes $5000 prize money.
Announcing Namatai and another winner for the Walkabout Prize, the organisation said:
The Walkabout prizes were won by Finn Strivens from the UK for his work using participatory methods to help young people and non-scientists to engage with science, and Namatai Kwekweza from Zimbabwe, for her work to to drive youth friendly constitutional and governance reforms in Zimbabwe and disrupt ageist normative frameworks
The Walkabout prizes are a new initiative for NGFP2020, designed for 18-25 year olds. Winners are recognised for their work advocating for futures thinking and change in their communities. Each of the other NGFP Fellows receives a Special Award for their work in a particular sector or geography. This year we awarded seventeen special awards to outstanding individual or team applications from different sectors or geographies, and we are delighted to be able to support the Africa and Asia Fellows with USD 5,000 in funding.
Namatai has headlined for protesting against the government’s human rights abuses and has been arrested more than once for her activism.