On the 1st of October 2024 at 6 pm, the ceremony for the Bianca Pomeranzi Award will take place at the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) headquarters in Rome. This initiative was created to honor Bianca Maria Pomeranzi’s legacy and her extraordinary contribution to the promotion of women’s rights and freedoms at both national and transnational levels.
Bianca Pomeranzi (1950-2023) was a key figure in the field of development cooperation and feminism. Among her notable contributions were the co-founding of AIDOS (Italian Association of Women for Development), her work as a Senior Gender Expert at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and her election as a member of the CEDAW (UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women).
The Bianca Pomeranzi Award is aimed at recent graduates in Development Cooperation Sciences who have written theses focused on feminist and gender policies and practices in political, social, cultural, environmental, and economic fields. For this first edition, 25 theses, both in Italian and English, were submitted from across Italy. The winner will have the opportunity to undertake a paid internship at Oxfam Italy / Gender Justice Area, made possible thanks to the support of the RUT Foundation and the European Women’s Management Development Network (EWMD Rome).
The ceremony will feature speeches from representatives of AICS, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), UNFPA, and the International Women’s House, of which Bianca Pomeranzi was one of the founders. Other organizations involved in the Promoting Committee include AIDOS, Differenza Donna, the Political Science Department of Roma Tre University, and key figures such as Elena Zambelli and Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, who co-founded and chair the award.
The award’s scientific committee consists of 23 experts (in alphabetic order): Anna Simone (Università Roma Tre); Carla Pagano (Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale); Charito Basa (Filipino Women’s Council); Elena Zambelli (Maynooth University); Emilia Romano (Oxfam Italia); Fulvia Astolfi (Obiettivo Cinque srl ed EWMD – Roma); Gabriella Rossetti (già docente di Antropologia Culturale) Università di Ferrara; Giovanna Martelli (Fondazione RUT); Giuliana Serra (UNICEF); Ilaria Boiano (Differenza Donna); Lodovica Longinotti (Università Bocconi); Maria Nella Lippi (Oxfam Italia); Maria Rosa Cutrufelli (scrittrice); Marta Collu (AICS); Maura Cossutta (Casa Internazionale delle Donne); Michela Fusaschi (Università Roma Tre); Natalia Quintavalle (MAECI); Paola Melchiori (Casa delle Donne di Milano); Roberta Battista; Serena Fiorletta (AIDOS e Sapienza Università di Roma); Simonetta di Cori (ex AICS e ora Bambini nel Deserto); Stefania Vulterini (Futura editrice); Tiziana Lang (INAPP ed EWMD – Roma).
Contributing to the Award are also friends who have donated time, resources and passion to its creation. Carla Cotti, journalist and editor of Bianca Pomeranzi’s book ‘Feminists of a Single World’, published posthumously by Fandango Libri, edited Bianca’s biography published on the Award website. Franca Zacchei, photographer, donated Bianca’s photographs published on the same page, and on the home page – where they appear together with those taken by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, Bianca’s life partner. Tiziana Triana, editorial director of Fandango, donated the proceeds from Bianca’s book to support the Prize. Nicolas Bannier, teacher, created the Bianca Pomeranzi Award’s website, of which he is the webmaster.
For online participation you can register HERE.