The second edition of the Bianca Pomeranzi Prize is launched today. The initiative aims to build a living legacy of her extraordinary contribution to the promotion of women’s rights and freedoms in the Italian, international and transnational spheres.
Bianca Maria Pomeranzi (1950-2023) was a leading figure in the Italian development cooperation domain and in the feminist movement. She co-founded AIDOS (Italian Association of Women for Development), worked as Senior Gender Expert at the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, directed the Local Technical Unit of the Italian Cooperation for Senegal and East Africa (2010-11), and was elected to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) of the United Nations.
The Prize is open to individuals who graduated at an Italian university in Development Cooperation Sciences (LM81), International Relations (LM52), and the Honours Program ‘Talents and Territories’ (TALETE), and whose dissertation focused on feminist and gender politics and practices in the political, social, cultural, environmental and economic domain.
The Prize aims to intervene in the transition period between academic studies and the work sphere, offering a three-month internship at a leading organization in the field. The internship will be paid, thanks to the generous contribution of the RUT Foundation, European Women’s Management Development Network/Rome Chapter (EWMD Rome), and UNFPA’s West and Central Africa Regional Office based in Dakar, Senegal.
After the success of the first edition, for the second edition two internships will be offered – one with UNFPA and the other with AIDOS.
The Promoting Committee of the Bianca Pomeranzi Prize is constituted by Dr Elena Zambelli (Maynooth University) and Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, who conceived the initiative, and AIDOS, Casa Internazionale delle Donne, Differenza Donna, Department of Political Science at Roma Tre University/PhD in Political Science – Gender Studies Curriculum, EWMD Rome, RUT Foundation and Oxfam Italy.
The initiative is also sponsored by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and has the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) and UNFPA.
The Scientific Committee includes over twenty women from the aforementioned organizations, along with international cooperation experts, diplomatic and parliamentary figures, university professors, activists and representatives of feminist and women’s associations. They are joined by friends who have donated texts, images, time and work to construct the Prize’s website.
For information: www.biancapomeranzi.it; premiobiancapomeranzi@gmail.com