A Celebration of Radical Solutions and Bold Leadership
The Skoll World Forum has always been a space where bold ideas meet action. From pioneering health interventions to defending democracy, the 2025 Skoll Awards for Social Innovation in Oxford brought together some of the most inspiring leaders and organisations, showcasing groundbreaking approaches to global challenges.
A Night of Recognition and Resolve
The 2025 Skoll Awards Ceremony was a highlight, honouring transformative organisations and individuals reshaping the global landscape. Hosted at the New Theatre Oxford, the event featured an insane line up of Bill Drayton, Don Gips, Marla Blow, Trevor Noah and could you believe it – Chaka Khan. This lineup underscored the intersection of social change, business, and culture, with an announcement of a brand new fund for innovators targeting education in South Africa.
The most poignant moment was the Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka. With the belief that “Everyone a Changemaker,” Ashoka has supported thousands of Fellows globally, empowering individuals from all walks of life to drive change. Drayton’s pioneering work in social entrepreneurship has been instrumental in shaping systemic change, making this recognition a well-deserved tribute to his lifelong impact.
Rewriting the Rules: Award-Winning Innovations
From grassroots activism to structural economic reform, this year’s five awardees are proving that change is not just possible, but it is actually happening.
EarthEnable – Transforming Homes, Transforming Lives
In many parts of Africa, earthen floors contribute to preventable diseases. EarthEnable, led by Gayatri Datar, is tackling this by providing affordable, durable, and sustainable flooring. Datar’s organisation ensures that more families can live in safer, healthier environments. Their earthen floors are 70% cheaper and 95% more sustainable than concrete, and have already improved lives for over 200,000 people across Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya. This year, they are launching full earthen homes with accessible mortgage plans. By 2030, their builders will have saved 90,000 tons of CO2.
“A home should be a place where we feel proud and safe.” – Gayatri Datar
Apis & Heritage (A&H) Capital Partners – Shared Ownership as Economic Justice
What if the workers who build a company’s success actually owned it? That’s the question driving APIS & Heritage Capital Partners. Todd Leverette and Phillip Reeves created a model that transitions businesses into 100% employee-owned enterprises, ensuring long-term security for workers. They have transitioned $65 million worth of businesses to worker ownership, ensuring stronger healthcare, retirement, board seats, and better wages. Now, they are scaling up with a new fund 5X larger than the first, aiming to create 2,500 worker-owners in just five years.
“They offered me something for my future.” – A&H beneficiary
Healthy Learners – Zambia’s Scalable School Health Model
For under $2 per child, Healthy Learners has made school-based healthcare a reality across Zambia – ensuring kids get the care they need, when they need it. Lonnie Hackett and Ignicious Bulongo are showing what real local ownership of impact looks like by demonstrating that the government is now fully integrating the model. Already in 600 schools and reaching over 980,000 children, the programme has led to a 38% drop in morbidity, a 48% boost in deworming coverage, and a 22% increase in health knowledge among students. With a national scale-up agreement in place, Healthy Learners is on track to reach 2.5 million children.
“This model isn’t just ours; it belongs to Zambia.” – Ignicious Bulongo
Pacto pela Democracia – Defending Democracy in Brazil
In the face of rising authoritarianism, Pacto pela Democracia, led by Flávia Pellegrino, stands as a pillar of democratic resilience. Since 2018, this coalition of 200+ civil society organisations has mobilised to protect Brazil’s democratic institutions and prevent political backsliding. In a defining moment, they rallied 1 million signatures in defence of democracy. During the 2022 elections, they safeguarded the process, infrastructure, and outcomes through 80+ coordinated actions. Today, Pacto is working with pro-democracy leaders globally to share strategies and strengthen collective resistance to authoritarian threats.
“We are in the fight of our lives. Keeping together is the most powerful thing we will ever have.” – Flávia Pellegrino
Community Health Impact Coalition (CHIC) – Revolutionising Global Health Workforces
The CHIC is transforming frontline care across 60+ countries and five WHO regions. Made up of thousands of community health workers (CHWs) and dozens of global health organisations, CHIC acts as a nonprofit system orchestrator, with coalition members openly sharing tools, insights, and IP to accelerate learning. Their efforts are reshaping national policy: 47 countries have adopted pro-CHW policies, 7 out of 8 CHW best practices now inform WHO guidelines, and 12,000 CHWs have been trained to lead advocacy themselves. CHIC ensures CHWs are paid, equipped, and recognised as the professionals they are, whilst also pushing governments to institutionalise and fund the frontline.
“We have the tools to combat inequality; we just need to learn how to use them.” – Dr. Madeleine Ballard, CEO
Moving Forward – A Collective Responsibility
The message from this year’s Forum was unmistakable: the solutions to many of our toughest global challenges already exist. But, what’s missing? Scale, investment, and the willingness to act. One theme was evident throughout: collective action is essential to systemic change.
This year’s awardees remind us that hope is not something we wait for, but it is something we build. Through action. Through innovation. Through persistence. And most often, it’s built quietly, by people whose names may never be known because they’re too busy doing the work.
The path to a better future doesn’t begin on stages or end in press releases. It’s imagined and implemented in the field, in the community, in the everyday. Forums like Skoll shine a light, but the real work is happening every day by those who rarely step into the spotlight. And that’s where true change begins: step by step, led by those who keep going, together – and let’s celebrate this.
