Peng Liyuan Attends the 2025 Award Ceremony and the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education

On the afternoon of September 19, 2025, the 2025 Award Ceremony and the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education was held in Beijing. Wife of President Xi Jinping and UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education Peng Liyuan attended and addressed the event together with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.

Peng Liyuan said that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education. Over the past ten years, award winners from all over the world and visionary people from all walks of life have helped girls and women adapt to social development and changes and achieve personal growth through education. The concept of empowering women through education is increasingly gaining deeper recognition, enabling millions of girls and women to gain the confidence and ability to choose their lives and pursue their dreams. This is precisely the significance of the Prize for Girls' and Women's Education. Human society is now entering the intelligence era. In this process, it is essential to place greater emphasis on science education for women, helping more women acquire scientific knowledge, learn to apply new technologies and enhance their innovation capabilities, and strive to ensure that women can embrace the technological revolution and create wonderful lives. China has always attached great importance to the development of science education for women and looks forward to continuously deepening cooperation with UNESCO and other relevant parties to comprehensively strengthen the capacity building of science education for women and jointly improve the level of science education for women.

In her speech, Audrey Azoulay expressed her gratitude to the Chinese government for its valuable support to UNESCO over the years, and highly commended Peng Liyuan's outstanding contributions to the development of the global cause of girls' and women's education. She said that UNESCO is willing to continue deepening exchanges and cooperation with China to promote more fruitful results in girls' and women's education around the world.

At the award ceremony, Peng Liyuan and Audrey Azoulay jointly presented awards to the representatives of the prize-winning projects from Kenya and Lebanon. Representatives of the prize-winning projects and Chinese female scientists delivered speeches respectively.

Before the award ceremony, Peng Liyuan met with Audrey Azoulay, and both sides exchanged views on promoting the development of the global cause of girls' and women's education. After the meeting, Peng Liyuan and Audrey Azoulay took a group photo with representatives of the prize-winning projects in the decade and visited the photo exhibition showcasing the winning projects for the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Prize for Girls' and Women's Education.

About 300 people, including representatives of UN agencies in Beijing, diplomatic envoys of relevant countries in China, representatives of Chinese and foreign teachers and students, and representatives from the education sector, attended the event.

Since China and UNESCO jointly established the Prize for Girls' and Women's Education in 2015, 20 projects from 19 countries have won this award.