ESOMAR Foundation Making a Difference Awards – Winners announced!

We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s edition of our Making a Difference Awards.

The judges were impressed by the quality of the entries this year and, mindful of the UN’s injunction to ‘Leave no one behind’ which is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we have selected 3 winners based on the positive impact that the research conducted will have on the lives of vulnerable people.  Our winning projects address three specific and very important groups, the research identified ways in which they can be helped and supported to improve their life chances, and has had a significant impact:

Supporting the financially excluded – The Human Account – serving the financially excluded

Jasper Grosskurth, Dalberg Research, Kenya

Dalberg and the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation: The Human Account – The Human Account is a six-country multi-method research project designed to be a catalyst for new product development serving the financially excluded. The measure of success was the degree to which others worked with the data – which is publicly available – examples are given of utilisation in India, Myanmar, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria by many different bodies.

Period poverty and its effect on young women – UK Period Poverty and Stigma

Kate Whiffen, Opinium, UK

Priya Minhas, Opinium, UK

Melanie Thienard, Plan International 

Opinium & Plan International: UK Period Poverty and Stigma – tackles the ‘toxic trio’ of issues that make up period poverty – lack of access to products, inadequate education and societal stigma – in order to empower young people into successful adulthood. The research has gained widespread media coverage in the UK and globally – specifically the work on the period emoji reached 4 million people on social media. Further, the research programme has changed the narrative in the UK by quantifying the extent of period poverty and its impact, and influenced policy makers and other key organisations to introduce policy changes.

Exploitation of Children – Understanding child trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in West Bengal, India – Knowledge, attitudes and practices among children, parents and community leaders in Bardhaman, Bankura and Birbhum

Sanghamitra Mazumdar, Seefar 

Malvika Dwivedi, Sattva Consulting

Seefar and My Choices Foundation: Understanding Child Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in West Bengal, India. The research resulting in the launch of the Safe Village Programme in three districts of West Bengal in February 2021. The campaign aims to improve knowledge and internalisation of key risks associated with CT/CSEC, and to promote the role that children, families and the wider community, can play in ending CT and CSEC

Congratulations to the winners of the 2021 Making a Difference Awards!

The winners are invited to present their case studies during the ESOMAR Insights Festival from 20-22 September 2021.

The ESOMAR Foundation wishes to thank all those who participated in the competition. We aim to promote and highlight the excellent case studies – to encourage the use of more insightful and inventive research for massively increasing the overall impact of market research in building a better world!