Watch the Goldman Prize video of Semia and see her acceptance speech here.

Semia Gharbi, a long time IPEN leader, has been recognized as one of the winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize, an award granted each year to "ordinary people who take extraordinary actions to protect our planet." The Prize Winners will receive the award at a ceremony in San Francisco (live streamed on YouTube) on Monday, April 21 beginning at 5:30pm Pacific time.

Semia is an IPEN Steering Committee member and founder and Chairperson of Tunisia’s Association de l’Education Environnementale pour les Futures Générations (AEEFG), a nonprofit working to promote resilient education and envisioning a world where everyone lives in healthy environments without toxic chemicals. Her work has included efforts to end health threats from mercury, plastics, pesticides, lead in paint, EDC’s, incineration, waste, and all pollutants. With the award, Semia joins three fellow IPENers who have received the Goldman Prize: IPEN Co-chair Yuyun Ismawati (2009), fellow Streering Committee member Olga Speranskaya (2009), and former Co-chair Manny Calonzo (2018).

As the winner from the African region, Semia is well-known in the Middle East and North Africa for her work to end toxic health threats to people in the region and globally. In recognizing her achievements, the Goldman Prize highlighted her recent work to expose illegal shipments of hazardous waste sent to Tunisia from Italy, noting the corruption her efforts exposed and the resulting policy shifts following the campaign. They note that Semia led

"..a campaign that challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia, resulting in the return of 6,000 tons of illegally exported household waste back to Italy, its country of origin, in February 2022. More than 40 corrupt government officials and others involved in waste trafficking in both countries were arrested in the scandal. Her efforts spurred policy shifts within the EU, which has now tightened its procedures and regulations for waste shipments abroad."

In her work with IPEN, Semia has been a leader and contributor to the Plastics Treaty talks, the BRS COPs, the Minamata Convention, and other global policy forums, while leading national and regional efforts to expose health threats from lead in paint, pesticides, mercury contamination, and many other issues. She is an educator and environmental science and management expert with Bachelors degrees in biology and geology and a Masters degree in environmental sciences.  

The Goldman Prize, often called "the Environmental Nobel Prize," is awarded each year to grassroots environmental activists for their sustained and significant efforts in protecting and enhancing the natural environment. Six recipients are chosen each year, one from each of the world’s six inhabited continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands & Island Nations, North America, and South & Central America.

[Start the video below at 32:11 to see Semia's story and her acceptance speech]