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CUFA wins Resilience Award at UN SDG Action Awards for favela-led programs
Summary
CUFA (Central Única das Favelas) won the 2025 SDG Action Resilience Award at the UN SDG Action Awards in Rome, recognized for community-driven work addressing inequality in Brazil's favelas. The award was presented by Nomzamo Mbatha; CUFA representative Marcus Vinicius Atade accepted the prize and described CUFA's grassroots approach.
CUFA, a Brazil-based community organization working in favelas, won the 2025 SDG Action Resilience Award at the UN SDG Action Awards ceremony in Rome on Oct. 31, 2025. Nomzamo Mbatha, the event judge who presented the prize, read the citation and announced CUFA as the winner.
The award recognizes initiatives that "turn crisis into progress to build more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable communities," according to the ceremony's onstage definition delivered before the announcement. Marcus Vinicius Atade accepted the award on behalf of CUFA and said the organization focuses on creating opportunities where inequality is entrenched. "Favela means a place where we know there's a lot of inequality," Atade said. "CUFA is not me. CUFA is every leader, every member that is working every day, every week, every year to help other peoples... to give more opportunities to the kids, to the entrepreneurs, and to womans."
Atade framed CUFA's work as long-term community building rather than short-term crisis relief. He told the audience that CUFA aims for a world "without inequality and without poverty." The remarks were delivered after Nomzamo Mbatha explained resilience as "that quiet might that refuses to let go" and introduced the category finalists.
The Resilience prize was one of three main awards handed out during the ceremony, which the organizers said drew more than 5,500 entries from 190 countries. CUFA was presented alongside finalists mentioned onstage: Women for Peace and Democracy Nepal and Footprint of Freedom. The awards program also included an honorable mention for a UN initiative.
CUFA's recognition underscores the awards' emphasis on locally led responses to crises and on the role of community leadership in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
