Environmental activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier is the recipient of a United Nations lifetime achievement award for human development.
The 53-year-old Watt-Cloutier will receive the 2007 Mahbub ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contributions to Human Development in New York City on June 20. The honour is in recognition of her work fighting global warming.
She also recently received the Order of Canada and is a current Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
The final judging panel determined that Watt-Cloutier has influenced development groups and policy leaders around the world.
The award is named after Mahbub ul Haq, a renowned economist from Pakistan and one of the founders of human development theory.
The prize goes to a “world leader who has successfully put human development at the heart of the national development agenda in his or her country,” according to the United Nations development program’s website.
Watt-Cloutier was chosen from more than 50 entries by a panel that included Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, former Bolivian president Jorge Quiroga and Princess Basma of Jordan.
In February, she was nominated along with former U.S. vice-president Al Gore for the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to raise awareness about the impact of climate change.
