For the 2025 edition of the Geneva Challenge, teams of graduate students from academic programmes all over the world presented innovative and pragmatic solutions to address the challenges of migration. Out of 114 project entries submitted by 465 students, 15 teams were chosen as semi-finalists. A jury of high-level policymakers then selected five finalist teams, one per continent, who defended their projects at the Geneva Graduate Institute on 19 November 2025.
This year, the team from Africa, consisting of three students from the University of Gold Coast, was awarded the first prize. Their project, “AfriBridge Connect: A Digital Solution for Intra-African Migrant Integration” aims to address West Africa’s issue with migrant integration and the utiliszation of skilled youth across borders, particularly bridging the gap of linguistic access between French and English speakers, and validation of degrees, skillsets, and broader hiring opportunities.
The winners of the 2025 Geneva Challenge, Team Africa, with Amb. Yvette Stevens and Amb. Jenö Staehelin
Second place went to both the team from Europe with their project “SOLA: Empowering Moroccan Seasonal Women Workers in Spain Through Digital Dignity, Voice, and Protection” and the team from Asia with their project “Project Minsa: Reclaiming Rights and Recognition through a Digital Gateway for Undocumented Migrant Children in South Korea”. The teams from Latin America (“UNUM SomosUno”) and North America and Oceania (“PATH: Peer Action for Teen Health”) won the third prizes.
In her introductory remarks during, Marie-Laure Salles, Director of the Geneva Graduate Institute, stressed the importance of empowering young people to achieve the sustainable development goals.
In his keynote address, Mr. Patrick Eba, Deputy Director of the UNHCR’s Division of International Protection, underscored the unprecedented scale and complexity of global displacement in 2025, emphasiszing that behind the 117 million forcibly displaced people are individuals whose lives have been upended by conflict, climate change, and inequality. Highlighting the need for predictability, protection, and early intervention, Mr. Eba outlined UNHCR’s route-based approach, which views countries of origin, transit, asylum, and destination as interconnected parts of a broader mobility system. He reaffirmed the enduring relevance of the 1951 Refugee Convention, stressing that its principles —- especially non-refoulement —- remain essential and consistent with state sovereignty. Ultimately, Mr. Eba called on students and future leaders in the audience to contribute innovative, principled solutions that uphold asylum, expand safe pathways, and ensure that human mobility is met with dignity, opportunity, and hope. His speech was followed by a conversation with Martina Viarengo, Professor of Economics and Chair of the Academic Steering Committee for the Geneva Challenge.
The keynote speaker, Mr. Patrick Eba, and Prof. Martina Viarengo in a panel discussion
In his congratulatory speech, Michael Møller, President of the Jury, announced the theme for the 2026 edition of the Geneva Challenge, which will be "The Challenges to the Future of Work". The future of work is being transformed by technology, demographic change, climate pressures, and shifting social expectations, creating both new opportunities and significant risks. Artificial intelligence and automation are displacing routine jobs while demographic divides between aging high-income countries and youthful low-income regions threaten to worsen inequality or generate new growth. Combined with the rise of gig work, gendered digital gaps, and fragmented supply chains, these trends challenge existing social protections and institutions. The future of work will depend on collective choices to invest in people and our commitment to resolving these problems intersectionally.
Graduate students from around the world will be called upon to develop innovative solutions that address the global challenges to the future of work.