Congratulations to the Saudi Arabian Scouts Association on receiving the Cultural Communication Award for the Messengers of Peace initiative, recognising its contribution to promoting dialogue, understanding, and peace through Scouting.
Presented annually by the King Abdulaziz Center for Cultural Communication, the award recognises initiatives and organisations making an outstanding contribution to cultural communication, dialogue, tolerance, and understanding.
This year, the award's sixth edition received more than 1,200 submissions across five categories, with nine winners recognised. The Saudi Arabian Scouts Association was one of two recipients in the Civil Society Organizations category, receiving the award for Messengers of Peace.
The award was presented at a ceremony in Riyadh under the patronage of HRH the Governor of Riyadh Region and in the presence of HRH Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of Riyadh Region.
Following the recognition, Dr Mohammed Al-Sayed, Acting Secretary-General of the Saudi Arabian Scouts Association, highlighted the role of Scouting in serving communities and promoting dialogue, coexistence, and peace. He also recognised the long-standing partnership between the Saudi Arabian Scouts Association, World Scouting, and the World Scout Foundation in supporting young people and volunteers to take action in their communities.
Messengers of Peace was launched by World Scouting with the support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2010, bringing together Scouts around the world to promote peace, dialogue, and sustainable development through community action.
Since then, Scouts have carried out 633 funded projects in 171 countries, spanning peace, environment and sustainability, health and well-being, and life skills, reaching 30 million Scouts and adult leaders, and 5 million community beneficiaries. This, in turn, inspired an estimated 16 million non-funded projects and actions worldwide, and contributed nearly 3 billion hours of community service towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
In April 2025, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia renewed its support for Messengers of Peace with an additional USD 50 million in funding over ten years. The renewed partnership will strengthen Scouting's educational programmes and the capacity of National Scout Organizations to promote peace, dialogue, and community action, creating more opportunities for young people and volunteers to become active citizens and peacebuilders in their communities.
The impact of Messengers of Peace is made possible thanks to generous funding from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the World Scout Foundation.