Bucharest / Davos, January 13, 2026
Ioana Bauer, president of the eLiberare organization, was designated the first Romanian winner of the Schwab Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship, one of the most prestigious international recognitions given to leaders who develop systemic and scalable solutions to some of the most urgent global social challenges. This is the first recognition of this kind for a social entrepreneur in Central and Eastern Europe in the last 15 years.
ÎAs a Schwab Foundation Awardee, Ioana Bauer will participate in the Davos 2026 Economic Forum, where the winners will be recognized at a ceremony on the global stage. The event will also be broadcast live through the World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation channels, in the context of this year’s meeting’s theme, A Spirit of Dialogue.
Ioana Bauer is recognized at the 2026 Schwab Foundation Awards along with 17 other selected leaders from around the world for their ability to demonstrate that economies and societies can simultaneously serve people, the planet and progress. The winners of the 2026 edition join a community of more than 500 entrepreneurs and social innovators, whose work has contributed to improving the lives of almost 1 billion people, in more than 190 countries. They have generated systemic changes in areas such as health, education, gender equity, climate action, circular economy and civic participation.
This year’s award reflects Ioana Bauer’s contribution to the development and scaling of innovative models for preventing, identifying and supporting the fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, with a focus on child protection, community prevention and the integration of survivors into public policies.
“The fact that, this year, the global agenda in Davos brings to the fore the prevention and fight against trafficking in human beings is a profound recognition of a simple truth: we cannot talk about real progress as long as the lives of some people are sacrificed for the profit of others. It is a signal that human dignity matters at least as much as any technological or economic progress. The other important dimension is the fact that this recognition also proves that the Central and Eastern European region is not only a space that imports solutions, but a place from which innovations, courage and intervention models capable of changing lives and inspiring global responses are born, and in the current context I believe that it is more important than ever not to forget this”, said Ioana Bauer, president of the organization eLiberare and winner in 2026 of the Schwab Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
Under the coordination of Ioana Bauer, eLiberare has become one of the leading organizations in the field of preventing and identifying human trafficking, through an approach that connects direct intervention in communities with system change. The organization has developed models of community protection now applied trans-continental, which can be used by formal and non-formal actors, demonstrating that prevention is effective when it is accessible, replicable and integrated into institutional structures.
A central example of this approach is the KOMPASS model, developed by eLiberare in the context of the Ukrainian refugee crisis, at a time when the risks of human trafficking and exploitation have increased significantly. The model allowed for the early identification of vulnerabilities and was later recognized as an international good practice, being adapted and used in several European countries and in African countries.
In addition to the fieldwork, Ioana Bauer and eLiberare have had constant contributions in the area of public policies and strategic frameworks on combating human trafficking. At national level, eLiberare is a strategic partner of the Romanian authorities, contributing to the development and implementation of the National Strategy Against Trafficking in Persons, to the co-creation of the National Referral Mechanism for victims and to the activity of the Interministerial Strategic Committee for combating trafficking in persons. The organisation represents civil society in the Economic and Social Council and is involved in legislative consultations on the protection of children, including in the digital environment. At the international level, eLiberare has contributed to official benchmark reports, such as the Council of Europe’s GRETA assessments and the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report. eLiberare also has special consultative status within ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council), one of the six main bodies of the UN, responsible for coordinating economic, social, cultural and health cooperation at international level.
Ioana Bauer is one of the international experts involved in policy processes of the United Nations, the European Union and the OSCE and is recognized as a leading voice in the fight against human trafficking and the protection of children in the digital environment. She is an Ashoka Fellow and Resilience Fellow of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime and, from 2026, the first Romanian Schwab Foundation Awardee for her contribution to systemic change in support of the fight against human trafficking.
About Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is an international organization founded over 27 years ago in partnership with the World Economic Forum. The Foundation supports and connects a global community of more than 500 entrepreneurs and social innovators from more than 190 countries, whose initiatives have helped improve the lives of more than 950 million people. The Schwab Foundation Awards recognize leaders who develop innovative, scalable, and systemic solutions, demonstrating the critical role of social innovation in building inclusive and resilient economies and societies. https://www.schwabfound.org/ https://www.schwabfound.org/
About eLiberare
eLiberare is a non-governmental organization in Romania, founded in 2013, dedicated to building a social movement against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The organization’s work is based on preventive education, proactive identification, survivor engagement and strengthening public policy ecosystems. eLiberare is accredited and licensed by the Romanian Government to provide services to victims of human trafficking, including children, and collaborates with public authorities, international institutions and non-governmental organizations.
About Ioana Bauer
Ioana Bauer is an expert in public policy and human rights, with over 15 years of experience in preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and assisting victims, protecting children and developing systemic, community- and survivor-centered solutions. She is the president of the organization eLiberare, which has been fighting against human trafficking for over a decade.
Her work combines direct intervention, community prevention and strategic advocacy. She has worked directly with survivors of human trafficking, coordinated national prevention programs, and contributed to legislative reforms and public strategies at national and international levels. In 2021, he was a public policy advisor at the Romanian Government, where he coordinated initiatives on child safety and reforms in preventing, identifying and combating human trafficking. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ioana-sandescu-bauer/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ioana-sandescu-bauer/
In 2026, she was designated the first Romanian Schwab Foundation Awardee, being recognized for the development and scaling of innovative models of community protection and for her contribution to systemic change in supporting the fight against human trafficking.
For further information, please contact Raluca Vasile, email raluca@orchid-woodcock-285240.hostingersite.com, phone no. 0758752986 or Andreea Stamate, email andreea.stamate@orchid-woodcock-285240.hostingersite.com, phone no. 0728171232