The annual We The Peoples awards recognise individuals who have "achieved outsized impact on the world stage", the UN Foundation said.
Ardern was given the Champion for Global Change award, in recognition of "her trailblazing and empathetic leadership, commitment to championing the rights of women, and fostering of unity and peace", the citation said.
Other recipients at the awards included TIME, poet and activist Amanda Gorman, singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo, entrepreneur Louise Mabulo, and UN emergency first responders.
Ardern, who was made a dame, one of New Zealand's highest honours, last month, unexpectedly resigned as prime minister in January 2023, citing exhaustion after five years as leader.
She is now Patron of the Christchurch Call, which she established in the wake of a terror attack in Christchurch that left 50 people dead in 2019. Ardern also joined the board of trustees of Prince William's Earthshot Prize and is currently writing a book, with a release date still to be set.
-- BERNAMA
