The World Bank 2007 Essay Competition

Calendar

January 5, 2007 - Launch of the Essay Competition
March 15, 2007 - Deadline for submissions
April 20, 2007 - Finalists announced
May 17, 2007 - Final Jury in Bled, Slovenia
May 18, 2007 - Award Ceremony during the ABCDE Conference in Bled, Slovenia (The World Bank will cover travel and accommodation expenses for the finalists)

Topic

WANTED – Your Practical Ideas

Today is your world! You are making a difference. Tell us how corruption affects your daily life as youth and what you can do to overcome it.

Participate now and have your voice heard! The World Bank and its partners invite you to participate in the International Essay Competition 2007 to share your experience and ideas on fighting corruption.

Answer both topic questions:

1) How does corruption affect your life?
2) What can you do to fight the corruption that you face?

If you have been personally involved in concrete initiatives, write specifically about your experience: How did you recognize corruption? Who have you worked with? Who have you helped? What have you accomplished? In what way would you consider this work to be innovative? How have you measured the results of your work? How would you improve your impact? How can other youth replicate your experience?

If you don’t have practical experience, write specifically about your ideas: How would you work to fight the corruption that you face?

Who can participate

Are you:

• A young person between 18 and 25 years of age (born in the years 1982 – 1989) from any country of the world?

• Interested in global issues?

• Attending school or working?

If you answer ‘YES' to all of the questions, then you can participate in the Essay Competition!!
The competition is open to students and non-students alike, able to submit their essay in either English, French or Spanish.

Length and format

How long should your essay be? Your essay may not be longer than 10 pages (4000 words maximum), 1.5 line-spaced.

You are also required to provide an abstract of no more than one page. An abstract is a short summary in which you explain the aim, the methodology, the reasoning and the main conclusions of your paper. The abstract will be used by the jury to make a pre-selection.You may submit your paper and abstract in English, French or Spanish.

How to submit

How to submit your essay?The submission process for the Essay Competition 2007 is entirely Internet-based.

Essays submitted by email or post will not be accepted.

Click here to submit your essay.

Rules

RULES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Submissions will be accepted till March 15, 2007.

• Each participant can only submit one essay.

• Participants must be between 18 and 25 years of age (born 1982 - 1989).

• Essays should not be longer than 10 pages (4,000 words, maximum), 1.5 line-spaced.

• Essays can only be submitted online, in English, French orSpanish.

• Each essay must be accompanied by an abstract (max. one page). The abstract will be used by the jury to make a pre-selection.

• All essays will be blind reviewed. References to specific individuals, firms, or schools, which might reveal the author's identity are discouraged.

• Quotes and references must be clearly marked throughout the essay and properly cited.

• All essays must be original. No previously published material will be accepted. Any form of plagiarism will result in automatic disqualification. Please note that all essays will be screened with a specialized software to verify plagiarism.

• We recommended that you write your essay in a word-processing program (check for grammar and spelling; clarity counts).

• Contestants are asked not to add emphasis using HTML etc. Italics and other text formatting will be added to the finalist essays for publication purposes.

• The World Bank reserves the right to publish and/or to make available to the public the winning essays.

• The decision of the Jury is final and is not subject to an appeal.

• Participants of the previous editions of the Essay Competition are also encouraged to apply.