CIPE Youth International Essay Contest

Each year, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) invites young people to share their ideas on how youth can help strengthen democracy and the private sector. CIPE has launched the Youth Essay Competition 2012. The aim is to encourage young people to share their ideas on how to create opportunities for youth to strengthen democracy and the private sector in their own countries.

Who can participate?
Students and young professionals aged 18-30.
Past CIPE Youth Essay Competition Winners are not eligible to participate.
Essay Topic
Students will have to write in English, an essay of minimum 1500 up to 2500 words on the specified categories. Your essay should address one of the following three categories. (The questions in bullet points are descriptive guidance meant to help you think about the topic. You do not necessarily have to answer these questions in your essay.) 

Categories

1) Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Beyond technology

• What barriers do young entrepreneurs in your country face in translating their ideas into products and services?
• How do young entrepreneurs in your country foster new ways of acting and thinking?
• What supporting institutions do young innovators need to succeed?

2) Inclusive Growth: The entrepreneurial environment for scaling up business

• What challenges do youth-led businesses and entrepreneurs in your country face when they’re expanding their enterprises?
• What opportunities do youth-led businesses and entrepreneurs have to succeed in your country, and what are some of the success stories?
• In your society, what tools or institutions do entrepreneurs need to grow small enterprises into larger, more prosperous businesses?

3) Social transformations: The role of entrepreneurs in building democratic societies

• How can entrepreneurship among youth strengthen newly-formed or emerging democracies?
• How are young entrepreneurs from different backgrounds participating in your country’s democracy?
• In what ways are young entrepreneurs contributing to social transformations in your country?

The essay you submit must focus on the role of youth and, where applicable, include examples from your personal experience relating to the topic. Essays that only talk about challenges to entrepreneurship in general terms, or limit proposed solutions only to what governments should do, will not be successful.

Prizes

For each category, first, second, and third place authors for each category will receive a $500 honorarium, and CIPE will publish winning essays.
One grand prize winner will be invited on an all-expense-paid trip to attend CIPE’s upcoming Democracy that Delivers for Entrepreneurs conference in the United States, which is planned for April 2013.

Application Deadline is 11 p.m. (EDT) 18 November 2012.

Length and language
1,500-2,500 words. All essays must be in English.
Submission Format
All essays must be submitted through an online form and must include the writer’s name in the file name and inside the document.
For example, if your name is John J. Smith, the document should be named “SMITH-JOHN.doc”.
For more information, see the original website HERE.
Submit your essay!


Essay Competition is Sponsored by The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. Each year, with funding from the US Congress, NED supports more than 1,000 projects of non-governmental groups abroad who are working for democratic goals in more than 90 countries.