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ESSAY COMPETITON
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION
1. Essay competition
As part of its 16th Annual Global Development Conference, GDN organizes an essay competition with the
support of ERF. This competition is dedicated to young students from the MENA region who are between
21 and 29 years old. It aims at selecting 20 students who will be invited to attend the Conference from 11 to
13 June in Morocco. Travel and accommodation costs will be bear by the organizers. The selected students
will have the opportunity (i) to attend the Conference and interact with seasoned researchers, civil society
representative and policy makers, (ii) to interact with each other and make new contacts, (iii) and to attend a
specific workshop tailored for them (the day before the Conference) so that they present their ideas to a high
level panel.
Participants have to write an essay of 2000-2500 words on the following subject: Rural Development
Strategies in the MENA Region. Submissions will be judged for both their analytical rigor and their quality of
exposition and written expression. The paper must be innovative and able to put forward positive proposals
for one of the following themes:
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Rural Development and food security,
Natural resource management,
Demographic pressure,
Institutions and government policies.
2. Eligibility
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Age: students who are between 21 and 29 years old (on 10 June 2015) are eligible to apply.
Countries: participants must be registered in a university from one of the countries mentioned in the
following list: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,
Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey,
United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Past grantees and individuals that have been awarded a prize by GDN (including the finalists of the 2014
essay competition invited in Accra) are not eligible to apply.
Only individual submissions will be considered.
3. Essay Submission Format
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Theme: Submissions have to deal with the following challenge: « Rural Development Strategies in the
MENA Region » picking one of the following themes:
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Rural development and food security: What kind of agricultural model to ensure food security? Which
role for innovation and biotechnologies? What about small farmers? How to raise productivity?
Natural resource management: water (irrigation, pricing, scarcity,...), degradation of soil, biodiversity,
impact of climate change on the yields and the cultures;
Demographic pressure: job policies and employment perspectives in rural areas, migrations, rural and
urban divide;
Institutions and government policies: Which role for local authorities, for farmers‟ cooperatives, water
users associations, for local credit institutions? What about the social and cultural capital in rural areas?
What kind of market intervention and trade policies?
Word limit: the essay must contain between 2000 and 2500 words, excluding foot notes and
reference lists. Personal information about the author should not be mentioned.
Structure: the essay must be well structured with a title, an introduction, different parts that are clearly
idendified, a conclusion and a reference list. Sources should be cited consistently.
Format: the submission must be in pdf format.
Language: the essay should be submitted only in English or French.
4. Plagiarism
All forms of academic dishonesty are unacceptable to GDN, plagiarism being one of them. GDN takes
plagiarism very seriously and will take immediate and appropriate action regarding that matter.
5. How to participate?
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Online submission: www.gdn.int/conf2015. Only the essays submitted through the online platform
will be considered. In particular, submissions via email will be rejected. If you are unable to
submit your application through the online platform, please contact GDN on essaymena2015@gdn.int
with the subject line “Essay Competition 2015”.
Deadline for submissions: 10 April, 2015, 6pm (Indian Standard Time).
Results will be communicated on 30 April, 2015. Only winning applicants will be contacted.
Incomplete applications will not be accepted.
No more than one paper will be accepted per corresponding author. If more than one is received, all will
be rejected.
6. Advice to succeed
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Respect the rules mentioned above. If one of those rules is not respected the submission will not be
considered.
Structure your essay (title, introduction, different parts, conclusion).
Make your text more convincing with facts and figures.
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Cite your sources. Every source must mention author, year, title of the article, name of the review.
For any queries related to the Essay Competition, please contact GDN at essaymena2015@gdn.int with the
subject line “Essay Competition 2015”.
7. Introduction to GDN and the Annual Global Development Conference
The Global Development Network (GDN) is a Public International Organization that empowers
researchers in developing and transition countries in the fields of economics and social sciences. GDN is
headquartered in New Delhi, currently with office in Washington D.C., and works in collaboration with 11
Regional Network Partners as well as with international donor organizations and governments, research
institutes, academic institutions, think tanks and more than 12,500 individual researchers worldwide.
GDN‟s flagship event is its three-day Annual Global Development Conference held in different countries,
each year, across the globe. These conferences aim to connect developing countries researchers and students
with the world‟s most influential researchers, corporate leaders and political figures on a common platform
where they can interact with each other, share their research work and discuss the most pressing challenges in
social and economic development. Methodology workshops dedicated to PhD and young researchers from
developing and transition countries occur just before the Conference. Prizes are also awarded.
The GDN‟s forthcoming 2015 Annual Global Development Conference is organized around the major
theme: Agriculture for Sustainable Growth: Challenges and Opportunities for a New „Green Revolution‟. In
light of the challenges of economic, social and environmental sustainability facing agricultural and food
systems, the conference aims at a better understanding of the nature, role and prospects of agricultural
development in the context of the post-2015 development agenda and the new international climate
agreement.
For any queries regarding the conference, please write to us at conference@gdn.int.