European Essay Competition “IMAGINE”
“Radically Reducing World Poverty: What Role for Europeans?”
The World Bank (Vice-Presidency for Europe) in partnership with the College of
Europe will launch the 2003-2004 European Essay Competition for students to
compete academically at European level.
Through this project, the World Bank intends to reach a large number of students
throughout Western and Eastern Europe and to go beyond its traditional interlocutors
(top economists, specific universities, etc).
Objectives:
-make young people aware on the complexity of the topic and determine their
involvement and reflection on concrete proposals
-advocate for Development among the youth and students community
-mobilize the students in Europe on the role of Europe on the Development Agenda
Key features:
-the competition will encourage students to incorporate a development focus in their
work (the primary target group is not students studying International Development or
Development Economics)
-the competition is entirely web-based (guidelines, submission of papers, review
process, etc).
Topic: “Radically Reducing World Poverty: What Role for Europeans?”
Participants are invited to select and to plead for some priorities and to make a critical
use of some of the following sources.
Issues can be chosen from the following domains:
 EU policies and the implications of enlargement
 National strategies and multilateral complementarities
 What are the local, national and global conditions of sustainable development
 The limits of purely economic assistance
 The impact of globalisation
 The impact of international political priorities
 How to mobilise public opinion?
Sources:
http://www.worlbank.org
http://www.europa.eu.int/pol/dev/index_en.htm - European Union (development)
http://www.europa.eu.int/pol/comm/index_en.htm - European Union (Trade)
http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/ - Institute of Development Studies
http://www.odi.org.uk/ - Overseas Development Institute
http://www.iisd.org/trade/res_gd.htm - trade and sustainable development research
guide
http://www.itd.org/index1.htm - Trade and Development Centre
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http://www.ictsd.org/ - International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development
Who can take part in the European Essay Competition
The European Essay Competition is open to students studying in Western and Eastern
Europe, between 19 and 25 years old.
Students involved in PHD courses will not be entitled to compete.
Process
The competition will be launched in October 2003, by a massive campaign (youth
media, posters and leaflets in universities)
The launch could occur through a life webcast on the IMAGINE website.
Partnership will be set up with Euronews.
Submission process
Students will be invited to submit their essay (max. 20 pages – 8000 words) and an
abstract (max. 2 pages) in French, English or Spanish.
The deadline of the submission is fixed at the end of February.
Through the assistance of various partners, a European jury will be created in order to
revise entries and select winners. The jury will ensure the transparency of the process.
The jury will select the winning essays according to the following evaluation criteria:
Relevance to European issues, Quality of proposals, Structure and coherence of
argument, Originality/Creativity, Clarity of expression, Use of literature and evidence.
In each country, we will identify a contact person, who will have a correspondent role
in the publicity and dissemination of the competition.
The evaluation will be done at European level (deadline end of April).
Final Process
The finalists will be invited to submit their essays in front of a panel of experts. The
final presentations will take place during the ABCDE meeting (May 2004).
The presentations will be filmed and put on the web.
Awards will be distributed during the ABCDE meeting.
Interviews could be set up with the winners (partnership with Euronews).
Awards
internships to the World Bank
prices of EUR 2000 and EUR 1000
field visit to a World Bank project in a developing country
A summary of best essays will be published in a book / in a TODAY article.
Communication Channels and Tools
Channels:
-Youth networks and organisations at national and European level
 National Youth Councils (European Youth Forum)
 AEGEE
 ESIB
 ESN
 AIESEC
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 Youth political organisations
-Academic networks (E2AND, EUA, Coimbra)
Contacts will be made with EURODESK, the Technical Assistance Office Youth,
Leonardo & Socrates of the European Commission, Youth Network of the Council of
Europe
-World Bank offices
-College of Europe network (national Selection committees, etc)
-Jean Monnet network
Tools:
-posters to be distributed to the universities
-leaflets to be distributed to the universities, to the academic networks
-IMAGINE website
-banners on universities websites
-articles in students press
Plan of action
October 2003: Launch of the European Essay Competition
October-January 2004: Students submit essays
29 February: Deadline of submission
February-April: Selection process
May 2004: Winners presentations
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