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Eight
finalists representing a global spread of
participants have been selected from the
recently closed Youth Essay Competition on
cities. Supported by the Cities Alliance in
partnership with the World Bank and the
Government of Norway the competition ran
from January 15th to March 23rd this year,
inviting youths all over the world to submit
essays on the topic: “What Can You Do to
Shape the City of your Dreams?” The eight
finalists are:
-
Himali
Ashis, Nepal
-
Hokou
Hermann, Côte d'Ivoire
-
Machado
Sara, Brazil
-
Nugroho
Katarina, Indonesia
-
Obajeun
Jonah, Nigeria
-
Rodriguez
Maria, Colombia
-
Saptarshi
Pal, India
-
Wang
Mengting, China
They will now
move on to the last stage of the competition
which is the Final Jury in Cape Town, South
Africa. This will lead to the selection of
the winner of the first prize of US$5,000
and runner up prizes of US$1,000. Prizes
will be presented to winners during the
closing ceremonies of the
Annual World Bank Conference on Development
Economics (ABCDE), taking place this
year in Cape Town.
This year's edition of the competition was
designed to gauge youth response to the
dynamics of urbanization, a world where more
than half of the world’s people live in
cities, with projections to increase to two
thirds by 2030. A total of 3,287 submissions
were received from 148 countries, 50 percent
more submissions than last year. These were
put through a three-phased, rigorous review
process involving over 12 partners,
including youth groups, universities and
research institutes. Countries with the
highest submissions were, in order of number
of entries: United States, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Brazil, Philippines and India.
Below is a table showing a more detailed
breakdown of submissions by countries.
The winning
essays have been posted on the essay
competition website at:
http://www.essaycompetition.org/blog/?p=30
Cities
Alliance plans to work with the World Bank,
the Government of Norway and UN-HABITAT to
document the city stories and to leverage
them as part of their outreach to youth in
cities.
For more information on the essay
competition, click here:
http://www.essaycompetition.org/
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