GDN International Youth Competition 2019 (Win €1000 & Fully Funded to GDN’s 2019 Global Development Conference -Bonn,Germany)

Application Deadline: August 15th 2019

The Global Development Network (GDN) is hosting its 19th global development conference on the 23-25 October 2019, to facilitate the research-policy interface in pursuit of the SDGs. The conference will also mark GDN’s 20th anniversary since its launch at the Global Development Conference in 1999.

GDN has kept pace with changes in the development research landscape through its activities, and its conferences in Bonn, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi, Dakar, St Petersburg, Beijing, Brisbane, Kuwait, Prague, Bogota, Budapest, Manila, Accra, Casablanca, and Lima. 

In Bonn, four interrelated conference themes will be discussed:

• From research to sustainable development action: interdisciplinary research, knowledge sharing, evidence brokering
• The global and shared challenges of sustainable development: migration, climate change, health, etc.
• Next frontier challenges: Big Data, AI, digital transformation
• Greater local ownership and sustainability: implications for research policies and funding 

The program will last two-and-a-half days, during which each of the themes will be addressed in 90-minute plenaries, followed by a more in-depth discussion of the various subthemes in parallel sessions, with panelists and papers selected through competitive calls. Other features will include special keynotes, awards, posters, and side events.

This blog competition for youth is launched as part of GDN’s forthcoming 2019 Global Development Conference, “Knowledge for Sustainable Development: the Research-Policy Nexus” (October 23-25 in Bonn, Germany), supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Foreign Ministry and organized in partnership with the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), the German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), and the Bonn Alliance for Sustainable Development Research.

Qualifications & Requirements

Writers must

•Be under the age of 30, on 1 August 2019
•Have at least completed a Master’s degree, and have a strong interest in research
•Be a developing or transition country national, living in their country of origin or abroad

The Competition

GDN and its partners invite young graduates and researchers under the age of 30 to explore and share their faith in developing a sound knowledge base, and engaging in high-quality, sustainable, development research.

GDN ask you to identify a good piece of research (or several of them) that has impacted, or can impact, sustainable development. It can be their own research, or that of another. It has to be published in a peer-review journal or in a recognized working paper series.

GDN ask you to submit a blog that makes the case for sustainable development research, by explaining how the piece they identified has provided useful insights to opinion leaders, policy makers and other stakeholders, and translated into influential debate or effective action.

This is therefore not an exercise in summarizing a research paper. What we ask is to document the impact of good sustainable development research, by providing narratives based on convincing examples. The organizers will also accept blog posts that criticize the potential usefulness of current development research.

Selection Criteria

After determining that the submission is admissible and running anti-plagiarism checks, the selection committee will focus its review on the following criteria:

•Academic quality of references: the discussion is expected to be on a piece of high-quality research authors have come across during their research and study. Generalcommentaries will not be considered.

•Originality: submissions are expected to provide insights into the broader significance of research work for sustainable development efforts. These might include the definition, questioning, operationalization or evaluation of sustainable development efforts, at all levels.

•Relevance to sustainable development: submissions are expected to make direct references to specific sustainable development challenges (including specific SDGs or sets of SDGs).

•Content: submissions should be specific and use examples

•Style and clarity of exposition: blog posts that meet the above criteria, but lackclarity and professional syntax/word choices/tone, will not be considered.

Application Process

•Make a submission between 800 and 1200 words in English, French or Spanish [email protected]
•Submit a bio and evidence to prove their academic degree

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the GDN International Youth Competition 2019