UONGOZI Institute in South Africa: Leadership Essay Competition for African Citizens 2017

African citizens between the age of 18-25 are invited to submit an essay for this year’s Leadership Essay Contest organised by the Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development (UONGOZI Institute).

The essay contest aims to provide a space for the youth of Africa and the next generation of leaders in the region to contribute to important discussions on leadership.



Guidelines:

The contest is open to all African citizens between the age of 18 – 25 years old, to write about their perspective on leadership as it relates to peace and security in Africa. The essays should respond to the following question:

“If you were a leader, what would you do to ensure that peace and security is achieved and sustained in Africa?”

The essays should be no more than 2 A4 pages long. The format shall be of single spaced, Arial font size 11, and sent as a Microsoft Word document.

Essays will be judged on the basis of originality, creativity, use of language and appropriateness to the contest theme.

All essays must be written in English.

Prizes:

A grand prize of USD $2,000 will be awarded to the overall winner of the essay contest. A total of five winners will be selected. Cash prizes will also be awarded to the second to fifth place winners.

The top 5 winners will travel to Johannesburg, South Africa, to receive their awards at a prize giving ceremony to be held during the Africa Leadership Forum Dinner Gala on 24 August, 2017, which will be attended by senior leaders from across Africa in the public, private and civil society sectors. The overall winner will be asked to read the winning essay at the event.

Eligibility:

Applicants must be African citizens between the age of 18-25.

The selected winners will be required to travel to Johannesburg on 23 August, 2017, therefore valid identification and travel documents will be required for this purpose. Submission of valid identification and travel documents is not required until the top 5 winners have been selected.


How to apply:

Essays should be submitted by email to submissions@uongozi.or.tz.

Applicants must also submit a written statement of originality and ownership of intellectual property rights.

The final deadline for submission will be Friday, 14th July, 2017 (5pm GMT). The top five finalists will be notified via email by the first week of August. Feedback will not be provided on individual essays.

Template for Statement of Originality:

I, (Enter full name) hereby confirm that the content of the essay I have submitted is my own work and it has not been submitted elsewhere for any other purpose.

I certify that the intellectual property rights for this essay are owned by me and that any information that was sourced elsewhere has been appropriately acknowledged.

(Enter Signature and date)

(Enter Country of Citizenship)

**NOTE: Due to the high number of requests to participate from African citizens between 18-25 residing outside of Africa, the eligibility criteria has been revised. The competition is now open to all African citizens residing in and outside of Africa.**