Announcement: UN75 Essay Competition “The Future We Want. The UN We Need” is now open

[The Albanian version of this Announcement can be accessed here]

On the 75th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched “the largest and furthest-reaching global conversation ever on building the future we want”. Although this year the Covid_19 pandemic brought upon the world one of the biggest and multifaceted crisis since the creation of the UN, it highlighted the need to redesign multilateral mechanisms and to accelerate the efforts for achieving Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

In line with the forward-looking vision of both the UN75 and the Decade of Action, the UN Country Team in Albania has organized throughout the year a set of activities centered around youth encouraging them to convey their vision so that we can shape the future together.

Therefore, we are excited to launch the UN75 essay competition for youth. We invite all Albanians between 15-29 years old to use their writing skills and innovative ideas to reflect on the “The Future We Want. The UN We Need.” by answering the following question:

From dialogues to delivering: How can the pledges and commitments expressed under the UN75 Initiative transform our future?

We are looking for your original thoughts on the future of the UN and its role in tackling global challenges, following the commitments that heads of states and governments made during the high-level meeting of September 21st and the UN75 report presented by the UN Secretary-General.

General Guidelines

In writing your essays you should present researched-based arguments considering the following:

• The political declaration with states’ commitments adopted during the UN General Assembly
• The report on the UN75 Initiative
• The importance of accelerating sustainable solutions in line with Agenda 2030 in the process of building back better.  

Rules of the competition

1) Participation

Participants must be Albanian citizens between the ages of 15 and 29.

Essays must be written by the participants themselves and must be no longer than 900 words.

Essays may be submitted in English or Albanian .

Plagiarism will be strictly observed and considered as grounds for disqualifying a participant.

2) The selection process

A panel composed of representatives of different UN Agencies operating in Albania will evaluate the submitted essays based on the quality of the arguments and the quality of the writing regardless of the language used. The winners will be announced by mail during the last week of November. 

3) Prizes

The three best essays will be published on the official website and relevant social media pages of the UN in Albania. Furthermore, the following prizes will be awarded:

• One laptop/tablet (for the best essay)
• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (one for each of the two remaining winners)

In addition, the winners will be invited to meet with the UN Resident Coordinator in Albania and/or other representatives from UN Agencies and visit the UN offices in Tirana.

4) How to enter

All essays must be received by 23:59, on 06 November 2020, the closing date of the competition [NOTE: The deadline has now extended until 06 December 2020 at 23:59 HRS] . To enter the competition, please fill in this application form (please note that deadline for submission of essays has been extended). Only entries submitted by the [new] deadline will be considered valid.