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For Immediate Release
September 27, 2006
SADC Secretariat in Partnership with Southern Africa Trust Launches the 2007 Secondary Schools Essay Competition
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat in partnership with the Southern Africa Trust today launched the 2007 Essay Competition targeted at secondary school students in the region.
Aimed at increasing awareness among youth about regional co-operation and integration affairs, the 2007 competition is unique as it becomes the first to be sponsored by a civil society organization since its inception eight years ago.
The Executive Secretary of SADC Secretariat, Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomão commended the Southern Africa Trust for initiating a partnership and collaborating with the Secretariat in the 2007 and 2008 Essay Competitions.
Dr Salomão noted that the Southern Africa Trust has moved in the true spirit of regional integration because the mammoth task of integrating SADC needs cooperation, not only with International Partners (ICPs), but with all the regional Stakeholders including the private, quasi public sector and civil society of the region.
Dr. Salomão said, approving the 2007 Essays partnership, at its meeting of August 16, 2006 in Maseru, Kingdom of Lesotho, the SADC Council of Ministers urged the Secretariat to encourage institutions of like mind to join SADC in similar community building activities.
“we have seen the quality of the Essays improve over the years with some coming up with very bright and workable ideas that can be further developed into actionable programmes”, He said.
He said, educating the youth of school going age about SADC is a long term investment as they are the region’s leaders of tomorrow and if right steps are not taken, they might be left behind.
The Executive Director of Southern Africa Trust, Mr. Neville Gabriel said the Trust is willing to work with the SADC Secretariat in ensuring that young people have a voice in development processes and policies that have an impact on their lives. He welcomed the decision of the SADC Council of Ministers, taken at its meeting held in August 2006 in Maseru, Lesotho, which directed the Secretariat to develop viable ideas from the essays into SADC policies and programmes.
“We would like not only to hear the views of the youth but see their involvement in better policy development processes and in implementing these policies to make a real difference in their lives”, said Mr. Gabriel.
The 2007 competition is taking place against the backdrop that 40 percent of the region’s population lives in abject poverty. At the SADC level, the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) was adopted as the region’s road map to development and integration, including in the fight against poverty.
This years’ topic is therefore, “What do you think are the causes of poverty in the SADC region and what steps should be taken by SADC Member States and non-state actors to eliminate poverty?”
The length of the essay should be between 2000 and 2500 words and can be written in English, French or Portuguese.
Interested students are encouraged to approach the SADC National Contact Point Offices or Ministries of Education in their respective countries for further information and/or submission of their entries. The SADC Secretariat and the Southern Africa Trust will not accept entries directly from students. The deadline for submission of entries is May 31, 2007.
The winners of the competition will be awarded their prizes during the official opening ceremony of the 27th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit. Prizes include $1500 for the first prize; US$1000 for the second prize and US$750 for the third prize.
The SADC Secretariat and Southern Africa Trust share a common vision of ending poverty in the region. Member states of SADC are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Gaborone, Botswana
For more details please contact Leefa Martin from SADC Secretariat on +267 3951863
or Petronilla Ndebele from Southern Africa Trust on +27 11 313 3065.
>> View images of the Launch
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