The World Youth Movement for Democracy (WYMD), a youth network of the World Movement for Democracy, invites young people between 18 and 30 years old to enter its Global Essay Contest. Fifteen winners (3 in each region: Asia, Central/Eastern Europe & Eurasia, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa) will be invited to participate in the upcoming 6th Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Jakarta, Indonesia, in April 2010.


Essays are required to address one or more of the following questions:

1. "What democratic spaces exist for young people in your society? What do you see as democratic values in your society? How do you engage with them?
2. How can democracy help address your personal and social concerns (poverty, access to education, pandemics, inequality etc.)? How do you and others in your community address these concerns?
3. Describe and explain how a specific event or instance changed your perception of democracy."

This essay contest is sponsored by the Hurford Foundation.

Click here for more information.

Essays may be sent in email attachments as MS Word documents or as PDF documents. Please make sure to clearly designate, in the body of the email, entrant's full name, age, gender, physical address, and phone number. Send to the relevant regional email address listed below. Essays can be submitted in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish. The essay must be no more than 2,000 words.

* Asia: WYMD.ASIA@GMAIL.COM
* Central and Eastern Europe & Eurasia: WYMD.EURASIA@GMAIL.COM
* Middle East & North Africa: WYMD.MENA@GMAIL.COM
* Latin America & Caribbean: WYMD.LAC@GMAIL.COM
* Sub-Saharan Africa: WYMD.AFRICA@GMAIL.COM

To submit essays via fax, please fax: +1 202 378 9889. Entrants are requested to provide personal information as listed above in the fax cover sheet.

Click here to access information about the contest in Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian.

WYMD website on July 6 2009.