Deadline: 31 May 2023
Southern Voice is organizing a pitching contest for young think tankers from the Global South, in collaboration with On Think Tanks (OTT). The aim is to promote collaboration among young researchers and policy advocates within think tanks from Africa, Asia, and Latin America & the Caribbean.
The process begins with the call for proposals today. Young scholars can apply until 31st May. Persons up to 35 years old, affiliated with research organizations, think tanks, universities, or other academic institutions (both government and non-government) from the Global South are eligible to apply.
Shortlisted participants will be invited to a virtual event in September where they will present their three-minute pitches. It should feature practical and applicable solutions to improve collaboration among young think tankers of the Global South.
Three winners will be selected and invited to showcase their ideas at the Southern Voice Conference to be held in October 2023 in Kenya. All travel expenses will be covered by Southern Voice.
Eligibility
Young think tankers must fulfill the following criteria:
● up to 35 years old
● affiliated with research organisations, think tanks, policy wings of government/legislatures, universities/other academic institutions, policy network organisations or any such research institutions of
government/non-government nature from the Global South (see list of countries in Annex).
The challenge
Imagine you are appointed as the UN Youth Envoy, who is also the presiding officer of the newly established UN Office for Youth. As a mandate of the resolution A/RES/76/306 passed by the General Assembly, your office has to promote meaningful, inclusive and effective engagement of youth and youth-led and
youth-focused organizations in the work of the United Nations. You are interested in including the voices of the youth from the Global South. However, you discover through a recent study by Southern Voice that there are currently not many avenues for collaboration available to the young think tankers from the Global South. This inspires you to think about how to enable these collaborations among Southern Young Think Tankers (YTTs). Hence, you will need to prepare a proposal to the Secretary General of the UN.
Provide your unique and practical solution to improve the present state of collaborations among young think tankers. You can register your participation in the contest by filling this form. Kindly note that your proposal should be concise and compelling, of maximum 1200 words.
You can take into consideration the following guiding questions while drafting your
proposal:
1) How can collaboration among the YTTs of the Global South be transformative for the United Nations?
2) What needs to be done to increase and improve collaboration among YTTs across the Global South?
3) How can the UN Office for Youth support these efforts?
The winners
The three winners will get the opportunity to showcase their ideas at the Southern Voice conference in November in Kenya. Southern Voice will fund their travel. They will also be invited to become the steering group for improving networking opportunities among early career policy professionals of the Global South to
promote the ideas suggested throughout the pitching contest.
Recognition for other shortlisted participants
Some shortlisted participants will also get the opportunity to publish their ideas with support and guidance from the organisers.
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