World Bank-Wharton School Announces 'Ideas for Action' Competition

World Bank-Wharton School Announces "Ideas for Action" Competition; a youth competition on finance for development sponsored by the World Bank Group and the Wharton School.

The idea and the goal of the "Ideas for Action" competition is described in an information brochure as the following: "Today’s youth will be responsible for delivering the post-2015 development agenda, also known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire at the end of 2015. The SDGs will be more ambitious than the MDGs, covering a broad range of interconnected issues, from sustainable economic growth, to social issues, to global public goods. To realize this vision, a just-as-ambitious plan for financing and implementation is needed".

The Ideas for Action competition is intended to engage young people around the world to encourage them to develop and share their ideas for financing solutions to deliver the post-2015 development agenda.

Youth between the ages 18 and 35 from around the world can participate in the competition. It is however a team competition. Teams must be 2 to 5 people and may consist of multiple nationalities and individuals from different schools, institutions, companies, etc. The teams are expected to focus on one of the issues below and develop a creative yet realistic and implementable solution that will increase the financing available and/or improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing funds. Another possibility is to select more than one issue, and develop a solution that is based on blended sources of finance.

1.    Domestic Resource Mobilization: improving the ability of countries to collect and direct public resources generated from taxes and/or improve efficiency of public spending.
2.   Better and Smarter Aid: improving how aid is structured and disbursed in light of a rapidly changing donor environment.
3.   International Private Finance: improving business environments to attract investment.
4.   Domestic Private Sector: mobilizing domestic private capital.
5.   Business and Development Innovations: improving business environments in developing economies via innovative private/public partnership models.

There will be an information session on January 8, 2015; 2:00 – 3:00 PM EST at World Bank Headquarters. The session can also be accessed online. Deadline for submissions isJanuary 31, 2015. 

For registration for the competition please use the this form.

Updates and information on the competition and post-2015 agenda can be obtained from the distribution list from this link.

Proposals should be submitted to the I4A email account -  ideasforaction2015@gmail.com - no later than 11:59 PM EST on January 31, 2015.