Applications open for the World Bank essay writing competition.

The world bank is caling for applications from interested candidates to enter an essay writing competition. The topic is “What will it take to end child marriages in your country”. The contest is open to all citizens of sub-saharan African countries who are resident in their countries. Applicants must be aged 18 to 28 years old. The deadline for submitting essays is 30 November 2019.

The annual writing contest is one of the initiatives of the world bank to identify talented young writers. This topic was specifically chosen for entrants from sub Saharan Africa because it has the highest prevalence of child marriages. According to recent statistics 4 out of 10 girls in sub Saharan African get married before they reach the age of 18.

This is quite a disturbing trend. According to the World bank, this affects their health, force them to drop out of school early and diminishes their capacity to enter the job market. Sub Saharan girls have been shown to lack resilience,to be low in skill, health and knowledge according to the world bank. Their mandate is to empower women to prevent early child marriages and pregnancy for adolescent girls.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to be invited for the IMF Spring meetings 2020 in Washington DC. They will also stand a chance to intern at the world bank Africa country office and an opportunity to have their blog published on the World bank Africa blog. Applications can be sub!itted to [email protected].