UNDP Albania Photo and Essay Contest
from Balkans List
ANNOUNCEMENT
United Nations Development Programme in Albania launches an essay and photo competition within the framework of the preparation of the National Human Development Report for Albania 2004 on the theme of Pro _ Poor and Pro _Women Policies: Operationalising MDG 1 & 3.
I. The Human Development Report for Albania 2004 - Main theme.
The NHDR for Albania 2004 will be focusing on Pro-Poor and Pro-
Women Policies: Operationalising MDG Goals 1 & 3. The choice of the theme follows a year full of activities in the promotion of MDGs in Albania after the launching of the report "Albania's response to MDGs". The report was followed by a series of advocacy tours at the local level and has attracted a great civil society involvement. As a result of the great interest at the
local level UNDP is piloting the MDG Regional Reports, and the
first report was published in Elbasan in June and three others are currently under way.
Communities at the local level are recognizing the value of the
MDGs as a tool to prioritize local development needs and establish a system of political accountability. UNDP Albania will link the advocacy around MDG regional reports with key processes in government and the legislature so
that there is a meaningful impact on policy and budgets.
Advocating for acountrywide consensus on relevant MDG indicators and targets, NHDR will specifically explore issues especially related to MDG1 and MDG3 which are believed to be the most relevant ones in the Albanian context.
The NHDR Albania 2004 will address the poverty and gender issues through the calculation of the regional Human Development indices, including the Human Development Index (HDI), Human Poverty Index (HPI), Gender Development Index
(GDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure GEM). In addition to the rich data coming out of the regional MDG reports, the end result of this exercise thatwill built on the previous year's one, will be the creation of comprehensive regional databases that will help the government and the donor community to elaborate well thought strategies in addressing the poverty and gender
issues.
The report will help to monitor progress and setbacks in the
implementationof strategies and policies related to poverty and gender in an integratedapproach. It will also serve as a tool for measuring the impact of NSSED with the intention of providing qualitative and quantitative analysis that will enable the government to assess the implementation progress.
II. Objective
In the framework of the NHDR preparation two nation-wide award-winning competitions will be launched in the main newspapers of the country. Asteering committee chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Integration Ms. Ermelinda Meksi committee with representatives UNDP, UN Agencies and civil society will be established to declare the winning ompetitors.
A. Essay competition:
An essay competition will take place during the period prior to
thefinalization of the first draft report. Journalists, academics,
researchers and independent publicists and will be encouraged to come up with development essays relevant to the theme of pro-poor and pro-women policies.
i) Expected Outputs
o To be prepared and presented until the end of January in both
languages of Albanian and English
o To be presented on a format of no more than 3000 words, on
double-spaced Times New Roman font with clear references, footnotes and bibliography.
o To be available in electronic form on MS Word (Windows 98 or
recent versions)
o Essays should be published in any national newspaper,
professional and socio-economic magazine in Albania within the period November 2003 _ January 2004.
Potential themes could be (other related topics are welcomed):
· How is poverty defined in Albania?
· Non-monetary dimensions of poverty (access to services)
· Economic growth versus poverty reduction
· Increasing income disparities
· Regional disparities
· The human face of development
· The role of the central and local government in combating
poverty
· Ways of poverty reduction
· Role of women in the development of the country
· Gender dimensions of poverty
· Gender oriented access to economic opportunities
· In depth analysis of gender inequalities in Albania
· The correlation of poverty and gender issues
· The role of central and local government in combating gender
inequalities
ii) Value of awards:
There will be three prizes for this competition where the first
prize apart from getting the essay published in the NHDR will receive also a financial award of 2000 USD. There will also be two first and second runners-up encouragement prizes of 500 USD each.
B. Photo competition
Similarly, the same competition will be organized for a
professional photo album with relevant pictures capturing the development of the country and connected to the theme of the NHDR. Professional photographers are invited to come up with the following:
i) Expected Outputs
o Photographic album of 10 colored photos and 10 black and white ones capturing poverty and gender issues
o Photos to be made available on a digital format also
o Photos to be accompanied with their details
ii) Value of awards
Like the essay competition, the winner will get the photos
published in the NHDR as well as will receive a professional camera worth of 2000 USD as aprize (or the cash equivalent). First and second runners up will also receive encouragement prizes of 500 USD each.
Please note: Capturing the local perspective on the issues of
poverty andgender is of a paramount importance. Essays and photos focusing on themanifestation of poverty in remote areas and/or about vulnerable groups will be considered with priority.
III. Timeframe
The deadline for receiving the essays and photo albums is Friday
30th of January 2004 end of business hours.
The evaluation will take place within the month and February and
the winners will be declared on the fourth week of February in a formal ceremony.
For further information and enquiries please contact:
Public Relations and Information Unit (Ref. ALB 03/002 _ NHDR)
United Nations Development Programme
Rr. "Dėshmorėt e 4 Shkurtit", no. 35
Tel: (355 4) 233122 / 233148 / 233149 . Fax: (355 4) 232075 /
234448
registry.al@undp.org
Krijoni Kontakt