Ashgabat, 05 March 2009 – The Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Turkmenistan and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) jointly with the World Bank and in partnership with the Youth Peer Education Network (Y-PEER) in Turkmenistan launched today a joint action to engage young people of 15-24 years of age to participate in the Essay Competition. The Competition is organized to provide opportunity for youths to express themselves and have their views and needs heard.

Young people are not only the future, they are also the now. More than 45% of the world’s population is under 25, with 1.3 billion young people living in developing countries. Their energy, ideas and aspiration are boundless. Youths are key agents of change, but too often the nature and impact of their projects are not recognized or documented sufficiently, and youth face difficulties being heard and engaging more directly in civic life.

The World Bank the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the UNFPA would like to encourage young people’s active participation in wide variety of activities of their communities in order to develop their full potential by ensuring that young people’s views are factored into policy and program decisions.

The competition will be web and paper-based. Young people will be able to submit their essays by email or in paper format. A web-site will be developed under the project. The purpose of the web-site is twofold: a) to serve as a general portal for Turkmen youth and b) to provide contestants with information regarding the contest and other youth events. The website visitors will be able to use and join forum discussions to have opportunity to generate and share their ideas and find answers to their questions. Visitors will be able to see the key dates of the events planned under the project and visit gallery to access information related to the past and future youth events. The best essays will be placed on the web once the Essay Competition Steering Committee finalizes review and selection process.

The winners will be selected by the Essay Competition Steering Committee composed of the following organizations: the World Bank (organizer), the UNRC Office (organizer), the UNFPA (organizer), the Y-PEER network. The selection will be completed by June 2009. The three or so finalists will be invited to present their essays during sessions dedicated to the International Youth Day (August 12, 2009) followed by an award ceremony. A summary of the best essays will be published.

Including young people’s views in programming and policy decisions not only will bolster young people’s self-confidence, but also help prepare them to exercise their rights and responsibilities of adulthood and citizenship.