Are You an Entrepreneur? 2012 CIPE International Youth Essay Competition

This summer marks the fifth anniversary of the global financial crisis that the world is still trying to recover from. Unfortunately, it looks like the current situation won’t be improving soon – the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook  predicts that because of the Eurozone financial crisis and the looming budget crisis in the United States, the growth of the world economy will continue to move at a slow pace.

With such a negative economic outlook, the prospect of finding or keeping traditional jobs is becoming increasingly difficult for everyone, especially for young people. Today, 75 million youth (or one in every eight young people) around the world are unemployed. Instead of resorting to street protests and expressing their frustrations, however, courageous individuals are challenging the status quo by becoming entrepreneurs. Success stories of young entrepreneurs are springing up from Bangladesh to Lebanon to Uganda.

CIPE understands that entrepreneurship is one way for youth to not only generate income, but to also get them more involved in their economy and community. And such youth engagement is critical for building more sustainable, democratic societies. To this end, CIPE is inviting youth (age 18 – 30) from around the world to share their experiences and thoughts about entrepreneurship in this year’s CIPE International Youth Essay Competition!

Winners of  the competition will receive a $500 honorarium, and CIPE will publish winning essays as Economic Reform Feature Service articles. Also, one grand prize winner will be invited to an all-expenses paid trip to attend CIPE’s upcoming Democracy that Delivers for Entrepreneurs conference in the U.S., planned for April 2013.

The deadline for submission is October 19, 2012, so don’t wait until the last minute to enter!

Published Date: August 14, 2012