Wharton School Knowledge Exchange

Application Deadline: January 31st, 2016

Ideas for Action is an ideas competition on financing for sustainable development for youth sponsored by the World Bank Group and the Zicklin Center,Wharton School.

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.

Youth engagement throughout the design and implementation process is critical for success. The Ideas for Action (I4A) competition engages young people around the world to encourage them to develop and share their ideas for financing solutions to deliver the post-2015 development agenda.

Submission Requirements

Submissions that do not meet the format requirements listed below will be disqualified.

Format:

Proposals should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words, with proper citations and references. The word count does not include the appendix, footnotes/citations, or any charts/graphs. Teams should use the template at the end of this document and include a 200-word abstract summarizing the key points of the proposal.
The submission must be in Times New Roman, 12 pt font.
All appropriate information must be cited.
The submission should be sent in PDF or Microsoft Word format in English

Solution Areas:

The expectation for teams is 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

Domestic Resource Mobilization: improving the ability of countries to collect and
direct public resources generated from taxes and/or improve efficiency of public

spending.
Better and Smarter Aid: improving how aid is structured and disbursed in light of a

rapidly changing donor environment.
International Private Finance: improving business environments to attract investment.

Domestic Private Sector: mobilizing domestic private capital

Business and Development Innovations: improving business environments in developing economies via innovative private/public partnership models.

Awards

Winners of the competition will be given an opportunity to influence the post-2015 financing discussions and its implementation, including:

Present winning proposal at the IMF/World Bank Spring and/or Annual Meetings in April and October 2016, respectively.
Engagement with experts from development organizations, academia, and business on finance for development post-2015.
Participation in a boot camp, where the winners will visit a company, organization or university to take part in specific project implementation and get hands on experience.
Participation in the Wharton School Knowledge Exchange Activities and Global Classroom.

Timeline:

Informational session: January 8, 2016; 2:00–3:00 PM EST at World Bank Headquarters. The session can also be accessed online. Details will be sent out through the distribution list.
Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2016
Announcement of submissions selected for final round: February 22, 2016*
Deadline for final submissions (incl. comments received, if applicable): March 20, 2016
Announcement of winner(s): April 5, 2016

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Ideas for Action (I4A) Competition 2016

World Bank Group/Wharton Ideas for Action (I4A) Competition 2016 : Ideas Competition on Financing for Sustainable Development for Youth