Media Release
Putting MDGs into Action: The World Summit Youth Award 2009 – Register now
Salzburg/New York, September, 2008 – The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) invites young designers and e-Content creators to participate in an international competition. Sought-after are e-Contents that address in an inspiring manner the UN Millennium Development Goals, and use internet and mobile contents to create awareness of the MDGs.
An application form is now available online at www.youthaward.org/apply for all online platforms that are led by youth under the age of 30. Projects may be submitted in the following five categories:
1. Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease !
Rewards the most effective contents and applications addressing issues of extreme poverty and hunger, offers solutions for those whose income is less than $ 1 a day, supports the reduction of diseases and fights the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidents of malaria.
2. Education for all !
Gives credit to the most innovative contents, platforms and solutions to give children everywhere, boys and girls alike, a full course of primary schooling, to advance in training for personal development and jobs, and to achieve a high level of understanding and knowledge of the global information society and its problems and promises, challenges and opportunities.
3. Power 2 Women !
Demonstrates the most inspiring contents and communities which promote gender equality and empower women, eliminate gender disparity in education and at work places, facilitate access of women to all levels of political decision making and that strengthen women’s contribution to peaceful resolution of conflicts.
4. Create your Culture !
Celebrates the most engaging online platforms and applications expressing young people’s aspirations, ideas and values, sharing their news, enabling their participation in decision-making processes, strengthening social justice, promoting the knowledge of many languages and cultures, supporting multilingualism, creating new contemporary forms of culture and preserving indigenous knowledge and traditions.
5. Go Green !
Showcases the ground-breaking applications and contents addressing the natural environment, ensuring sustainability, integrating the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes, reversing the loss of environmental resources including biodiversity, reducing the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and improving the lives of slum dwellers.
The application deadline is midnight, GMT on December 31st, 2008. Please note that the online platforms need not be youth-led so long as the specific project is.
An international jury of 12 experts will evaluate the projects, determining three winners for each category. Winners will be given the opportunity to showcase their platform to heads of state, business leaders and civil society at the World Summit Award (WSA) Gala and Winners Conference in June, 2009 in Monterrey, Mexico.
About WSYA
The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-Content and technological creativity, demonstrates young people’s potential to create outstanding digital contents and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together in the efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation.
WSYA is therefore both, a showcase to the world for young designers, technologists and e-Content creators as well as a contribution on a global scale to addressing poverty, protecting the environment, sharing knowledge and empowering young people.
The WSYA will be organised 2008 to 2009 as a follow up activity of the World Summit on Information Society and its action plan towards the year 2015. The Youth Award is organised by the World Summit Award Network for the second time after 2005. The 2008/09 contest is organised in partnership with the Cyber Peace Initiative (CPI) launched by the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement in 2007. The CPI has a mission to empower youth of any nation, through ICT, to become catalysts of change, to create safe and better futures for themselves and others, to address the root causes of conflict, to disseminate the culture of peace and to create international dialogues for a harmonious world. Founding partners of CPI are The Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the International Telecommunication Union, the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, Microsoft, Cisco and Intel. WSYA is also supported by the Internet Society (ISOC).
Get involved today at www.youthaward.org and showcase your project to the world!
Contact Information:
Angelika Spraider, WSYA Project Coordinator
ICNM – International Centre for New Media
Moosstrasse 43a
A-5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 630408
Email: spraider@icnm.net
Web: http://www.youthaward.org
About the WORLD SUMMIT AWARD
“The World Summit Award (WSA) is the global flagship initiative within the United Nations to identify high-quality e-content products and to promote the most outstanding achievements of creatives worldwide in order to develop the Information Society, bridge digital divides and close the content gap. Started in 2003 in the framework of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society, WSA conducts biannually a global contest for the best e-content products and Internet applications. In 2008-09, 168 countries are actively participating. WSA is an invitation project and a global hub for everyone – be it business, government agency, professional association, educational institution or individual – who sees the crucial importance of e-content creation within the new Information Society. It is part of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development, held under the auspices of UNESCO and UNIDO and in collaboration with the Internet Society (ISOC) and private sponsors.” (www.wsis-award.org).