THE ADVANCING DEVELOPMENT GOALS INTERNATIONAL CONTESTTHE GENEVA CHALLENGE 2024
THE CHALLENGES OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENTRULES AND REGULATIONS
Beyond rigorous analysis of a relevant problem area, submissions should bring forward innovative
proposals to affect change. We welcome contributions by groups of 3 to 5 master students involving atleast two different disciplinary backgrounds or an interdisciplinary perspective. Contributions must beboth theoretically grounded and offer pragmatic solutions to an important relevant social, political oreconomic problem stemming from The Challenges of Youth Empowerment. Innovation can relate topractices, processes or technology.
This year, we will distribute five prizes, one per continent. The five finalist teams will be invited tocome to Geneva for their project showcases and the award ceremony in November 2024.
Five prizes will be distributed; one in each of the following categories (based on the UN Statistics list):
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Universities located in Africa
Universities located in Asia
Universities located in Europe
Universities located in North America and Oceania
Universities located in Latin America

1. Eligibility:
1.1. Participants of the ADG contest 2024 must be enrolled as graduate students at the time of theirregistration for the contest.
1.1.1. We consider “graduate students” to be anyone enrolled in a post bachelor level
university programme with a maximum duration of 2 (two) years, or anyone who
can prove to be studying towards acquiring a master's level degree or equivalent.
1.2. Participants must gather in teams of 3 (three) to 5 (five) graduate students. In the submitted
analysis, they should contribute with an interdisciplinary approach or from at least 2 (two)different disciplinary perspectives.
1.2.1. No participation on an individual basis will be admitted.
1.2.2. The participants can be enrolled in the same graduate programme or can collaborate withstudents from other programmes from the university they are enrolled in or coordinate
with students from different universities and institutions worldwide.
1.2.1

The category in which the team will be placed for the contest will be based on thecontinent of the universities predominantly represented within the team.

1.2.1.1 In case there is an equal representation of continents within the team, the team
decides in which category they wish to compete.
1.3. All team members must provide a scanned copy of a document that serves as proof ofenrolment as a graduate student before the registration of the team can be confirmed andvalidated.
1.3.1. Any official document issued by the academic institution the student is affiliated to isaccepted as proof of enrolment as long as it contains:a) The name of the student;b) The program the student is enrolled in;c) An issuance date up to three months before the registration date ord) Validity beyond the registration date.
1.4. Exceptionally, we might accept the registration of students who are transitioning into graduate
studies, as long as they have already been accepted in a graduate student programme at thetime of the registration.
2. Registration of teams
2.1. An online registration form will be made available from 25th February 2024 at
www.graduateinstitute.ch/TheGenevaChallenge.
2.2. Registration ends on 22nd April 2024 before midnight - Central Europe Time (CET).
2.3. The registration form must be filled correctly along with the information required of all theparticipants.
2.4. Before the registration deadline, the proof of enrolment for all the team members must be sent
online or to the email id: geneva.challenge@graduateinstitute.ch
3. Submission requirements
3.1. Submissions must be sent by email to: geneva.challenge@graduateinstitute.ch before midnight
12 am (Central Europe Time (CET)), on 14th July 2024.
3.2. Submissions must include both an abstract and the project.
3.3. The abstract should be one page long and should include short biographies of each teammember, a brief description of the problem addressed by the project and the solution,specifying in which way the proposed solution will make a difference.
3.4. The project, which will have a maximum length of 8000 (eight thousand) words excluding
all notes, graphics and references and must be written in English or French.
3.5. The submissions will combine theoretical analyses, creativity, critical thinking on technicalassistance, capacity building and on the agency of development.

3.6. Entries must be original. All long listed works will go through a check for plagiarism before
being forwarded to the Jury members as semi-finalists of the 2024 Geneva Challenge.
4. Evaluation procedures
4.1. The entries will be evaluated in three phases and by two distinct panels.
4.2. In the first phase, all the valid submissions will be evaluated by the Academic Steering
Committee (ASC), an interdisciplinary committee of professors who will look into thecompatibility of the submissions with the material criteria of the contest (see section 5).
4.2.1. Teams who do not provide proof of enrolment for all members and/or do not submit theirentry before the deadline mentioned on 3.1 will be automatically disqualified and theirentries will not be evaluated by the ASC.
4.3. In the second phase (semi-finalist), 3 submissions per continent selected by the ASC as
representing the best match with the contest’s design and criteria will be forwarded to anindependent high level Jury Panel composed of policy makers and academics, young talents
and experienced professionals, who will select the competition’s finalists.
4.4. In the third and last phase of evaluations, one finalist per continent will be invited to theGraduate Institute in Geneva to publicly present in front of the Jury Panel and answer questions
about their entries. In this occasion, the Jury Panel will classify the five teams (in 1st, two 2nd,two 3rd) and the prizes will be delivered in an award ceremony preceded by a high-level
keynote speech.
4.5. Unfortunately, due to a high number of submissions and the multiple activities in which theevaluators of the ASC and the Jury Panel are engaged in, the ADG contest organisers cannot
offer personalized feedback on the submissions.
4.6. The decisions of the ASC and of the Jury Panel are not subject to appeal.
5. Evaluation criteria
5.1. The ADG contest offers an opportunity for master students to use theoretical tools to frame adevelopment issue and offer a creative, feasible and potentially efficient solution to address
the identified vulnerability. Thus the ASC and the Jury Panel will be looking for the following
characters in the proposals:
5.1.1. The relevance of the research question proposed by the team. It refers to submissions
necessarily being able to identify a real world problem, not just an interesting researchquestion, thus transposing the disconnect between academic and policy challenges.
5.1.2. The entry must display analytical rigour and academic competence in the choice ofsources, the structure of the arguments and in the ability to discuss, question and build
upon previous perspectives on the topic (critical approach);5.1.3. Practicality of solutions and feasibility embedded within the proposals. There
should be development on why and how the idea presented is efficient to addressing
the issue raised by the team;
5.1.4. All submissions must be original and especially developed for participation in the2024 ADG contest. Originality here implies that significant sections of otherworks should not be reused in the submission to the Geneva Challenge. Entries thathave already participated in other contests will not be accepted. However,ideas may be transposed from a different context and adapted to the specificproblem the students decide to focus on.
5.1.5. The outreach of the solution, that is, the amount of people that will directly or
indirectly benefit from the project is not an evaluation criterion as long as thesolution is potentially transposable (scalable) to similar situations.
5.1.6. Regarding the finalist presentations in Geneva, the Jury will be looking into inter alia:a)
b)
c)
d)

The clarity of the oral presentations;
The perspective of a practical linkage with the beneficiaries of the action proposed;
The quality of the response to questions from the Jury and from the public.
The oral presentation should ensure that the students do their work themselves but
will not be crucial in ranking the finalists.
e) The finalists will not attend each other’s presentations, to allow similar questions tobe asked to each team and to avoid questioning the decision on the final ranking.
6. Prizes
6.1. All shortlisted submissions selected by the ASC are published and promoted (if authorised bythe teams) on the Geneva Challenge website, providing visibility to the teams and their work.
6.2. All members of the 5 finalist teams will be invited to come to Geneva for an oral presentation
where they will defend their proposals and answer questions from the Jury and from the public.
6.2.1. At least 2 members from each finalist team should confirm availability to come toGeneva for the oral presentation of their submission. If only one member is available orin case there is, a lack of reaction to the invitation to come to Geneva after 7 days of thecommunication of the results will be considered as withdrawal from the competition.
6.3. The finalists will also be present at the awards ceremony where the results of the contest will
be announced, preceded by a high-level keynote speech on The Challenges of YouthEmpowerment.
6.4. Travel expenses such as flights, visa requests and accommodation are covered by theorganisation of the contest for this purpose.
6.5. The presentations and submissions of the finalists will be promoted for information in relevantpublications and international organisation fora, creating professional networkingopportunities.

6.6. The winning project will receive a cash prize of CHF 10 '000 (ten thousand Swiss Francs).
The two teams in second place will receive CHF 5 '000 each. The two teams in third place,
CHF 2 '500 each.
6.7. The Jury Panel can decide not to distribute one of the prizes if there is no project meeting theconditions or criteria listed under 5.
6.8. The Jury Panel can decide to distribute the prizes in another order.