Call for Submissions for YALI at 10: My Life, My Community, and My World

Deadline: 28-Feb-21

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of YALI, the U.S. Department of State, in partnership with the Wilson Center, is pleased to announce the YALI 10 Year Anniversary Competition under the theme “YALI at 10: My Life, My Community, and My World.”

Selected submissions will be showcased at the YALI 10th anniversary virtual summit in May 2021, where they will celebrate a decade of YALI change-makers and their achievements. Submissions may include videos, short essays, poems, songs, spoken word, and sketches. They may also be showcased at a Live Stream event scheduled in fall 2021 or by the Department of State.

YALI alumni are invited to describe or demonstrate how YALI has impacted your personal and professional development, and how you’ve made a difference in your communities and around the world. Individuals or alumni groups may compete and submissions may be in written, video, audio, or multimedia format. Individual submissions should correspond to one of YALI’s three curriculum tracks. Group submissions may be cross-cutting across tracks.

Established in 2010, the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) is the U.S. Government’s signature effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders. Over the past decade, YALI grew from 115 young leaders to include more than 24,000 alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship exchange program, four Regional Leadership Centers (RLCs) in Africa, and an extensive digital community called the YALI Network with more than 650,000 members. These programs aim to strengthen democratic institutions and good governance, spur economic growth and prosperity, and foster peace and security in Africa.

Eligibility Criteria

Competition is open to all alumni of YALI programs, including the 2010 President’s Forum for Young African Leaders, 2011 First Lady’s Forum for Young African Women Leaders, 2012 Innovation Summit and Mentoring Partnership for Young African Leaders, Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, and the YALI Regional Leadership Centers. Contestants may not be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Contestants must be at least 18years old on the date of entry into the contest.
The individual submitting the entry will be considered the contestant and will be the only individual eligible to compete. Alumni groups such as cohorts or alumni associations are eligible to compete, either as an entity, or through representation by an individual. In order to be eligible, the contestant must provide complete and accurate information.
The following individuals are not eligible to participate in the contest: Employees, interns, directors, and officers of the Contest Sponsors, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn,or the U.S. Government; or any employees, interns, directors, officers of any agencies, companies or entities involved in the administration, advertising, judging, creation, development, execution, and/or fulfillment of the contest, and the immediate family members (defined as spouse, recognized partner, parent, child, sibling, and spouse or “step” of each) and those living in the same household of each such individual.
Once a submission has been accepted for entry into the contest, the contestant’s name (or User ID, if the contestants wishes to remain anonymous) and country may be publicly identified at the sole discretion of the contestants.

Judging Criteria

The contest jury will review all accepted submissions, and then meet to rank and select the winners. Entries will be judged along the following criteria: