CTA – ARDYIS Project

Special Blog – Youth In Agriculture Blog Competition

About the Yobloco Awards

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), in collaboration with FARA, Yam-Pukri, CAFAN, AYF, ANAFE, SPC/PAFPNET is organizing the Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition (YoBloCo Awards).

This contest is launched in the framework of the ARDYIS initiative which aims to raise youth awareness and improve their capacity on agricultural and rural development issues in ACP countries using Information Technology.

This blog competition aims to:

  • Put into limelight issues, successes and challenges faced by youth engaged in: agriculture in urban and rural areas;
  • Encourage the production of information and the use of new information technologies by young farmers’ groups and organizations interested in the “youth in agriculture” question;
  • Promote the sharing of information on the issues of agriculture and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

This competition is also being launched in the framework of the commemoration of the United Nations International Year of Youth.

Rules

The blog already submitted are already existing or newly created ones, or ones that already exists but which has been recently updated with content related to agriculture. However mainly blog posts from the commencement of the competition will be judged.

Eligibility

The eligible blogs deal with agriculture and must include, consistently, new articles related to agriculture. “New articles” or “new posts” means here texts published between the launch of competition until its closure (January 2012). Posts/articles considered can be in French or English and can be related to one or several ACP countries.

The blogs cover themes or issues such as:

  • Challenges, success and issues faced by Youth in agriculture and related activities
  • Climate change, environmental conservation, natural resource management
  • Agri-business (marketing, commercialization, processing, etc.)
  • Agricultural production
  • Agriculture value chains and agricultural policy
  • ICT use in the agricultural sector (how can ICTs promote agriculture or how can ICT support innovation in agricultural value chains, ICT and agriculture policies, etc.)
  • How are ICTs improving (or can improve) youth opportunities in rural areas
  • Actions, policies and strategies related to youth involvement in agriculture
  • Food security
  • Agro-tourism
  • Any other agriculture related theme or issue;
  • Dialogue and mutual understanding among youth and other stakeholders in rural areas.

Selection process

We have two different processes for the two categories.

  • For the Individual Category, a public evaluation process will take place. Click here to vote for your best blogs. 15 finalists will be selected basing on the number of votes they will receive, and they will be finally evaluated by an independent jury composed of expert in the field of ICTs and Agriculture.  The first prize for this category is 1,500 Euros and other prizes will be awarded!
  • You can comment on the blogs of the Institutional Category, by going directly here: the jury will choose the best blogs per region for this category and will take into account comments made by the public. The prize for this category is 3,000 Euros per winning organization. In addition, some of the most appreciated blogs by the public will receive special rewards from organizers if they are not selected by the jury.

Selection criteria

The main selection criteria are the following:

  • Quality of language in posts
  • Originality of posts/articles (most posts should be written by the entrant)
  • Quality of analysis in the posts
  • Frequency/Consistency of blogging
  • Animation of the blog
  • Presence of agriculture related content (especially since the launch of the contest for existing blogs)
  • Overall technical quality of the blog

For the institutional category, additional criteria are:

  • Presence of information on the organization’s activities;
  • Presence of information in youth in agriculture issues.

Prizes

For the Individual category: three prizes will be awarded, considering the whole ACP region

  • First prize : 1500 Euros
  • Second Prize : 1000 Euros
  • Third Prize : 800 Euros

For the Institutional category, regional prizes will be awarded, one for each of the six ACP regions (West Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa, Pacific and Caribbean). Each regional winner will receive a cash prize of 3,000 Euros. In addition, the best runner-up in each region will receive other rewards from CTA.

Winning blogs and other best blogs will be promoted by CTA and its partners’ various channels. In addition, some best blog authors will have the opportunity to be involved in our future activities.

More information http://ardyis.cta.int/en/blog-competition



Note: The ACP countries targeted here are those that have signed the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement : Angola – Antigua and Barbuda – Belize – Cape Verde – Comoros – Bahamas – Barbados – Benin – Botswana – Burkina Faso – Burundi – Cameroon – Chad – Central African Republic – Congo (Brazzaville) – Congo (Kinshasa) – Cook Islands – Côte d’Ivoire – Cuba – Djibouti – Dominican Republic – Dominica – East Timor – Equatorial Guinea – Eritrea – Ethiopia – Fiji – Gabon – The Gambia – Ghana – Grenada –Guinea – Guinea-Bissau – Guyana – Haiti – Jamaica – Kenya – Kiribati – Lesotho – Liberia – Madagascar – Malawi – Mali – Marshall Islands – Mauritius – Mauritania – Federated States of Micronesia – Mozambique – Namibia – Nauru – Niger – Nigeria – Niue – Uganda – Palau – Papua New Guinea – Rwanda – Saint Christopher and Nevis – Saint Vincent and Grenadines – Saint Lucia – Solomon Islands – Samoa – São Tomé and Principe – Senegal – Seychelles – Sierra Leone – Somalia – South Africa – Sudan – Suriname – Swaziland – Tanzania – Togo – Tonga – Trinidad and Tobago – Tuvalu – Vanuatu – Zambia – Zimbabwe