World Bank Announces 2021 Tanzania Blog4Dev Essay Contest Winner
“My desire is to bring positive change to my country. The need to work and share ideas with policymakers and young people is what drove me to participate in the World Bank’s Blog4Dev competition,” said Mr. Kambamwene, 26. “I hope to continue to share my perspectives at every opportunity I come across.”
Mr. Kambamwene is a part-time second year student at the Center for Foreign Relations pursuing a degree in International Relations and Diplomacy. He also works as a market researcher at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the commercial section of the embassy of the Republic of Korea.
Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, applicants for the 2021 series of the competition were asked to submit a 500-word blog responding to the question; “How can young people work with their governments and civil society organizations to respond to the impact of COVID-19 and build a stronger post-pandemic economic and social system?” The contest ran from October 17 – December 06, 2020 across the Africa region.
“Strong youth voices are important in promoting sustainable development solutions in any setting,” said Mara Warwick, World Bank Country Director for Tanzania. “The youth are an enormous resource as innovators, entrepreneurs, change agents and leaders in their own right, and no country can afford to ignore them. We are pleased to see more and more Tanzanian youth energized and taking part in this Blog4Dev platform where they can exchange ideas on pertinent socio-economic issues.”
Initiated in 2016, the #Blog4Dev series is an important component of the World Bank Group’s youth engagement program for Africa. It provides space for youth in Africa to share their ideas on critical development issues. Over the past five years, the platform has nurtured a growing network of resourceful young professionals and leaders who have gone on to engage in several exciting endeavors – such as the Mandela Washington Fellowship; the Queen’s Young Leaders’ Program; the Yale University Mentorship program; the Kenyatta University Mentorship Program; and the Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30.
All the competition’s winners for 2020 and 2021 will be invited to participate in meetings and events in Washington DC once pandemic travel restrictions are eased. In the meantime, they will be able to take part in networking opportunities with other young Africans who are adding their voices and solutions to the continent’s development dialogue.
Previous winners from Tanzania include Charles Kapondo and Aidan Nzumi (2018), Alice Magaka (2019), and Davis Deus Mazula (2020). The winning blogs from participating countries will be published on the World Bank Youth Voices starting in June 2021.
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