 Development competition to be held in TokyoPOHNPEI, Palikir (FSM Information Service): June 2000 - A Japanese sponsored organization is offering almost $500,000 in award and travel money to winners of a development project competition to be held in Tokyo this December, according to a bulletin from Edna Talt, director of the UNESCO Office in the Pacific. Global Development Network will invite 30 finalists to present their projects at the GDN 2000 Conference in Tokyo where judges will select the winners of the competition of two $125,000 awards and 10 smaller prizes. Among the judges will be Nobel award-winning economists. One of the $125,000 awards, the Most Innovative Development Project award, will be given to an individual, group, or institution whose project "holds the greatest promise for benefiting the poor," according to the bulletin. The second $125,000 award, the Outstanding Research on Development award, will be given to an individual, group, or institution "whose research holds the greatest promise for improving understanding of development." Also receiving medals with cash awards of $10,000 or $5,000 will be projects for research in each of five topics: escaping poverty, institutional foundations of a market economy, gender and development, environmental and social sustainability, and science and technology. Competition for the two $125,000 awards is open to all development practitioners and researchers. Competition for the smaller awards is open to all researchers in developing countries, according to the bulletin. Initial applications with a 300-word description of the project or research are due by June 30. Guidelines and application forms are available on the Internet at http://www.gdnet.org/ or e-mail info@gdnet.org. |