The Commonwealth Youth Awards: Everything you need to know!

The Commonwealth Youth Awards for Development Excellence recognise young people’s contributions to attaining global development goals. The awards, which are given to Commonwealth residents aged 15–29, recognise exceptional young people who are leading programs ranging from poverty reduction to peacebuilding.

The Commonwealth Young Person of the Year is among exceptional entrants, with regional prizes awarded for Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean, the Americans, Africa, and Europe. The awards serve as a reminder to leaders and other policymakers of the critical role of youth in development.

Short Details of the Award

• Requirements: At least 12 months of development work in a commonwealth country
• Number of Awards: £1,000 for 20 regional finalists, £3,000 for 5 regional winners and £5,000 for the Pan-Commonwealth winner
• Financial Coverage: Fully Financed

Benefits of the Award

1. The 20 selected regional finalists from the commonwealth countries would receive a £1,000 grant, a participation trophy and a certificate.
2. The 5 selected regional winners from the commonwealth countries would receive a £3,000 grant, a participation trophy and a certificate.
3. The Pan-Commonwealth winner would receive a £5,000 grant, a participation trophy and a certificate.
4. The selected winner for the QCT prizes would receive a handsome sum of £20,000 per year for 2 years.
5. All applying candidates would receive excellent coaching opportunities and tremendous support in their social development fields.

Eligibility Criteria

Candidates from Bangladesh are expected to possess certain qualifications to participate in the Commonwealth youth awards:

1. The applying candidate must show that they have actively engaged in development work.
2. The applying candidate must have done their development work in any commonwealth country and belong to that country.
3. Applicant should not be more than 29 years of age as of 31^st December 2021.
4. The candidate may apply for themselves, or someone else can apply on their behalf, provided they accurately describe their development work.
5. To be eligible for the QCT prizes, candidates must be between 18 to 29 years old as of 31^st December 2021.
6. Also, in addition to the age category, to be eligible for the QCT awards, they must be founders or co-founders of a social enterprise.

Documents Required

1. Valid Passport.
2. Links to any websites or portals as a justification/proof of your development work.
3. To testify the applicant’s work in their respective development fields, candidates need to provide any/all of the following documents:

• A reference letter from the employer/youth organisation or the government in charge of your youth organisation is located.
• A video/page/article content on any social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.).
• Proof of work of the applying candidate (could be videos, photos, articles, newspapers, media coverage, etc.).
• Media coverage or impactful stories for colleagues or founders of the organisation (video/text will do).

4. The JPEG or PDF files can be a maximum of up to 5MB in size (a maximum of 5 documents can be attached).
5. The videos can be hosted on 3^rd party platforms such as YouTube, etc., and the respective links should be provided.
6. Also, the website URL should not be spammy and should have an active landing page.

Experience Requirements

The applying candidates must have at least 12 months of experience in development work. Also, valuable articles, media coverage, development video and testimonials of their development work would significantly benefit the candidate.

Language Requirements

No such language requirements.

Deadlines

The deadline for submitting the Commonwealth Youth Awards application is 17^th October 2021, 23:59 HRS (BST).

Application Fees

No Fees is charged.

How to apply

1. First of all, check if you meet the requirements mentioned above.
2. Sign up for an online application here.
3. Start by selecting your development category (Ex: Zero Hunger, No Poverty, Quality Education, etc.).
4. Enter the candidate’s name and country.
5. Then you need to fill out some application questions. You need to answer them in brief in text format. The questions are listed below:

• Your mission and objective behind your development work.
• Goals and future plans regarding the work.
• Impact of your development work on the society/region.
• Why you should deserve this award.
• Future plans and sustainability.
• If you are a founder/co-founder of the organisation and are aged 18-29 years as of 31^st December 2021, enter YES.
• If the previous question’s answer was yes, describe briefly how the social development organisation is sustainable from a financial, environmental and social point of view.

6. Next, you can upload testimonials of your work in the form of JPEG images, PDFs, website links or videos.
7. Now you can check and submit the application. You can also check the status of your application through the dashboard.

Selection Procedure

The relevant Commonwealth Youth Awards Committee will assess your application.

Awards are declared based on five qualities. They are:

• The degree of impact
• The overall quality of innovation/new ways to problem-solving
• The degree of achievement
• The quality of evidence/testimonials presented
• And the degree of sustainability.