The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat has organized the SADC students essay writing competition for year 2018. The Essay writing competition is intended to broaden knowledge of the secondary school going population on SADC activities.
The competition is open to form 1 to 6 students. The students are required to begin researching on the topic prior to writing and submitting to their Heads of School.
The 37th summit of Heads of State and Governments deliberated that, the topic for year 2018 is “Partnering with the private sector in developing Industries and Regional Value Chains”.
The topic for the essay competition is “Discuss how partnership with private sector can promote industrial growth and foster development of value chains in key priority sectors (such as agriculture, mining, health etc) among SADC member states”.
The set of questions below are meant to guide students when responding to the question above. Thus, on answering the above question, student should answer all the questions listed below:
1. Discuss in-depth, what you understand about industrial growth and value chains and how SADC Member States could increase private sector involvement in industrial growth and value chains. (20 Points)
2. Discuss and fully explain the general forms of value added services which are undertaken in the SADC region. (15 Points)
3. Collaboration between governments and the private sectors is said to be key in developing economies, explain your understanding of the term private sector engagement and how it is key in developing industrial growth and value chains and give at least four (4) examples of major business collaborative efforts that has made huge impact in development region economy. (20 Points)
4. For SADC Region to achieve any meaningful industrialization in form of industrial growth and improvement in value chains, discuss the areas/ types of value added services which are likely to produce meaningful; results in the present context. (15 Points)
5. Presently how do SADC member states engage the private sector in the development of their industries, and in your opinion, how can these relationships be strengthened. (15 Points)
6. What interventions and/or measures should regional governments embark on in order for private sector be key drivers of national economies. (15 Points)
Heads of schools are supposed to ensure that students adhere to the following guidelines:
i. The essay should not be longer than 1,500 words and not shorter than 1,000 words;
ii. Where students have access to computers, they are advised to type their essays and submit both the soft and hard copies;
iii. Students who will type their essays will have to sign and initial the hard copies to make sure that they have not been altered;
iv. The essay shall be written in English language;
v. The front page or cover page will display the name, sex, class, school address and stamp, Headmistress/Headmaster’s email address, signature and phone no, region, country;
vi. The title of the essay should be written on the cover page (students should not paraphrase the title);
vii. Definition of Key concepts and a brief Historical/Background of SADC should be written in the introductory paragraph;
viii. All reference material must be written in the last page; and
ix. The handwritten essays will be written on one side of the A4 paper with double margin of two centimeters.
Students are expected to begin writing immediately and submit their essays to their head of schools. The Head of School will then be expected to constitute a marking panel which will choose best essays of the school. The panel should go through the essays (Please do not mark the essays) and choose three essays to be submitted to The Permanent Secretary; Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, P.O. Box 10, Block 10, College of Humanities Dodoma not later than 15th April 2018. The national adjudication will take place from 02nd to 15th May 2018 in order to get three entries which will be submitted to the SADC Secretariat in Botswana.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Dr. Leonard D. Akwilapo
PERMANENT SECRETARY
5/1/2018