Call for Participation: Poem Competition for International Women’s Day 2024

International Women’s Day (IWD) is observed globally every year on 8 March. The theme for International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023 (IWD 2024) is, “Invest in women: Accelerate progress” and take a stand with them using the hashtag #InvestInWomen. This theme is aligned with the priority theme for the upcoming 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-68), accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.

Achieving gender equality and women’s well-being in all aspects of life is more crucial than ever if they want to create prosperous economies and a healthy planet. However, they are facing a key challenge: the alarming $360 billion annual deficit in gender-equality measures by 2030.

Here are five key areas needing joint action:

• Investing in women, a human rights issue: Time is running out. Gender equality is the greatest human rights challenge, benefiting everyone.
• Ending poverty: Due to the COVID pandemic and conflicts, 75 million more people have fallen into severe poverty since 2020. Immediate action is crucial to prevent over 342 million women and girls living in poverty by 2030.
• Implementing gender-responsive financing: Conflicts and rising prices may lead 75% of countries to cut public spending by 2025, negatively impacting women and their essential services.
• Shifting to a green economy and care society: The current economic system disproportionately affects women. Advocates propose a shift to a green economy and care society to amplify women’s voices.
• Supporting feminist change-makers: Despite leading efforts, feminist organizations receive only 0.13% of official development assistance.

Every year UNDP Nepal organizes several events and programmes to mark IWD drawing together people from diverse backgrounds to celebrate global achievements, agitate for change and raise social awareness for equality for the women and girls around the globe.

Objectives

The primary objective of the competition is to raise awareness among young students and children, providing them with opportunities to express their thoughts. It aims to expedite the realization of gender equality and empower women and girls by tackling poverty, enhancing institutions, and incorporating a gender perspective into financial initiatives.

• To reflect on the status of women and express opinions and concern
• To raise their concerns to invest in women and girls’ equality
• To encourage students to creatively express their ideas through poems
• To develop oratory and creative skills amongst the students

Possible Topics

• Education for the daughter
• Economic empowerment for equality
• Women’s access to technical education
• Women on the way to Prosperity
• Women’s Economic independence

Prizes and Certificates

• Provincial Level Poetry Competition: All the participants will receive the certificate of appreciation.
• The top three best poets will be awarded, and winner (1st poem) will receive an opportunity to participate National Level Poetry Competition.
• The best poems will be posted in UNDP social media, websites and as publication.
• National Level Poetry Competition: All the participants will receive the certificate of appreciation. The jury will also receive a token of appreciation.
• The top three best poets will be awarded, and the best poems will be posted in UNDP social media, websites and as publication.

Provincial Level Poetry Competition Poetry Competition

• All public schools from all provinces of Nepal are eligible to participate in the poetry competition, particularly the public schools which are identified either as model schools by the Government of Nepal, and public schools led by women Principal are encouraged to apply. They will be encouraged to allow their students from grade VIII to XII to submit their poems in accordance with the specific objective and theme of the competition.
• The participating schools will be responsible to provide the name of the one best poet along with their written poem and consent form from grade VIII to XII from their respective schools to the respective UNDP Field Offices, to participate in the virtual Provincial level Poetry competition.
• The participating schools from rural and hilly areas of Nepal with poor internet bandwidth are encouraged submit their written & recorded poems along with consent form to the respective UNDP field offices, at least 3 days prior to the Provincial Level Poetry Competition.

Participation

• The competition is only open to the students from Grade VIII to XII of Nepal either from the public model schools and or other public schools that have been identified by educational professionals and are led by women Principals from all seven provinces of Nepal. The selected participants should provide duly filled online google form which will be shared by UNDP Nepal and UNHCR Nepal. The students belonging to Dalit, Indigenous, Madhesi, Muslims, persons with disabilities, refugees, gender and sexual minorities, and marginalized community etc. are highly encouraged to participate in the competition.

Child Protection

• The participating schools should ensure that:
  • The participating students who are below 18 years old will need at least 1 parent/legal guardian to sign a consent form related to the submission of private data.
  • The students over 18 years must provide consent for themselves on issue of data privacy.
  • Use of Image/Livestream Consent form for the students and judges.
  • They will need scanned copies of a form of ID of a parent from each participating student who is below 18 years.

Zoom Invitation

• Zoom Meeting invite will be sent through UNDP Nepal for the Provincial Level Competition.

For more information, visit UNDP.