Deadline: June 28, 2024.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) coordinates the UK’s diplomatic relationships, promotes UK interests abroad, and manages the UK’s overseas development budget.

The Next Generation Economics competition is managed by the FCDO in collaboration with the Hub for Equal Representation (HER) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Economics is important to our work, whether it is evaluating the sustainability of the UK’s international climate change commitments or analysing the contribution of the UK in reducing global poverty through aid programmes. Economics helps the FCDO make the most of each pound of taxpayer money.

THEMES

To enter, submit your letter responding to 1 out of these 4 questions: 

1. 2023 Nobel Prize laureate Claudia Goldin states that unequal division of caregiving and household responsibilities play a key role in gender pay gap. What policies could governments implement to increase female participation in the paid economy?  
2. International efforts to reduce carbon emissions increase demand for clean energy technology and critical minerals. How could material rich developing countries capitalize on the demand for critical minerals to boost growth?  
3. Climate change plus the impact of global conflict on international supply chains has enhanced risk on food security. What market intervention can governments across the world take to mitigate food security risk?  
4. According to the UN, 3.3 billion people now live in countries where debt interest payments are greater than expenditure on health or education. What actions could governments globally take to ensure debt does not prevent investment towards development?

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

To enter, you must be: 

• at least 14 years old 
• studying in the UK at secondary school level (including sixth form and elective home education or home schooling), or at a British international school.
• You do not need to be studying or have studied economics. 
• Entering the competition is free.

BENEFITS

They will announce the competition results in July 2024. There are several prizes on offer: 

• the winner will receive a cash prize of £500 
• 2 runners up will each receive 250  
• 5 shortlisted entrants will receive £100 each 

The winner will present their essay to Adnan K`han, FCDO Chief Economist. 

The top 8 entrants will be offered a fully-funded visit to the FCDO and the London School of Economics in London. They will also meet with one of the co-directors of the Hub for Equal Representation at the LSE. Fully-funded visits are only available to UK-based entrants. 

They will publish the letters of the winner and runners up on the GOV.UK website and share them across the Government Economic Service.  

APPLICATION

Your entry should: 

• be formatted as a letter addressed to the FCDO’s Chief Economist Adnan Khan 
• be 1,000 words or fewer 
• clearly reference any evidence included. We recommend using the Harvard referencing style. References are not included in the word count 
• not use applications such as ChatGPT or other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) 

The top 25 entrants will each receive an economics book, chosen from a shortlist selected by the FCDO Chief Economist.

Apply through the OFFICIAL LINK