The 6th Casa Africa Essay Competition (CAC)

The Government of Spain is inviting Ghanaians to participate in the 6^th Casa Africa Essay Competition (CAC) with the theme “Good Governance in Africa”.

Casa Africa is a Spanish foreign policy instrument, dedicated to promoting relations between Africa and Spain, and improving mutual knowledge. The Casa Africa Prizes for Essays on African Themes aims at recognizing, promoting and publishing original and unpublished essays that enhance the knowledge of the African continent.

A prize of €2,000.00 will be awarded to the winner for the competition.

Terms and conditions of the competition

One – Participants

1. Any physical person over the age of 18, of any nationality domiciled in any country in the world, may take part in the competition. Under no circumstances may they have any kind of working and/or professional relations with Casa Africa, or with any of the institutions that form part of it (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-orporation, Spanish International Development Co-operation Agency, Canary Island Government and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council).
2. Only one essay per author will be accepted.
3. A single essay may be signed by several authors in which case each of them must present the documentation requested in Condition Four.
4. The winners of previous editions may not take part in this edition

Two – Theme

The theme for call to Casa Africa’s Essay Prize is GOOD GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA. It invites to reflect on the economic, political and social aspects which are the key to good governance including for example its main challenges, its impact on economic and social development of African cities and regions, sustainable resource management, forms of leadership and government with positive effects on governance, the role of women, the participation of civil society, methods to advance in  promoting good governance, the international  community’s role or any other aspect related to the main theme.

Three – Conditions that essays must meet

1. Essays must be original, unpublished and they must not have won any prizes or be pending the final ruling in other events or competitions. Participants must guarantee that there are no third–party rights over the essays presented and they shall be liable for all and any claims that may arise in this respect.
2. The essays may be presented in any of the following languages: Spanish, English, French or Portuguese.
3. The essay cannot be less than 15,000 or more than 20,000 words (excluding bibliography), and they must be written in Word Arial 12 Format and double spaced.
4. Essays must be presented unsigned and they will only be identified by the title of the work and whatever pseudonym each author may decide to use. Both the title of the essay and the pseudonym must appear on every page of the essay and pages must be numbered. Any signed essays will not be accepted for the competition.

Four – Documentation

1. It is essential to fill in completely the entry form that can be downloaded from Casa Africa website www.casafrica.es.  The same title and pseudonyms that appear on the essay presented to the competition must also appear on the entry form, together with other information on the author or authors of the work, name and surnames, National Identity Card or Passport number, nationality, address, telephone number, email and signature.
2. Authors taking part must enclose a photocopy of their National Identity Card or Passport.

Five – Submission of essay and documentation

1. The essay, in WORD format, the entry application and the photocopy of the National Identity Card or Passport must be sent by email only, to the following address: premio@casafica.es.
2. The deadline for submitting essays and the required documentation is Tuesday 15^th July 2014. Any essays that arrive after the deadline will not be accepted. Participants whose documentation is not received in full within established deadline will also be excluded from the competition.
3. No changes in either the documentation or the essays presented will be accepted once the deadline expires and Casa Africa is not under any obligation to reply to any correspondence or any other kind of communication that may be sent in this regard and any such communications should be taken as rejected.
4. Casa Africa shall not be liable for any problems arising from the malfunction of the electronic communication networks and any possible problem of this kind may not under any circumstance  serve as justification for admitting essays and/or documentation after the deadline stipulated in section 2 of condition Five.
5. All authors presenting essays within the established deadline undertake not to withdraw said work from the completion before Casa Africa publicly announces the decision of the jury.

Six – Composition of the Jury, operation and evaluation criteria

1. The Jury shall be comprised of a minimum of 3 and a maximum 7 members all of whom shall be reputed African and/or Spanish experts selected by the Casa Africa Consortium. This Jury shall give consideration to the quality and timeliness of the works as well as the contribution they make to raising awareness about the subject.
2. The Jury is free to establish its own operating rules, but the final proposal they put to the Casa Africa Consortium Executive Committee must be adopted unanimously or if this is not possible with an absolute majority of its members voting in favor of the proposal and this shall appear in the corresponding minutes. In any event, all and any decisions taken by the Jury by written vote without a meeting being in session shall be valid.

   Seven – The Jury’s Ruling

1. Whatever final proposal the Jury makes shall be presented to the Casa Africa Executive Committee, which may only disagree with said ruling if they explain the grounds for such a decision.
2. The Jury shall submit its proposal to Casa Africa by the 1st of October 2014.
3. Casa Africa shall announce the ruling on the prizes by 1st of November 2014.
4. The decision on the prize shall be final and Casa Africa reserves the right to declare the prize void.

 Eight – Prize

1. A single prize of €2,000 shall be awarded. Payment of said prize shall be subject to the Spanish tax legislation in effect at the time that said payment is made irrespective of the fiscal residence of the winning author or authors.
2. In the event that the winning essay is signed by more than one author, the prize shall be shared equally among them.
3. Authors authorize and cede all their rights to Casa Africa to edit a first edition of up to 1,000 copies of the prize–winning work and to allow free access to it through the Casa Africa website. Prize winners shall not be due any additional financial remuneration, other than the sum of the prize itself, for this or any reason.

Nine – Acceptance of the Terms and Conditions

1. The presentation of the entry form to the competition implies that the candidate accepts the Terms and Conditions of this competition and accepts Casa Africa’s decisions on the matter, which shall be final.
2.  All and any entry applications that do not meet the conditions established herein for the competition shall be rejected outright.

Ten – Notifications

According to article 59.6, b) of Law 30/1992, notification of all decisions taken by Casa Africa within the framework of this competition, including the ruling on the prize winner, shall be made by announcing them on the Consortium website (www.casafica.es), and said publications shall be in lieu of notifying each interested party individually.