
Accountability Essay Competition 2025
Background
WAJIBU envisages ensuring “Public resources are effectively managed to benefit all citizens for poverty reduction”. WAJIBU believes this will be accomplished by fostering an environment that promotes transparency and public financial accountability in the country through policy advocacy and research, capacity building, and citizen engagement, particularly among youth, women, and people with disability. To achieve youth engagement in Public Financial Accountability matters, WAJIBU conducts accountability essay competitions to encourage the active participation of youth in critical thinking to address societal issues (Public Financial Management). These competitions intend to provide platforms for the youth to express their ideas, perspectives, and solutions related to governance and corruption, thus contributing to the development of a more accountable and transparent society.
2. Objective
The 2025 Essay Competition aims to encourage youth to explore the importance of public accountability in managing public resources and how youth leadership can help promote transparency, accountability and sustainable development. Additionally, it aims to increase youth engagement in matters of public financial accountability, while also fostering an understanding of accountability issues, anti-corruption and encouraging citizens to demand for transparency and accountability in the collection and use of public resources.
3. Key Essay Question
The following is the proposed Accountability essay competition topic; Contestants must delve into the following areas of concentration when writing their essay.
“The role of Public Accountability in the proper Management Public Resources” What is the Youth’s Contribution in this Endeavor?
The areas of concentration:
- Define public accountability and its importance in ensuring transparent, ethical, and efficient management of public resources.
- Discuss how a lack of accountability leads to corruption, and unequal distribution of resources, worsening issues of poverty and income inequality among the country’s citizens.
- Highlight the role of youth in promoting accountability through engagement, policy change, and participation in governance.
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4. Target Group
The Accountability Essay Competition 2025 is open to students from the 10 higher learning institutions in the country WAJIBU has a working relationship with which are; Mzumbe University - Morogoro, St. Augustine University
of Tanzania (SAUT) – Mwanza; Local Government Training Institute (LGTI)
– Hombolo in Dodoma; Institute of Rural Development Planning (IRDP) – Dodoma; Ruaha Catholic University (RUCU) – Iringa; Moshi Co-operative University (MOCU) – Kilimanjaro; Institute of Accountancy Arusha (IAA)
– Arusha; the University of Dodoma (UDOM); University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM)-Dar es Salaam and Kampala International University in Tanzania (KIUT)-Dar es Salaam.
5. Timeline
The essay and a valid University Identity Card in one PDF document should be submitted by email to info@wajibu.or.tz on or before 18th July, 2025 at 23:59 EAT. Essays received after this date will not be considered.
6. Key dates
DATE |
EVENT |
13th June2025 |
Advertisement to be Published |
18th July, 2025 |
Submission deadline |
27th July – 08th August 2025 |
Evaluation and selection of winners |
14th August 2025 |
Award ceremony |
7. Evaluation Process
Participants will be assessed based on their knowledge, storytelling skills, essay structure, referencing and evidence, presentation skills, demonstrated creativity, and originality of language use. Each of these criteria will be assessed as shown in the table below:
NO. |
CRITERIA |
MARKS |
1 |
Knowledge of the subject matter based on areas of concentration |
40 |
2 |
Storytelling and ownership of the essay |
20 |
3 |
Essay structure, referencing, and evidence |
30 |
4 |
Creativity, originality of language use/punctuations |
10 |
5 |
Total |
100 |
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8. Rules of the Competition
The participants should abide by the following requirements in participating
in the essay competition;
- The Essay must be typed in Times New Roman, with a font size of 12, and line spacing of 1.5, the format shall be single-spaced, maximum of 4 pages of A4 size, and in PDF format.
- The essay must not exceed 2,000 words.
- The essay should be written in English.
- The submitted essay should be original work of the student participating in the competition. A plagiarized or AI essay will be disqualified from the competition.
- Each contestant’s essay submission should be linked to an individual email address, reducing the risk of technical issues with shared email accounts.
9. Awards/Prizes
The top three winners will receive prizes (laptops&ipads) and certificates of recognition. The winning essays will also be promoted for visibility through media interviews and discussions. And lastly, the winning essays will be published in the WAJIBU’s quarterly newsletter and shared on social media pages.
10. Submission
Submit your essay and a valid University/College Identity Card as a single
PDF document to info@wajibu.or.tz. Submission deadline is on 18th July, 2025.