Johannesburg, August 19, 2013 - Three youth from west and east Africa have topped the winners-list in the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) Photo and Essay Competition, launched in March 2013. Timetayo Olofinlua from Nigeria and Jerry Lemogo from Cameroon, won the 1^st Prize in the English and French Essay category, while Larry Keya from Kenya, scooped the 1^st Prize in the Photographic Category.

The Contest was tied to this year’s African Union theme “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance” to mark the 50^th Anniversary of the continental body. It aimed to draw public attention to the important work that NEPAD and its development partners are doing in agricultural and rural transformation, as well as the empowerment of women and youth

Sponsored by the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the African Development Bank, the Contest was open to African youth aged 13 to 35. It called for submissions of original photographs and essays in English and French focusing specifically on what they understood and perceived as the role of NEPAD in Youth, Women and Rural Agricultural Development.

In total 8 winners were selected from among hundreds of entries by a panel of six judges who came from a cross section of society in Africa. The other winners are Hudson Shiraku, Kenya and Fiifi Oduro-Nyarkoh from Ghana, who won the 2^nd and 3^rd Prize respectively in the English Essay category; Ala Eldin Abdalla (Sudan) and Luesso Amuri Jean-Paul (Burundi) in the Photographic category, while Fodjeu Nguepi Huguette from Cameroon got the 2^nd Prize in the French essay category.

NEPAD’s Head of Communications Maureen Nkandu said “We are pleased with the overwhelming response we got from all over Africa. The quality of entries was good and our judges had a busy time analysing assessing and debating the value of each entry to determine the winners.”

The top winning Essay by Timetayo entitled “A letter to World Leaders” focuses on Africa’s bridge between the present and future of rural development. Larry Keya’s winning photograph on “The Student in the Greenhouse” is a depiction of an empowered young woman. It was chosen by the judges for its depiction of an empowered young woman in a setting portraying a transition from the traditional subsistence farming to modern methods such as green-farming all year round.

The eight winners will receive their prizes at a special ceremony in Johannesburg in September. NEPAD will also hold a month’s exhibition of the photographs at the Africa Museum in Johannesburg as well as at the African Union in January. A pictorial book on the photos and essays will also be published.