OREANDA-NEWS. September 21, 2015.  International Monetary Fund (IMF) unveiled the names of the selected finalists for its essay and photo contests, which were organized as part of the “Road to Lima” campaign, a joint initiative between the IMF and the government of Peru leading up to the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Lima. There are total of 11 finalists, six for the Peru wide essay contest and five for the regional photo contest. The finalists will be invited to participate in the events of the Annual Meetings in Lima starting on October 5 and will be recognized by the IMF’s Managing Director, Christine Lagarde. The announcement was made today at the book launch event “Peru: staying the course of economic success.”

“We are very pleased by the large number of participants and the high quality of entries we received for both events. I look forward to meeting the finalists during the meetings to continue this important dialogue we have with the youth about the future of our region,” said Alejandro Werner, Director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the IMF.

Essay Contest

A total of 369 entries were received for this contest jointly organized with the government of Peru. Undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines in Peruvian universities were invited to submit essays on the theme “Shaping Peru’s National Agenda: A Youth Perspective.” Candidates had to structure their essays around one of the following six priority areas for Peru: macroeconomic stability and sustainability, productivity and innovation, education, gender, environment, and infrastructure. Judges from the government of Peru, the IMF, Economic and Social Research Consortium (CIES) selected the finalists based on pertinence of the essay and applicability as well as rigor, structure and coherence.