Transparency International’s 20th Anniversary Youth Photo and Writing competition shows young people want to stamp out corruption

Transparency International would like to wish all our young supporters a happy and corruption-free International Youth Day! Later this week, on Thursday, 15 August, we will announce the winners of the Transparency International’s 20th Anniversary Youth Photo and Writing Competition. One thing stood out from the submissions, young people are fed up with corruption and have many well-considered and innovative ideas on how to stop it.

The competition is one of several events marking the 20th anniversary of Transparency International and its efforts to thwart the abuse of power, bribery and secret dealings worldwide. We asked participants to send images of the damaging effects of corruption in their world or to write an essay describing what people can do to stop it.

We had 1400 submissions, including the photo above of the Dhapa Dumping Grounds in Calcutta taken earlier this year. It ended up being one of our top submissions. The contest created a very robust competition and picking the winners required a lengthy effort among our judges.

Winners of the writing competition will be published on Trust.org, the web site of Transparency International’s partner in the competition, the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Following our recent 2013 Global Corruption Barometer showing that nearly 9 out of 10 people surveyed said they would act against corruption and that two-thirds of those who were asked to pay a bribe had refused, more needs to be done to activate youth against corruption.