The Graduate Institute is delighted to launch the third edition of The Geneva Challenge – Advancing Development Goals Contest, under the patronage of Kofi Annan. The 2016 edition’s topic will be The Challenges of Urbanisation. Managing urban growth has become one of the most important challenges of the 21stcentury. In the world today, what kind of urbanisation will nurture sustainable growth and development? As the key to this challenge is an interdisciplinary solution, crossing traditional boundaries between academic disciplines, we are inviting graduate students from all academic programmes to provide helpful strategic recommendations. The idea is to gather contributions that are both theoretically grounded and offer pragmatic solutions to a relevant international development problem stemming from an interdisciplinary collaboration between 3 to 5 enrolled master students from anywhere in the world. Identify a challenge stemming from urbanization; Construct an interdisciplinary analysis on how it affects different aspects of development in a specific (but transposable) context; Propose innovation at the policy, practice, process or technology levels turning the challenge into development opportunity. The finalists will be invited to publically present their work in Geneva before a panel of highlevel experts. Networking and publication opportunities are also envisioned as part of the prize package.
