Global Junior Challenge
The Global Junior Challenge is promoted by the Digital Youth Consortium, a non-profit organization founded by the Municipality of Rome and six major ICT companies. The award identifies and rewards best practices in the use of new technologies in education of youngsters. An international jury selects the winners who will be announced during a ceremony in Autumn 2004.

Topic
The Global Junior Challenge award will pay special attention to a new category: “Women and equal opportunities”. Projects must be working to realise equal opportunities for women in every sphere of professional life through innovative use of ICTs. The aim is to contribute to gender-balance in decision-making through the use of ICTs. Another important theme will be the fight against the “Digital Divide” and the innovative use of information technologies to reduce poverty in the world.

Award ceremony
The award ceremony will take place at the Rome Campidoglio City Hall. It will include a seminar, an exhibition of finalist projects, a project show and a meeting on “Women & ICT”, where international organisations, companies and public authorities will discuss strategies for supporting gender balance in the ICT industry.

Who can participate
All young people, from school children to teenagers and youth taking their first steps on the job market are eligible. The Global Junior Challenge concerns all those interested or involved in child and youth education and training, and more broadly, in helping in the construction of a more inclusive society.

Deadline
The deadline for submission of projects is March 31, 2004.

2002 edition
The second edition of the Global junior Challenge was a great success: more than 400 projects from 67 countries joined the competition. The theme of the Global Junior Challenge 2002 was the fight against the Digital Divide and the development of the spirit of international solidarity through an effort to twin ten Italian schools with schools from poor countries in the world.

Contact Consorzio Gioventù Digitale
Via Umbria 7, 00187 Roma
Fax +39 06 42000442
e-mail: projects@gjc.it
www.gjc.it