UDOM Call To Participate In East African Community Wide Play Writing Competition Supported By Inter-University Council For East Africa

CALL TO PARTICIPATE IN EAC WIDE PLAY WRITING

COMPETITION SUPPORTED BY IUCEA

1. Introduction

Inter­University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) is an institution of the East African Community (EAC) whose mission is to promote strategic and sustainable development of higher education systems and research for supporting East Africa’s socio­economic development and regional integration. Its vision is to become an EAC strategic institution responsible for promoting, developing and coordinating human resources development and research in the region. IUCEA operates under an Act that the East African Legislative Assembly enacted in 2009. The Act mainstreamed IUCEA into the EAC framework. In 2011, IUCEA initiated reforms

guided by its Strategic Plan 2011­2016 that is linked to the 4th EAC Development Strategy 2011­2016.

EAC considers higher education as critical for the attainment of socio­economic transformation and regional integration. In that regard, IUCEA has a role of ensuring that higher education systems, promote production of human resource that would bring about East Africa’s sustainable socio­economic development and regional integration. Since the enactment of the IUCEA act 2009, the strategic focus of IUCEA has mainly been on harmonization of higher education quality systems, mobility and networking among

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scholars, complimenting to the free movement of people, goods and services in the region, as stipulated in the EAC Common Market Protocol.

The role of IUCEA in the Common Market Protocol can be effectively played through various strategies including EAC integration sensitization campaigns, inter­university sports and games, mainstreaming EAC integration ideals into IUCEA activities, curricula, research programmes, university workshops, and many others.

In the current financial year, some funds have been allocated for sponsorship of students’ ideas which can be developed into projects in the themes that will enhance exchange of experiences, culture, skills and knowledge.

To that effect it is proposed that IUCEA issues a call for proposals/concept notes in a selected range of themes addressing the integration ideals.

The call will have to be characterized with the potential to enhance appreciation of the importance of EAC integration and its benefits to the future of the EAC region under the motto “One People One Destiny.”

It is proposed that in the years to come, students be engaged to competitively debate the concept of an East Africa Community creatively through plays, short films, or documentaries etc., addressing East Africa’s needs, aspirations and values. To determine winners, a regional panel will develop criteria and modes of selecting the best idea/s for support. The possible mode of assessment may be through experts or by public participation by citizens through electronic media such as TVs or FM stations. The criteria for the magnitude of public participation will be based on resources available, time frame and potential for publicity of the subject and IUCEA.

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2. PROJECT 2017: DEBATING EAST AFRICA THROUGH DRAMA

IUCEAis mandated by the IUCEA Act 2009 to promote the ideals of the East African Community. One of the ways it achieves that is through students’ debates, scholarships and sponsored student mobility. This year, a new and innovative way is proposed to make students engage the ideals of the East African Community through creative writing.

A call is therefore being made in all the EAC Partner States for a play writing competition. Students in any of the universities in East Africa, public or private, are invited to submit original scripts for consideration. The scripts should fulfill the following criteria:

i.The broad theme should be The East Africa Community and could answer questions such as: What does it mean to be East African? What are the benefits and opportunities? What are the obstacles to being East African and how can they best be overcome?

ii.The length of the play should be determined by expected run time. This should be between 30 and 45 minutes

iii. The language of the play should be either English or Kiswahili, which are the official languages of the East African community.

iv.The characters should be as few as possible. Preferably not more than five

v.The submitted scripts should have a synopsis of the play, a description of the topic/problem tackled and why the author thinks it deserves attention for the well being of the East African Community. Finally the author should as precisely as possible, describe the solution that the performance proposes and why they think the solution can work!

vi.Short video performances of selected sections of the play uploaded on You Tube can also be part of the application.

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5/18/2017Inter University Council of East Africa

The link should be included in the submission.

3.Proposed Topics:

The scriptwriters are encouraged to write the plays with the intention of provoking debate on East African Community ideals. This may be approached from but not limited to following:

i.Socio­economic interactions between the EAC Partner States such as in business, trade, services, transportation, environment, games, ICT etc.

ii.(im)migration and settlement, border controls,

iii.The role of education: primary, vocational or higher education

iv.Student and labour mobility

v.Politics

vi.Love, marriage and culture, etc.

4.Application process

a.Scripts must be sent to IUCEA via e­Mail: info@iucea.org with a copy to des@iucea.org by 8th June 2017

b.Review by experts by June 25th 2017

c.Winners announced by 30th June 2017. Download a PDF

5.Proposed awards

There will be two levels of awards. The first prizes will go to the three best plays regionally. There will also be five special recognition prizes, which will be used to honour exemplary work in such areas as language use, thematic handling, innovativeness or such category as the judges may deem fit as follows:

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