Enter the CGAP Photo Contest 2017 (Win a $2,000 Photography Gift Certificate)

 

Deadline: September 29, 2017

Submit entries for the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) Photo Contest 2017. The CGAP Photo Contest is looking for original, striking images that capture the importance of financial inclusion efforts around the world. Digital innovations and the growing use of smartphones are making it easier for poor and rural customers to manage their daily finances, grow a business, or respond to an emergency. But two billion people still lack access to basic financial services such as savings accounts and credit that can help improve their lives. Financial services can help play a role in reducing extreme poverty and increasing prosperity.

The contest needs you to show how access to financial services can empower people and communities around the world. The top photographs will receive prizes and recognition, and all entrants help to show in vivid and memorable ways why financial inclusion matters.

Prizes

• Grand Prize Winner: US$2000 gift certificate for photography equipment and accessories.
• Categories: US$500 gift certificate for photography equipment and accessories:

• Innovations in Digital Finance: From paying school fees to buying solar energy, digital finance is a means for achieving broader development goals. Show innovative ways people are using digital finance to improve their lives.
• Building Sustainable Livelihoods: Savings, credit and insurance provide poor people with a wider range of tools to help manage their economic lives. Show how poor people are building more resilient lives.
• Creating Opportunities for People in Crisis: War, conflict and natural disasters are forcing record numbers of people worldwide from their homes. Show how people coping with humanitarian crises conduct their economic and financial lives.
• Connecting People and Services: By 2020, three quarters of the world’s population are expected to be connected to mobile networks. Show how digital technologies are reaching excluded groups, such as women and youth, and expanding people’s opportunities.

• Regional Spotlight: US$500 gift certificate for photography equipment and accessories:

• Middle East and North Africa: In Arab countries, 71 percent of adults are financially excluded, one of the highest levels in the world, according to CGAP research. Women are far less likely than men to have a bank account. Show the financial lives of people in the Middle East and North Africa.
• Latin America and Caribbean: Close to one third of adults make mobile payments in this region and account ownership is rising. Show how financial inclusion makes a difference for people living in Latin American and the Caribbean.

• Winners for photographs taken in each of the following regions also will be awarded a US$300 gift certificate for photography equipment and accessories:

• Sub-Saharan Africa
• South Asia
• East Asia and Pacific

• Judges’ Honorable Mention: Judges may select up to 8 winners to receive US$250 gift certificate for photography equipment and accessories;
• People’s Choice Winner: US$100 gift certificate for photography equipment and accessories.

Eligibility

The contest is open to all photographers who are at least 18 years old. (The operational team of CGAP, the World Bank Group, and their immediate families are excluded from participating.)

Entries must:

• Be the original work of the entrant and shot in the last two years;
• Treat all subjects with respect and dignity;
• Respect the rights, sensitivities, and culture of communities and/or persons depicted, including the subject’s right to consent to being photographed;
• Fairly represent the situation, subject’s identity and physical location of the image, without alteration (other than standard photographic techniques for optimization, including removal of dust, cropping, adjustments to color and contrast, etc.)

Application

• Digital images or scans of prints may be uploaded;
• Original files of camera-made digital photos may not exceed five megabytes (5 MB);
• CGAP cannot be responsible for lost, damaged, late or misdirected entries, or for faulty uploading connections, garbled transmissions, unauthorized intervention, or technical malfunctions.

All entries must be submitted by 11:59pm US EDT on September 29, 2017. Voting for the People’s Choice Award begins at 12:00am US EDT on September 30, 2017 and ends 11:59pm US EDT on October 6, 2017.