Excellence and Innovation in Sweetpotato: Communication for Change Award

16/11/2020
Kigali, Rwanda

The International Potato Center is pleased to announce that the “Excellence and Innovation in Sweetpotato: Communication for Change Award” will take place for a fourth year in 2020.

The annual award was established with a generous endowment from Dr Jan W Low, a recipient of the World Food Prize in 2016, to recognize the best sweetpotato communication product.

This year the prize will be awarded for the best communication product produced between 2019 (1 January – 31 December). The winner will receive an award of USD 500. The award will be presented to the lead publisher and is intended to be split among the co-publishers.

The main criteria to assess submissions will be: originality, quality, appropriateness for key audiences, and the results of the communications product and/or its contribution towards the impact of your project, program or organization.

The deadline to receive applications is 16 November 2020. The winner will be announced on December 1.

All submissions must fill the entry form.

Files must be submitted in the following formats:

  • Video: Files must be submitted as a link to stream the video, such as through YouTube, Vimeo or another video streaming service
  • Image: JPEG, PNG
  • Audio: MP3, WAV
  • Document: PDF, PPT. These can include manuals, brochures, etc.
  • This competition is open to all individuals who work under the umbrella of the CIP-led Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI). This includes staff from: NARIs, NGOs and private sector partners who work on sweetpotato as well as staff from CIP and other CGIAR centers and research programs.
  • The competition is open to the following types of communications products, or a campaign consisting of the following products: video, image, audio, PDF, PPT
  • The products may be about any type of sweetpotato, it is not restricted to orange-fleshed sweetpotato.
  • The products can be in any language; however, an English translation must be provided. Entry forms must be written in English.
  • Teams or individuals may submit more than one entry.
  • By entering the competition, participants agree to a creative commons attribution, which is a non-commercial share-alike license (BY-NC-SA) for their communication products. Competition organizers will promote the winning product on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal and other relevant websites. Practitioners and their respective organizations will be fully credited for their work.

The judging criteria is outlined in detail below. The competition encourages quality and innovation. In creating this prize, we wish to acknowledge and recognize the power of communications to reach target audiences and to change behavior.

Each submission will be judged out of a total of 100 points:

  • 70 points for the communication product
  • 30 points for the results achieved

  PART 1

The communication product – 70 points

Criteria  Description Score
Well-developed product A high-quality communication product with

·       Clear purpose

·       High quality, original design and/or production

30 points
Tailored to key audience Is the product tailored to its intended audience? Consider language, design, format. 20 points
Key messages Are the key message/s clearly communicated in the product? 20 points

  PART 2

Results achieved – 30 points

Criteria  Description  Score
Overall results or contribution towards the goals of your project/organization How did the communication product create change, or contribute towards the results achieved by your project/organization? 10 points
Results What were the result/s of the product?

How did you measure or evaluate this?

Who did your product reach? Were they the intended audience?

10 points
Strategy What was your strategy for developing and delivering the communication product?

How did this contribute towards the end result?

10 points

Christopher Butler

Managing Editor

Vivian Atakos

Regional Communications Specialist
keyboard_arrow_up