Essay Competition

First round. Closed April 27, 2026.

Overdue Progress is a new publication dedicated to understanding how progress happens and how to make more of it, with a focus on Africa. You can read more about what we are and why we exist here.

To kick things off, we are running our first essay competition.

The deadline has passed and judging is complete. See the three winners. You can also read all the essays we received.

The prize

Three winners. 50,000 ETB each.

Winners will have their essays published on overdueprogress.org and become columnists on the publication. This is an ongoing relationship, not a one-time prize.

What we are looking for

Write an essay in English about something that matters for progress.

We want writing that looks at how things actually work. Not just how the news or politicians describe them, but how they actually function on the ground. Pick a system, an institution, an industry, a policy, a piece of infrastructure, a historical episode, or an economic pattern and explain it clearly. What does it do? How did it get this way? What are the forces that keep it the way it is? And if you think it should change, how specifically would you change it and what would the second-order effects be?

The best essays are specific rather than general. We don't want "Ethiopia needs better education." We want "here's how teacher training actually works in the Amhara region and here's what's broken about it." We don't want "the economy needs reform." We want "here's exactly how the foreign exchange system creates distortions and here's what would happen if you changed this one mechanism."

We value essays that combine research with original thinking. Show us you've done the work. That you've read, talked to people, looked at data, studied history. But also show us your own mind. What do you see that others don't? What connection are you making that hasn't been made?

We're interested in writers who think like engineers, not just commentators. Diagnosis is welcome, but prescription is better.

Topics can come from anywhere. Agriculture, finance, technology, urban planning, healthcare, education, trade, energy, housing, governance, history, culture, logistics, manufacturing, Ethiopian economic history, African development, comparative economics, institutional design. The scope isn't limited to Africa. An essay about Indian software outsourcing or East Asian industrial policy belongs here if it illuminates how progress works. What matters is the quality of the thinking, not the subject.

How to enter

There is no registration. You don't need to sign up or wait for anything. Start writing now.

Submit your essay here: overdueprogress.org/submit.

Deadline: Monday, April 27, 2026, 12:59 AM EAT.

Evaluation

Essays will be evaluated on the quality of research, originality of thinking, clarity of writing, and the specificity and rigor of the analysis. We would rather award fewer than three prizes than lower the bar.

Results will be announced by the end of May 2026.

What happens after

Winners become columnists on Overdue Progress. They can continue writing and publishing essays on the site. We will run this competition again. This is the first cycle, not the last.

Questions? Contact @frectonz on Telegram.