Blogs should be from 500-800 words. 

Immediately identify what your blog is about in a clear and concise manner. Your title determines whether someone will read your blog or not. It appears in email subject-headings, google searches and social media shares. It should be short, and interesting—about 6-10 words. Example:  ‘Minimum alternative tax; are Kenyan SMEs paying the price?’ ; ‘Kenya’s sugar sub-sector: the missing links to self-sufficiency’

What is your point? Why should someone read this? State your main point and grab the reader’s attention right away. This is your opportunity to explain to a very busy audience why they should take the time to read your blog. Essentially, your conclusion comes first. For example, this was the first paragraph in a blog titled: “Benefit Sharing Principles must Apply to Water Resources”

Tullow Oil has recently received an extension of its contract to end of 2021 and Ministry of Petroleum and Mining has approved its annual work plan and budget to enable it do so. Water towards the project is envisioned to come from Turkwel Dam in West Pokot County which is predominantly a drought prone region. The Constitution of Kenya adopted in 2010 but taking effect in 2013 sought to bring public services broadly closer to citizens. The governance of the water sector was among those decentralized specifically cascading down to counties the function of provision of water and sanitation services. 

Write in a clear concise and engaging manner while supporting your argument with evidence.  We encourage blogs that capture the following elements: 

• What is the problem/ or background of your argument? (Could be a current affair)
• Why is it an Issue of Public Interest? (Refer to Numbers e.g. a National Census or any study; International Agenda- anything that is useful to elevate it to the public agenda)
• What has been done about the issues?
  
• What gaps still exist and can they be addressed? 
• Conclusion/Key takeaway/What can be done about the gaps mentioned above (in this case try and map each recommendation to each gap identified)?

When stating facts or mentioning other thinkers, cite the source. Please use hyperlinks whenever possible and footnotes and indent only if you are quoting the author word for word. 

Example: Take note the words ‘women entrepreneurs’ in blue is an hyperlink to a web source with the definition while the superscript ¹ represents a footnote at the bottom of this page’: Women entrepreneurs face technical challenges that hinder their ability to formalize enterprises; attributed to lack of streamlining of processes and access to information for business registration and licensing.[1]

[1] Toesland F. (2018). Women-led tech startups on the rise in Africa. United Nations Africa Renewal Information Programme. here

Our e-library publications including blogs speak to specialized audiences who are concerned with championing the voices of the youth in public policy formulation and implementation. Readers span across the globe and include government officers, policy-makers, think tanks, NGOs, IGOs, members of the diplomatic community, academics, practitioners within 254 YPC, as well as other interested parties.

1. Review. All submissions are reviewed for quality and clarity and should be in line with the guidelines provided. This review is carried out by in-house and external subject-matter experts. .
   1. Once a blog is submitted, our editorial team will take a maximum of 5 working days to review it and may provide language, content and structural edits to enhance readability and make it consistent with our editorial guidelines.
   2. Once reviewed, we will send you back your blog to edit with comments and tracked changes from the reviewer. 
   3. You will be given a maximum of 5 working days to review and respond to the reviewers comments on your blog.
   4. Due to the timely nature of blogs a submissions beyond 5 days will be treated as an initial submissions and may warrant a longer waiting period. To avoid this, if you are not able to resubmit within 5 days, email us at info@ypckenya.org. 
   5. Note, in your re-submitted blog, leave any changes or comments in tracked changes
2. The editorial team reserves the right to reject a submission if it falls outside the provided guidelines
3. On rare occasions, further edits may be made before publication
4. Every quarter, custodians of outstanding blogs will be considered to participate as speakers in monthly webinars or regular shoots. 

We encourage you to join in and share your voice in the Comments section of blog, on social media and through other channels. While we value honesty and different perspectives, we reserve the right to reject comments that contain:

• Offensive statements against a culture, race, religion or gender;
• Abusive language, anger, hate, violence or pornography;
• Personal information (other than yours), such as names, addresses or phone numbers;
• Offensive or threatening comments about 254 YPC members;
• Third party marketing, including links to third party websites;
• Comment lacking relevance to the subject matter

To ensure that this is respected, the editorial team receives and reviews comments before they appear under a blog.

Blogs on championing the voices of the youth in public policy formulation and implementation should not be interpreted as position of 254 YPC, nor should their content amount to formal policy or doctrine, unless specifically indicated.

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