Fancy yourself as a bit of a journalist? Do you have an interest in international development? Or maybe you are just fed up of the media’s portrayal of the developing world. Either way, this competition could be right up your street!

For the last 4 years, British newspaper, the Guardian has been running their International Development Journalism competition in partnership with a number of UK based international Non-Governmental Organisations including Marie Stopes International, AMREF, Bishop Simeon Trust, Care International, David Rattray Memorial Trust, Plan UK, Progressio, Save the Children and The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Development. The aim of the competition is to highlight some of the crucial issues facing the developing world which can often be overlooked or underrepresented by the media.

The challenge is to write a feature of 650 to 1,000 words by Thursday 3 May at 23.59pm on an aspect of global poverty that deserves greater media exposure. The 16 best writers (eight amateur, eight professional) will be selected from a longlist of around 40 entrants, all of whom will have their articles published online here.

The 16 finalists will each be flown to a developing country to research a new assignment. The finalist pieces will then be published in two Guardian newspaper supplements, after the announcement of the two winners at an awards ceremony in London on the 22 November 2012.

For all information on the competition, including how to enter, themes for this year’s competition, list of judges etc, visit The Guardian website