More than 100 students from more than 40 countries entered the first-ever OECD Forum 2002 essay competition on the topic “The state of the world in 2002: how can international co-operation make the world a better place?” The winning entries from among 114 submitted came from: Cicero R. Habito (Philippines); Christopher Tabilo Heavey (Chile); Parag Khanna (Switzerland); Sachie Kikkawa (Japan); Maite Millogo (France); Andrew Peek (United States of America); and Martina Rosakova (Slovak Republic). The winners were invited to participate in the opening panel of the OECD Forum 2002 on 13 May in Paris and extracts from the winning entries will be published shortly by the Observer.