Competition Advocacy Contest 2025

As defined by the ICN, competition advocacy refers to activities that promote a competitive environment through non-enforcement mechanisms, such as building relationships with government entities, increasing public awareness of competition’s benefits and identifying and removing anticompetitive policies and regulations.

We are looking for success stories from competition agencies, other public bodies or civil society that demonstrate the tangible results of competition advocacy under four themes:

1. Supporting resilient and competitive value chains to enable private investment, jobs, and consumer welfare

Well-functioning markets along value chains drive economic growth, create jobs, increase resilience and improve consumer welfare. Efforts to unlock the potential of value chains in key sectors – such as food, manufacturing, and digital services - often involve fostering competition by removing entry barriers, regulatory constraints or distortions of level playing field. Removing these barriers is vital for promoting competition and resilience, and expanding investment, leading to opportunities for more and better jobs. Market access reforms can have significant economic impacts, such as increasing capital investment by 4%, boosting output by 3%, and raising employment by 1.5% (Gal and Hijzen 2016). Value chains for exporting goods and services create economic opportunities for economies, while those supplying essential products to domestic consumers provide direct benefits to households. For example, competition policy can address market failures in the food supply chain, by promoting transparency, open markets, and reducing anti-competitive practices that drive up food prices.

Initiatives in this theme focus on identifying and dismantling barriers to entry and competition to support value chain development, through targeted market studies, policy advice, and advocacy for pro-competition reforms. It also encompasses pro-competitive reforms, successful regulatory strategies, and collaborative approaches that illustrate how stakeholders are harnessing the benefits of global markets while reinforcing local resilience, secure access to products, and economic stability.

2. Embedding competition principles in policies to manage state assets: SOEs, privatization and public private partnerships  

Enterprises with direct and indirect state ownership operate across almost all sectors of the economy and their revenues are equivalent to 17% of GDP on average (World Bank 2023). Ensuring competitive neutrality is essential for creating a level playing field where both private and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) operate under the same market conditions. More stringent fiscal conditions require countries to assess their portfolio of assets, refocusing resources on those essential for public policy objectives and identifying enterprises and assets for divestiture or public-private partnerships. Designing partnerships and divestiture packages that support competition and ensuring appropriate pro-competition rules are in place is essential to develop competitive markets. When competition authorities advocate for policies requiring SOEs to follow the same rules as other market players, they help level the playing field and open markets to private sector development. This theme also explores how competition policy can enhance the effectiveness of policies to crowd in investments into sectors where SOEs operate.

Participants can highlight case studies where competitive neutrality reforms have helped reduce market distortions, increased transparency, and promoted a more balanced economic environment; and where pro-competition policy advice has contributed to divestitures and public-private partnerships that resulted in increased consumer welfare, efficiency and investment.

3. Enhancing public procurement and curbing bid rigging for government savings

Public procurement is a key area where competition advocacy can shape market outcomes on a large scale. Internationally, bid-rigging cartels account for 50% of all detected cartels recorded in the WBG Global Cartels Database. Effective pro-competition reforms can lead to substantial cost savings, shorter timelines, and support broader goals like SME development, high quality standard for public good provision (e.g., health), and green procurement. Bid rigging and collusion in public procurement not only waste public resources but also erode trust in market systems. Competition policy plays a crucial role in promoting integrity in public procurement by preventing collusion, favoritism, and bid-rigging. This theme focuses on how competition advocacy and enforcement can make procurement processes more transparent and accessible to all qualified bidders, reducing opportunities for corruption and bid rigging, and ensuring that public resources are allocated efficiently and effectively.

Participants are invited to share examples of successful initiatives in procurement, including the implementation of pro-competitive bidding rules, monitoring mechanisms, data analytics, collaborative efforts between competition authorities and government agencies, and measures that have promoted accountability and driven down costs in public projects.

4. Advancing competition through public-private dialogue

Engaging with businesses, trade associations, and consumer groups helps competition authorities gain critical market insights, anticipate regulatory impacts, and shape effective advocacy strategies. Public-private dialogue fosters a pro-competition culture, encourages voluntary compliance, and identifies unnecessary regulatory barriers—especially in emerging markets facing unique challenges like rapid technological change, informal sector competition, and limited regulatory capacity. Evidence-based engagements to highlight competition’s benefits, including increased innovation, better prices, and consumer choice, builds support for pro-competition reforms. Indeed, more than 80% of the entries in the ICN-WBG Competition Advocacy contest since 2013 use media and communications as key tools in their advocacy strategies.

Initiatives in this theme cover examples of successful public consultations, partnerships that have led to pro-competitive reforms, multi-stakeholder initiatives that have contributed to market liberalization, and innovative approaches for engaging stakeholders with feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement.

Please contact Alex Ciborowska with any questions at aciborowska@worldbank.org.

The deadline for submissions is January 24, 2025.

>> APPLY ONLINE <<

Competition agencies, sector regulators and other government bodies and non-governmental organizations promoting competition policy are welcome to apply.

If you are not a member of the ICN, you should reach out to the ICN member in your jurisdiction to inform about your intention to participate in the contest. A list of all ICN members is available here. Joint submissions from ICN members and government bodies or non-governmental organizations are encouraged.

In order to participate, candidates must complete the online survey. Key information required to apply includes: 

Stories submitted to previous editions of the contest that were not awarded are eligible for resubmission.

The online survey is the only valid application method. Applications through email messages or that fail to provide the required information in compliance with indicated character limits and blind review standards will not be considered.

Please contact Alex Ciborowska with any questions at aciborowska@worldbank.org.

The deadline for submissions is January 24, 2025.

>> APPLY ONLINE <<

Submissions will undergo a rigorous assessment of the following criteria:

• Relevance of the competition issue tackled by the initiative;
• Success of the advocacy activity - results achieved;
• Impact and effects on markets, spillover effects and lessons learned;
• Advocacy strategy - creativity and originality, cooperation mechanisms deployed.

An independent panel will review the submissions and select the top stories. Winning applicants will be invited to present their stories at a joint ICN-World Bank Group event.

Winners and honorable mentions will be announced in advance of the 2025 ICN Annual Conference.