FCDO Next Generation Economics competition 2025 winner announced
Hajar Al-Sabbahy has been named the winner of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Next Generation Economics 2025 competition.
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The competition winner, runners-up and entrants who made the shortlist are pictured with FCDO’s previous Chief Economist, Adnan Khan.
The 2025 Next Generation Economics competition invited UK school students to write a letter directed to the Foreign Secretary on questions at the top of our agenda including some of the biggest economic challenges facing their generation.
Entrants responded to one of the following 4 questions:
- while free trade has been the dominant view in the last decades, protectionist policies are on the rise. What are the drivers of the global moves away from free trade and how should the UK respond?
- Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics. Their work demonstrated the importance of inclusive institutions for a country’s development and economic prosperity. How should the FCDO support the development of inclusive institutions in developing countries and what factors might the UK want to consider when doing so?
- only one-third of places in undergraduate economics programmes in the UK are taken up by women. But women who choose to study economics are more likely to achieve a 2:1 (or above) in their undergraduate degree compared to male students from the same socio-economic background and ethnicity. Why are women disproportionally not choosing the economic profession and how can academic institutions and governments reduce the barriers to participation?
- according to the IMF and the World Bank, five Low-Income Countries are in debt-distress, while another 28 are assessed as having a high risk of debt distress. Why is debt distress bad for a country? How can the FCDO support a nation’s development whilst reducing its debt servicing costs?
Thank you to everyone that entered this year’s competition – it was particularly competitive, with a record number of 811 entries.
Winning essay
Hajar Al-Sabbahy’s compelling winning essay captured the importance of context in supporting a country’s development through the means of inclusive institutions. They emphasised how democratised institutions drive funding towards citizens’ priorities, illustrating their arguments with pertinent examples and diagrammatic explanations.
Runners up
Two competition runners-up have also been announced.
Kushagra Ratra wrote to the Foreign Secretary on the topic of international debt. They underscored the role of credible monetary and financial institutions in the formation of investor expectations and proposed a bond linked to a countries’ progress on a range of development metrics.
Lucas Milligan wrote on the topic of gender imbalance in economics, applying a range of economic concepts to propose creative policy ideas. These included the allocation of government funding, akin to a cap-and-trade system, and incentivising private sector firms to address the underlying issue and increase female participation.
Shortlisted essays
Five other entrants’ essays were also shortlisted:
- Tehan Devinuwara proposed a series of policy suggestions that the UK government could consider, including digital freeports, to respond to rising protectionism, recognising the outsized role of services in the UK economy
- Areej Fatimah broke down the causal factors behind the gender imbalance in economics. They suggest policies to address supply and demand inefficiencies, and mechanisms to mitigate against negative feedback loops
- Chloe Loh writes on the inefficiencies generated by developing country debt crises. They emphasise the importance of transparency for increasing investors’ trust
- Alessa Efridya Ningtyas described the factors and rationale which have contributed to governments increasingly using protectionist measures, the efficiency gains derived from free trade and its interplay with economic security. Balancing between resilience and openness, they set out a strategic path forward
- Sanisa Golar highlighted, among many other policy suggestions, the importance and benefits of promoting civil society and media – keeping government accountable and fostering inclusive institutions
Visit to the LSE and FCDO
In September 2025, the winner, runners-up and shortlisted entrants were invited to tour the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
At the LSE the students met with representatives of the university including lecturers and PhD students. Following this, the students met with both the FCDO’s Chief Economist and other officials to hear about the experience of working for the UK government.
We would like to thank our partner, the LSE, which has continued to support this competition.
Professor Adnan Khan, former FCDO Chief Economist, has supported this programme across his tenure, championing the promotion of inclusivity in the economic profession. The competition organisers would like to thank Adnan for his continued support of the NGE competition over the last few years.
2026 competition
The Next Generation Economics competition will return in 2026, supported by FCDO’s new Chief Economist, Professor Dennis Novy .
To be notified of the competition start date, you can register for competition updates.
Find out more about previous competition winners: FCDO Next Generation Economics competition 2024 winner announced.