The Alliance is excited to be partnering with the UK's Guardian newspaper and fellow NGOs in a competition to find aspiring UK-based journalists who care about the developing world.

Finalists will have the opportunity to visit Alliance and other NGO programmes in Africa and Asia and their final submissions will be published in the Guardian newspaper.

The competition, which is being launched today, aims to raise the profile of development issues in the UK. It is primarily supported by the UK's Department for International Development.

Two strands of entrants – aspiring writers (including journalism students and the public) and freelance journalists – are being asked to enter an article on one of the competition's international development issues.

The Alliance is urging participants to consider writing about HIV as their chosen topic, as a way of showing people in the UK what more needs to be done to effectively reduce the spread of HIV in the developing world.

The three Alliance themes are:

• HIV prevention – what really works?
• Fair treatment – what's stopping universal access to HIV treatment?
• Is government enough? The role of communities in overcoming HIV.

How to apply

Entrants need to be UK-based.

To apply, go to www.guardian.co.uk/developmentcompetition.

We have a dedicated section on our website about the competition with sources of information to get you started. See www.aidsalliance.org/guardiancompetition

We've also included some extra information abut the three themes in the links on the right hand side of this page.

We wish you all the best!

The other NGO partners in the project are Marie Stopes International, Camfed International, HelpAge International, Malaria Consortium, Plan UK, Sightsavers International and WaterAid.