Vital Voices Peace Fellowship

Intergenerational Fellowship on Women, Peace and Security in South Central Europe

Program Overview

Vital Voices Global Partnership invites you to apply for the Intergenerational Fellowship on Women, Peace and Security in South Central Europe (“Peace Fellowship”). The Peace Fellowship is a year-long program that seeks to engage twenty (20) established and emerging women leaders from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, and Croatia (five from each country) to advance intergenerational efforts to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (“GBV”) to advance the Women, Peace, and Security (“WPS”) movement in the region. The Peace Fellowship is a project of Vital Voices under the Voices Against Violence: The Gender-Based Violence Global Initiative, which aims to improve protections and access to justice and resources for advocates, survivors, and survivor-advocates of GBV.

The Peace Fellowship will include tailored trainings, peer-to-peer learning and intergenerational mentorship, networking, and grant opportunities for Peace Fellows. It will include both virtual and in-person activities depending on the evolving COVID-19 situation and traveling guidelines provided by the authorities of participants’ respective countries. The call for applications is open to women leaders who work on preventing and responding to GBV in order to advance the WPS movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia. Diversity of thought, culture, background, and perspective are critical to advancing WPS. We welcome the unique contributions of diverse applicants in terms of their education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation and beliefs.

Please note that the Peace Fellowship is an unpaid fellowship. However, if in-person activities take place, Vital Voices will pay for all costs related to these meetings (food, insurance, travel, and accommodation). The working languages of the Peace Fellowship will be Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Albanian. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided. The Peace Fellowship is a program funded by the United States State Department.

Background Information

United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace, Security was adopted on October 31, 2000 (S/RES/1325, 2000). A result of joint advocacy by women’s civil society organizations and national and international governing bodies, the resolution recognizes the disproportionate impact of conflict on civilians, particularly on women and children, and emphasizes the importance of women’s protection, equal participation, and a gender perspective in peace and security processes, peacekeeping, humanitarian response, conflict prevention, disarmament, reintegration, and rehabilitation programs. Importantly, it also demands an end to impunity for war crimes, with an emphasis on wartime sexual and gender-based violence (WSGBV) committed against women and girls. Implementation of UNSCR 1325 is the responsibility of all UN member states, but is particularly important for countries that are at risk of, undergoing, or emerging from violent conflict, and for countries in transition to peace and democracy.

The United States adopted its first National Action Plan to implement UNSCR 1325 in 2011 and subsequently revised it in 2016. Consistent with the WPS Act of 2017, the U.S. Strategy on WPS (President of the United States, 2019) was adopted in 2019 and has three strategic objectives: 1) supporting and increasing the meaningful participation of women around the world in conflict and crisis related decision-making processes; 2) promoting the human rights of women and girls, easing their access to aid, and protecting them from all forms of violence; and 3) adjusting international U.S. programs in order to improve the empowerment of women and girls. In 2020, the U.S. Department of State released the Department of State’s Plan to Implement the U.S. Strategy on WPS to enhance demonstrable progress towards its strategic objectives (The Department of State, 2020). The Peace Fellowship aims to contribute to the implementation of both strategies through its focus on intergenerational efforts to prevent and respond to GBV and improve access to justice for GBV survivors as part of the broader WPS framework.

PARTICIPANT APPLICATION AND NOMINATION FORM

About the Peace Fellowship Program

A project of the Voices Against Violence: The Gender-Based Violence Global Initiative (“VAV”) that invests in women leaders who work on ending GBV, the Peace Fellowship’s activities (trainings, peer-to-peer learning and mentorship, networking, and grant opportunities) focus on empowering, engaging, and motivating established and emerging women leaders to collaborate on intergenerational prevention and response to GBV as part of the broader WPS framework, both in their respective countries and regionally. In addition to educational and training activities, the Peace Fellowship will also serve as a platform for the fellows to promote their work on GBV and WPS and build a more robust network through cooperative, cross-sectoral collaboration, and joint advocacy efforts. The fellows will have access to individual and collaborative grants to apply Peace Fellowship themes to country-specific and regional projects intended to enhance the breadth and depth of GBV prevention, access to justice, and WPS implementation.

To this end, the Peace Fellowship will foster awareness, capacity-building, inter-ethnic dialogue, and exchange around central WPS themes, with a specific focus on GBV and WSGBV. It will promote transgenerational and interethnic cooperation towards more effective GBV and WSGBV advocacy. To enable Fellows to realize their full leadership potential and accelerate positive change in their respective communities, the Peace Fellowship will invest in mentoring and strengthening the capacity of each Peace Fellow, per their identified needs.

Application Information

In this application, you will have the opportunity to share information about your work and background that demonstrates your suitability for the fellowship. You will also have an opportunity to upload your CV/resume and a short video addressing your interest in the fellowship. This is a comprehensive application, and we do not expect you to complete it in one sitting. If you would like to save your progress and return to complete the application later, you may utilize the "Save & Continue" link located at the bottom of each application page. Clicking on this feature will send you an email with a link to access your saved application at a later time. Please note that you will not be able to advance to the next page of the application until all required fields have been completed.

Your feedback will be used only by Vital Voices Global Partnership (“Vital Voices/VV”) staff. Any identifying information and individual responses will be treated as confidential and will not be shared beyond VV and its project-related contractors (such as translators and interpreters). All information will be stored in a secure database. Any information you provide will not impact your current or future participation in Vital Voices programs.

DEADLINE: Applications must be submitted by April 31st, 2021 at 11:59 PM EST. Please note that due to the large volume of applications and nominations we receive, only those individuals who are selected for an interview will be contacted. Only candidates advanced to the next round will be notified.

Please contact Aleksandra Zaytseva at aleksandrazaytseva@vitalvoices.org if you have any questions about the application/nomination form or if you encounter any technical issues while completing the online form. Thank you for your interest in the Vital Voices Peace Fellowship, and we look forward to receiving your submission!