The Africa Peace and Social Change Fellowship aims to generate knowledge, build skills, strengthen relationships and exchange strategies among frontline advocates and organizers working on issues of social change, justice, and, more broadly, security for all people.

The next round of the Peace and Social Change Fellowship Program will begin with a three-day Peace and Social Change workshop in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2020. The cohort of fellows and their colleagues will help shape and design the January workshop. All costs related to travel, lodging and meals throughout the Nairobi workshop will be covered.

Programme Details

Through this program, Peace and Social Change Fellows will have a platform to increase the visibility of their work and will strengthen their relationships with other women change makers in the field through:

• The exchange and creation of knowledge with fellow grassroots activists and practitioners across Africa working broadly on aspects of peace and security, including themes such gender-based violence, land rights, climate change, maternal health, economic equity, sexual and reproductive rights, among other topics.
• Six months of ongoing exchange and skill-sharing workshops based on feedback and design by fellows.
• Tailored research support from graduate students at Columbia University and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York based on the needs and wishes of fellows and their organizations/movements
• The opportunity to learn from and develop relationships with one another and with a range of faculty and WPS program staff, including Nobel Laureate, peace activist, and WPS Executive Program Director Leymah Gbowee, among others.
• In order to deepen cross-learning, fellowships are designed to engage both individuals and the organizations/movements that they represent.  While individuals apply on behalf of their organizations/movements, each applicant who is awarded a fellowship will be invited to bring two to three representatives from her respective organization/movement to the January and July workshops.  This will ensure that representatives with a variety of positions within each organization/movement (for example, both Executive Directors and frontline outreach workers) will be able to participate in the workshop, and that a range of voices and leadership roles will be highlighted.  Accepted fellows and their organizational teams will be interviewed about the opportunities they seek to gain from the Peace and Social Change Fellowship program, and the program will be adapted based on the cohort’s collective expertise and wishes.
• Following the January workshop, WPS staff will facilitate six months of ongoing communication among the fellows via webinars and email.  Fellows will also receive tailored research support from interdisciplinary graduate student research teams, comprised of graduate students across a range of background and disciplines.  At the end of the fellowship period, the fellows, along with WPS staff and graduate student research teams, will meet for a second gathering in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss and present their collaborative work.