Call for Applications #YouthWagingPeace South Asian Workshop-I

Under the aegis of the Second Phase of #YouthWagingPeace – The Whole of Community Approach to PVE, UNESCO MGIEP, UNAOC and the Sri Lanka National Commission for UNESCO are inviting youth leaders from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; who are working on the ground to Prevent Violent Extremism through Education for an opportunity to improve their Social and Emotional Skills (including critical thinking skills), Media and information literacy skills and handson project management to curate and implement community wide activities to build bridges of peace and prevent violent extremism in their communities.

When? (tentatively) 10 -15 of February 2020

Where? (tentative) Colombo, Sri Lanka

The following information should help in providing applicants with an overview of the engagement. Please read careful before you apply.

A. Tentative Timelines

• 25th December 2019: Shortlisting of final 30 youth leaders and reaching out
• 31st December 2019: Confirmation, Visa letters and flights booking
• 1 – 30 January 2020: Online engagement
• 10 -15 February 2020: Intensive Face to Face Workshop

B. Selection criteria

1. Must be 21-35 years’ old
2. Must be from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
3. Must be a Youth Leader (running your own youth-led organization that is legally registered or leading a project/initiative on Violent Extremism within a youth-led organization or your own independent project or initiative that is 2 years old)
4. The organization or initiative represented must be working in the intersection of the Prevention of Violent Extremism and Education a. Area of expertise: education, conflict, youth engagement and policy, Inter-cultural and interreligious dialogue, gender-based violence, prevention of violent extremism, etc. Specifically, the prevention of violent extremism through education. b. The selection criteria is flexible to accommodate other exceptional young leaders with a proven record of accomplishment (including youth working on religious tolerance, arts for peace, young school administrators, young educators and trainers, etc.)
5. Active: must be actively/currently involved in the ‘area of profession/expertise listed in point no. 3 for at least 2 years, especially, the training or other on-ground engagements with the community or ultimate beneficiary.
6. Community mobilisation: prior experience of engaging networks of youth and communities in peacebuilding/PVE initiatives. Should have an active network of at least 1000 youth or community stakeholders.
7. Good research and writing skills (the youth leader must be able to led a chapter on State of Violent Extremism in his or her context)
8. Good communication and facilitation skills (will have to go and train others!)
9. Resource mobilisation and fundraising skills 10. Outreach to disseminate the results of the conference and act as multipliers

C. Pre-workshop Online engagement

1. 1-30 January 2020 1. Joining the Tribe: Joining of GYAK and the #KindnessMatters Campaign
2. (Youth-led) Mapping of Violent Extremism
3. Online training:
   1. Introduction to Critical Inquiry and the PVE (Rethinking Youth).
   2. Introduction to SEL (Rethinking learning and Rethinking youth/Shankar)
   3. Introduction to Media and Project Management Skills (Rethinking Youth and UNAOC)

D. Tentative 2 Plan of the Face-to-Face Workshop

E. Follow-on activities

• Development of the youth-led report: State of PVE in South Asia (to be published max 3 months after the workshop)
• Every youth to implement at least 2 activities reaching out to a minimum of 25 beneficiaries per activity per year (in 2020 – at least 30 activities reaching out to minimum 750 direct beneficiaries)
• Periodic monitoring and capacity building online when ready on UNESCO MGIEP FramerSpace environment
• Follow on Workshop – August 2020 during WYCK tentatively