Call for Proposal: Women Peace Ambassador Initiative 2021-2022

Centre for Peace and Justice, Brac University invites innovative ideas from interested groups of university students for its pioneering Women Peace Ambassador Initiative.

 About Women Peace Ambassador Initiative

Women Peace Café (WPC) is a University based innovative and pioneering initiative to engage young students in the promotion of peace and social cohesion facilitated by the Centre for Peace and Justice, Brac University and supported by UN Women. The WPC has already proved its leadership by engaging youth in various innovative activities and events like Peace Adda, debate, drawing and photography competition, rally, seminar, training, workshop, discussion meeting, social media campaign among others.

Women Peace Ambassador (WPA) is a cutting-edge initiative to secure the peace off and online: engaging women in promoting peace, social cohesion and COVID-19 resilience, under the umbrella of Women Peace Café. A total of 8 WPA initiatives (Adommo Mrinmoyee, Ally-Aid, Amra Anibo Ranga Provat, Joyontika, Oikotan, Sahoshi, Shoilosomo and White Dove) were selected and provided seed funds in 2020-2021. In these initiatives, 56 Women Peace Ambassadors were engaged and given mentorship support to implement their innovative ideas. They have further engaged 200 female students and 400 community women through their initiatives.

To continue the momentum, CPJ would like to implement four new initiatives in 2021-22 for promoting peace and social cohesion in the context of COVID-19. CPJ invites innovative ideas from interested group of students affiliated with peace café initiatives facilitated by the centre for peace and justice. Initially, six ideas will be selected for final evaluation. Then, four ideas will be finalized for co-designing by CPJ team for further implementation and piloting for the duration of 4 months (November-February). Selected groups will also be given seed funds, technical guidance and mentorship support. Each group will be required to engage another 15 students as volunteers with their project activities, and provide materials support to 30 community women to enhance COVID-19 resilience. After successful implementation of their ideas, each WPA member will receive a certificate of participation. In order to recognize the efforts and motivate them, ‘Best Women Peace Ambassador Award-2022’ will be announced.

Key objective of WPA initiatives

• Promoting peace, social cohesion, diversity, plurality, inclusivity, tolerance & non-discrimination and COVID-19 resilience among the targeted beneficiaries.
• Preventing hate speech, misinformation, gender stereotype, violence against women, abuse & bullying among others;
• Developing women leadership through nurturing social business ideas and implementing student-led initiatives.

 Types of eligible activities under the WPA initiatives

• Community-level engagement through processes like confidence-building, dialogue, capacity building and initiatives aiming to increase awareness on COVID-19 including factual information and countering the spread of misinformation & hate speech;
• Mechanisms for information sharing and opposition of hate speech, discrimination, and stigmatization, and promote harmony during and after COVID-19 pandemic;
• Formal and informal peace education actions during and after COVID-19 pandemic targeting communities and aimed at promoting a culture of peace, intercultural dialogue and cooperation, respect for diversity and tolerance, including cultural diversity, strengthening their skills in mediation, negotiation, conflict resolution, consensus building, positive social norms, integrating relevant and context specific education into teachings etc;
• Undertake social entrepreneurial activities to advance the financial empowerment of women and their leadership in the societies;
• Social media campaign & boosting on mutually developed contents;
• Participation of WPA members to various online and offline capacity building programme, training & webinars related to project;

Who can apply?

Any currently enrolled university students (involved with the Peace Café Initiatives facilitated by CPJ, Brac University) can apply in group. Each group should be consisted of 10 students having compatible device (e.g., smartphone, laptop, desktop) with stable internet connection. The selected students will be required to commit spending at least 10 hours per week for voluntary work during project period & 5 hours after the project period.

Selection Criteria

The project ideas will be selected as per the below criteria:

• Innovative and cost-effectiveness of the project idea
• Alignment of the proposed initiative with the vision, mission, goals and objectives of Peace Café Initiative
• Feasibility and convenience of project idea implementation while maintaining guidelines of WHO and governmental regulation during and post Covid-19 pandemic
• Online compatibility
• Prior experience of the group
• Identification of challenges & mitigation planning
• Impactful & sustainable idea towards building a just, peaceful & inclusive society
• Selection of appropriate target beneficiaries based on the aspiration of ‘Leave No One Behind’ of SDGs *

*The targeted beneficiaries from communities such as ethnic minorities, transgenders, COVID-19 impacted families, women-headed households among others will be given priorities based on the principle of Leave No One Behind (LNOB) as per 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

How to apply

Interested groups are requested to apply through the following Google form: https://forms.gle/2CJA3LNuXYqviKpQ9,  with appropriate information and submit it within the given deadline.

Download the attached Proposal and Budget template from the below Google drive link: https://forms.gle/2CJA3LNuXYqviKpQ9

Deadline of Application Submission: 12, October, 2021

Note: Please submit your application only when it is 100% final and complete. Applications cannot be edited after submission. Successful candidates will be notified through SMS and e-mail. For any further query please feel free to contact [email protected], [email protected]

Download the announcement: Announcement_Women Peace Ambassador_CPJ