Call for Applications: Women Peacemakers Program: Nonviolence Education and Training NVET

Call for Applications: Women Peacemakers Program: Nonviolence Education and Training (NVET)


Nonviolence training provides Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) with essential peacebuilding skills and concepts. These skills and concepts focus on ways to increase social mobilization and countervailing power. Nonviolence training aims to empower marginalized groups so that they can assert their rights, create their own opportunities, and access resources.


WPP will support a minimum of 10 nonviolence trainings during 2005 - 2008, by providing financial support, links to trainers and resource people, and/or training materials.


WPP uses the following criteria in selecting which training to support:

- The purpose of IFOR WPP trainings is the nonviolent empowerment of women and the building of sustainable women's groups. The gender aspect has to be an explicit part of the training.

- Priority will be given to proposals coming from women's groups with a stated interest or aim in active nonviolent social change, rather than charity.

- Priority will be given to IFOR branches, groups or affiliates; to groups that the WPP has already worked in partnership with; to groups in conflict areas or areas where armed conflict is expected to break out soon. Groups should have a stated interest in a long-term, working relationship with WPP.

- The WPP wishes to work in most cases with independent women's groups not aligned to any political party.

- Women's groups with a multi-cultural (e.g., migrant and non-migrant women) and/or multi-faith constituency will be given priority.

- The group must be prepared to contribute what it can to the implementation of the training (money, labor, materials and/or venue).

- The group must agree to participate fully in all evaluations of the training. The evaluation process must be consistent for all nonviolence trainings.

- Priority will be given to trainings with women-only groups. Trainings with mixed groups (i.e., groups with both women and men) will be considered under the following conditions:

a. women control the aims and resources of the group and the group's leadership is comprised solely or overwhelmingly of women

b. the membership of the group is at least three-fourths women and/or girls

c. the primary aims of the group advance the empowerment of women and/or girls

d. the leadership of the group request that selected men be participants in the training

e. At least three-fourths of all participants in the training must be women.

- Every attempt must be made to ensure that the trainers are women.

- In selecting trainers and facilitators, priority will be given to local or regional trainers and facilitators. The building of a network of local trainers and resource women, with links to regional networks, is important.

- Trainings should encourage to the extent possible the exchange of information between groups across the country and throughout the world, in order to support women's peacemaking initiatives.

- Follow-up to WPP nonviolence trainings will include development of links to further resources and training of trainers in the area.

For further information (including the application form), please visit http://www.ifor.org/ and/or contact c.reyna@ifor.org


http://www.ifor.org/WPP/education_nonviolence.htm