Citizen Participation in Human Rights Advocacy Learning Fellowship

Date: April 22nd to May 31st, 2002
Venue: IDS, Brighton United Kingdom.

The Participation Group, (PG), at the Institute of Development Studies, (IDS),
University of Sussex, is inviting applications for our first Learning
Fellowship Programme. The theme of the Learning Fellowship (LF) will be
'Citizen Participation in Human Rights Advocacy' with a focus on rights based
approaches to development. The LF will focus on the experiences of human
rights activists and advocacy groups who have, in their advocacy, sought to
involve those normally seen as "beneficiaries" in their work. The LF will
closely examine the rationale, methods, and results of the participatory
approach in human rights advocacy. Examples of human rights work include: law
and constitutional reform, human rights education, women's rights, rights of
minorities, and socio-economic rights advocacy. The LF seeks to highlight the
challenges and successes of citizen-centred advocacy in different contexts,
using different methods.

What is the Learning Fellowship?

For a number of years now, IDS has hosted Visiting Fellows. This is a
programme that provides space for practitioners and researchers from the
Global South, to reflect and write about their work/experiences. Individuals
have come through for periods ranging from a few weeks to three months at the
end of which they produce a paper, and/give a public seminar at IDS. Over the
years however, the Participation Group has felt the need to restructure the
Visiting fellowship so that this programme can be utilised more effectively to
meet other needs that have been identified in the course of our networking and
engagement with Southern practitioners. Some of these include:

* The need for a more structured programme so that the Visiting Fellows can
realise maximum benefit from the experience. In particular, practitioners have
expressed the need for support with theoretical grounding and input from
researchers and academics to strengthen the practical reflection process.

* The need for a more sustained long-term process of reflection and learning.
Capacity building is a long- term process, not a one- off

Key elements of the Learning Fellowship

1. Peer Learning and Support

The Learning Fellowship will bring together up to 8 practitioners/activists
from the global South, with comparable levels of experience. The Learning
Fellows, (LFs), will work around the same theme but not necessarily on the
same topic. This will create space for the necessary peer learning and
support, and enhance the reflection and documentation process.

2. Linking theory and practice

Many practitioners often do not have time and opportunities to "theorise"
about their work, let alone to debate or be exposed to cutting edge theories
on the issues that they are working on. The first week in the learning
fellowship will be set aside for mapping Learning Fellows' expectations,
sharing experiences and exploring current debates and theoretical bases for
citizen participation in human rights advocacy. During this time the LFs will
work with Research Fellows from IDS, or other institutions of learning. They
will also have access to written material from the IDS library, which is one
of the best Development Libraries in the world. IDS also hosts a number of
development web-sites such as Bridge, ID21, which LFs can access.

3. Provision of back-up and support throughout the process

Writing and reflection are skills. Each LF will have the support of a
writer/researcher, who will:

* give advice as and when needed,
* act as a sounding board for ideas,
* help with conceptual outline of written pieces,
* review written pieces on request,
* help with identifying relevant reading materials.

4. Publication of case studies, or papers, as "tangible out-puts" from the
process

There is little published material from Southern practitioners. The LF
programme aims to bridge this gap. At the end of each programme, the LFs will
produce publishable papers, and case studies.

Highlights of the Learning Fellowship Programme

The Learning Fellowship is a six-week fully residential programme, at the
Institute of Development Studies. The main elements of the six-week programme
will be:

*week 1 - Introduction to LF, expectations, concepts, theories and laying
ground work for writing
*week 2 - Reading , reflection and drafting
*week 3 - Writing, reflection, peer learning
*week 4 - Writing and reflection continued
*week 5 - Visits to Northern based institutions of relevance, and UK based
Donors
*week 6 - Seminars led by LFs, and refinement of pieces.

Applicants Note: You will be required to be at IDS in the UK for the entire
six-week period.

Who pays for the Learning Fellowship?
The Participation Group meets the cost of round-trip airfares. The PG will
also provide a small stipend for the LFs' subsistence while at IDS. As this is
a very small amount, the PG would encourage applicants to bring additional
funds for their personal use.

Who can apply?

Applications are invited from human rights and advocacy activists or
practitioners who are working or have worked on human rights advocacy issues
as outlined above. The Learning Fellowship is open to Southern based
practitioners who have five to ten years of 'hands-on' experience in the
advocacy initiatives that they seek to reflect and write on.

How does one apply?

Please send us your personal data

Section A:

1. Surname
2. First Name and Initial
3. Date of Birth
4. Nationality
5. Sex
6. Home address
7. Telephone/fax
8. Name of organisation and Address
9. Telephone/fax
10. Email

Section B

You are required to submit a synopsis of the case study or experience you
would like to write about. The synopsis should be no less than 1500 and not
more than 2000 words. The synopsis should highlight:

*A brief description of the country or region in which the advocacy work you
were involved in was undertaken and a background of the organisation that led
the advocacy work.

*Positioning yourself in the process; provide a description of your role(s) in
the advocacy work.

*A brief elaboration of the key issue(s) or problems that the advocacy work
you were involved in sought to address and why these issues were considered to
be of importance.

*A brief description of the major objectives, strategies and activities of the
advocacy. In what way did these strategies involve the constituents? Include a
brief outline of the key achievements and challenges of your work.

Who to send the application to?

Please send your personal data and synopsis by post, fax or email by the 30th
of November 2001 to:

Sammy Musyoki
Networking and Capacity Building Co-ordinator; Participation Group
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN 1 9RE
UK

Fax: +44-1273-621202 / 691647
Email: [email protected]

More information can be found at: http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/

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