Nominations open for Resilience Fellowship 2024

The fifth edition of the Resilience Fellowship, which provides a platform for cross-sectoral, global and interdisciplinary collaboration between civil society actors, human rights activists, journalists, artists, scholars, policymakers, grassroots community leaders and others working to counter the effects of organized crime.

The Fellowship is part of the GI-TOC’s flagship Resilience Fund, which provides grants and support to civil society individuals and organizations working to counter the impacts of criminal governance and violence across the world. Established with a grant from the government of Norway, the Resilience Fund is also supported by the governments of Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand and works in partnership with international organizations and NGOs worldwide.

Themes

• Fragility and Resilience
  • For the 2024 Fellowship, they are looking for civil society actors who support communities in contexts of fragility, particularly communities facing conflict.
  • The results of the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index show that conflict zones are particularly vulnerable to organized crime. High levels of conflict in a country not only affect its resilience to organized crime, but also allow illicit economies to flourish and create space for the involvement of domestic and foreign criminal actors. States that have been embroiled in conflict and instability rank high under the Index in terms of their criminality levels.
  • In fragile contexts, where state institutions are weak or lack legitimacy, civil society organizations play a critical role in countering the effects of criminality. Civil society actors often fill the gap left by the state by assisting victims of crime, implementing prevention programmes and initiating investigations. Civil society becomes a lifeline in fragile communities.
  • The following examples illustrate the dynamics between fragility and organized crime, and how civil society actors from different sectors are actively responding to these challenges. This list is not exhaustive and they will give priority to innovative strategies that go beyond these examples.
    • Activists and social workers providing victim-support services and legal aid to counter arms trafficking by militias, thereby increasing the community’s absorptive capacity to deal with the immediate impacts of organized crime.
    • Grass-roots leaders distributing basic necessities and providing vocational training to mitigate the effects of economic collapse and illegal oil siphoning, thereby increasing the community’s adaptive capacity by providing alternative livelihoods and reducing economic dependency.
    • Community leaders mediating peace talks and pushing for inclusive policies to address ethnic divisions exploited by drug cartels, building transformative capacity by promoting social cohesion and unity.
    • Local leaders developing community-led security initiatives to address ongoing conflict and the illicit opium trade, building both the community’s absorptive capacity by preventing crime and its adaptive capacity by creating sustainable safety networks.
    • Environmental activists organizing health camps to address poor waste management from illegal dumping, building the community’s absorptive and adaptive capacities to health and environmental risks exacerbated by organized crime.
    • Social workers and activists providing covert human rights education to empower communities against widespread abuses by drug cartels, building transformative capacity by educating and mobilizing citizens for rights protection.
    • Grass-roots campaigns and journalist investigations for accountability and reform to tackle illegal mining and corruption, building the community’s transformative capacity by increasing transparency and trust in institutions.

Benefits

• Ten fellows will be selected from different contexts and supported through the following mechanisms:
  • Grants: In fragile environments, the scarcity of financial resources is a pressing issue. Due to ongoing conflict, weak governance and socio-economic disparities, traditional sources of support are often underdeveloped or unavailable. The 2024 Resilience Fellowship will directly address this gap by providing grants of US $15 000 to individuals in such environments for community projects that build resilience. By focusing on fragile contexts, the Fellowship will ensure that resources reach those who are typically overlooked, making a tangible difference in communities that are most in need.
  • Capacity building: Through the Fellowship’s training and mentoring programme, Fellows will receive guidance on navigating the unique challenges presented by their environments, such as cyber threats, physical security risks and the complexities of criminal economies. This approach begins with an understanding of fragility: identifying the local manifestations of organized crime and developing strategies to counter them.
  • Networking and collaboration: The Fellowship will provide networking and collaboration opportunities through its Resilience Dialogues and the Resilience Fund Community Platform to influence global policy and strengthen Fellows’ initiatives. By fostering an interdisciplinary, global and cross-sectoral network, the Fellowship aims to support a diverse range of solutions, share resources and best practices, and strengthen community resilience to organized crime in fragile contexts.

Award Information

• Each Fellow will be awarded a total of US $15,000 payable in three instalments of US $5,000 each. The use of these funds should adhere strictly to the principles of professionalism, integrity and transparency, be consistent with the plan proposed in the application form, comply with the terms and conditions of the Fellowship agreement, and used to engage in collaborative activities with other Fellows.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants should have a background in any of the following fields: journalism and media; activism; advocacy and community mobilization; the creative arts (artists, writers, filmmakers and others); community leaders (religious, cultural and youth leaders); academia (researchers, consultants, scholars and policymakers); and human rights practitioners working directly with affected communities. Individuals from other disciplines will be considered if their work is relevant to the Fellowship’s objectives and the annual theme.
• The Fellowship invites applications from individuals of all genders, ethnic backgrounds, ages, religions or other defining characteristics who are active in communities affected by organized crime.
• Applicants must have full or professional working proficiency in at least one of the following three languages: Spanish, English or French.
• Applicants will be shortlisted for interviews on the basis of the following four criteria.
  • Contextual relevance
  • Problem identification
  • Solution feasibility
  • Capacity to build community resilience.

For more information, visit Resilience Fund.