ODIHR Advocacy School on Gender and Politics

ODIHR is organizing its first Advocacy School on Gender and Politics to strengthen its engagement with civil society organizations and women’s movements in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. 

This school will bring together 20 young gender advocates to create a platform for exchange, capacity building. It will also look to develop practical advocacy campaigns on women’s political participation and gender equality in politics on national level. 

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the format of the school will be “online only”.

Objectives

The main goals of ODIHR’s advocacy school are:

• to establish a multi-national platform for exchange on challenges, lessons learned and best practice among young gender advocates on advancing gender equality in politics  
• to support young gender advocates to gain an in-depth overview of existing knowledge and findings from academic research on women’s political participation and gender equality in politics, based on recent developments and work on the ground
• to help young gender advocates in identifying national advocacy priorities around advancing women’s political participation and conceptualizing concrete advocacy campaigns
• to stimulate cross-border collaboration among civil society organizations and women’s movements

Participants 

ODIHR’s advocacy school is targeting young women and men (up to 35 years of age), gender advocates, active members of women’s organizations, political foundations, mainstream human rights NGOs or non-formal civil society initiatives with a strong track record on advancing women’s political participation and gender equality in politics in general. 

Participants are coming from following countries:

• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Georgia
• Hungary
• Lithuania
• Moldova
• Poland
• Romania
• Ukraine

Trainers and lecturers

• Mona Lena Krook - professor of political science, Rutgers University, USA; author of “Quotas for Women in Politics” (Oxford University Press, 2009) and “Violence against Women in Politics” (Oxford University Press, 2020)
• Sonja Lokar - international expert on gender equality in politics from Slovenia; Member of parliament (1986-1992) and Executive Director of the Central and Eastern Europe Network for Gender Issues (1998-2017)
• Aleksandra Galonja - international expert on strategic planning, advocacy and campaigning from Serbia

Application process

The application process has closed on Sunday, 12 June 2021. We are unable to accept any further applications.

All applicants will be informed about the outcome of their application by 25 June 2021. At this stage we will also share a detailed agenda and other technical details. Shortlisted candidates may be contacted for an online interview before final acceptance. 

Programme

The five-day school will be delivered by leading scholars and practitioners in the field from well-known universities and leading feminist from civil society initiatives or NGOs. 

Morning sessions will comprise of discussions on academic research and case studies, while afternoon sessions will focus entirely on practical advocacy and campaigning for women’s political participation.

The working language will be English only. It is essential that prospective participants secure good online access for the whole duration of the advocacy school.

As a follow-up, ODIHR will offer a selected group of participants one-on-one support in conceptualizing and implementing concrete national advocacy campaigns. 

Each participant will receive a certificate marking the successful participation.

No fees will be requested.

Contact

If you have any queries, please write to the school leader Saša Gavrić, ODIHR’s Gender Officer at Sasa.Gavric@odihr.pl.