Join the SustainUS CSocD-53 delegation at the UN Headquarters, New York.

SustainUS is now accepting applications to join the Agents of Change (AoC) youth delegation to the 53rd Session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development (CSocD-53), which will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City from February 4–13, 2015. CSocD-53 is a policy session and addresses the priority theme of this year: “Rethinking and strengthening social development in the contemporary world”.

Selected delegates will have the opportunity to work with government officials, scientists, civil society representatives, and youth from around the world to review progress on issues related to social development. In the past, AoC delegates have presented case studies and policy statements on behalf of youth; participated in forums with fellow representatives of civil society; and met with government delegates, international organizations, and the US State Department.

Delegates are expected to contribute something unique to our efforts to take part in the international policymaking process and increase youth participation in the global arena. The delegation will especially benefit from delegates with grassroots and policy experience in sustainability initiatives, poverty, disability, youth, family, and ageing. Young people with academic interests in the topics and organizing experience are also encouraged to apply. SustainUS is committed to selecting a skilled, diverse, and passionate delegation. CSocD is a great way to become familiar with the UN, and we welcome newcomers!

AoC delegates will be expected to engage in substantial preparation in the months leading up to the Commission, which may include working with media outlets, giving community presentations, and personal fundraising. Delegates will be required to stay in regular email contact and take part in research and conference calls. The days during CSocD-53 will be long yet fulfilling, as delegates will contribute to the delegation?s goals as a team while taking initiative in their areas of interest.
DEADLINE: 8^th November, 2014.

To apply and for more information visit here

Malala Yousafzai: Girls education activist and Global Icon

Inspired by the International Women’s Day, i teamed up with a group of mainly women bloggers and a few men allies to take part in a blogathon to commemorate the International Women’s day. The piece below is an outcome from the blogathon. The blogathon was put together by the Wellbeing foundation, Education as a Vaccine, Youthhubafrica, and the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition

Many people around the world first heard about Malala On 9 October 2012, when she was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days immediately following the attack, she remained and in critical condition in the hospital. There was a lot of buzz across the world on news channels, social media platforms and in Pakistan, her home country.Apparently, the Taliban had attempted to take her life because of her advocacy and outspokenness on girl education in Pakistan. Luckily she survived.

3 years before she was shot, at age 11, Malala first wrote a blog piece titled ‘Diary of a Pakistani School girl’ for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, the New York times shot a documentary about her life. She continued to advocate for girls education in the Swat district’s of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a region previously controlled by the Taliban and where girl’s education was a taboo.

To understand the barirers and norms that Malala fought against, you need to take a look at education statistics in Pakistan.

Official statistics released by the Federal Education Ministry of Pakistan gives a desperate picture of education for all, espcially for girls. The overall literacy rate is 46 per cent, while only 26 per cent of girls are literate. There are 163,000 primary schools in Pakistan, of which merely 40,000 cater to girls.

Similarly, out of a total 14,000 lower secondary schools and 10,000 higher secondary schools, 5,000 and 3,000 respectively are for girls, in the same decreasing proportions as above in the four provinces. There are around 250 girls colleges, and two medical colleges for women in the public sector of 125 districts. Some 7 million girls under 10 go to primary schools, 5.4 million between 10 and 14 attend lower secondary school, and 3 million go to higher secondary schools. About 1.5 million and 0.5 million girls respectively go to higher secondary schools/colleges and universities.

Pakistan is not alone in girls lagging behind boys in accessing education and its not for a lack of interest, it is mainly as a result of cultural, religious and partriachal inhibitions. From Uganda to Nigeria to Congo, the story is the same. In many places, when families are faced with a choice, they often times prefer to educate the boys while the girls sit at home to run house-hold chores.

Malala’s courage and her activism has inspired hundreds of people worldwide. She has become the youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee in History. Former British Prime Minister and current U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a United Nations petition in Malala’s name, using the slogan “I am Malala” and demanding that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has announced that 10 November will be celebrated as Malala Day.

Whether she becomes a Nobel Peace Prize winner or not, Malala will remain a symbol of courage, strenght and an inspiration for girls worldwide to take a chance, surmount the difficulties and get an education!

by Rotimi Olawale.

Cash at Hand; Learning the Hard Way by Rotimi Olawale

Cash at Hand is worth ten times more than promised cash or cash with Debtors. It sounds simple right? But I learnt it the hard way. Fresh from the university, I moved into Lagos and teamed up with 2 other friends from university to set up a consulting firm. (fresh graduates into consulting, what do we know, well that’s a story for another day).
We took over my brother’s dining room table and occasionally used up the fuel in his generator to power the 2 laptops that 3 consultants shared amongst themselves. Occasionally too, I rummage through the kitchen and fix meals ranging from Indomie to boiled yam to keep hunger away.
We brainstormed on a number of ideas and started to develop our strategies and proposals around them. By a combination of hardwork and grace, we landed 2 jobs. The first was to develop and implement a Leadership and Soft skills training manual for high school students and integrate it into their summer lessons. We charged 315,000 naira for the job, bought few books specifically and went to work developing the manual. It was quite an interesting period.
The second job was a sub-contract from a firm who had received contract from the Oyo state Government to supply books, train teachers and organize mentoring sessions for all SS2 students in Oyo state. We pitched for and got a slice of the job that meant we developed a mentoring manual and help organize mentoring session for more than 65,000 students in over 400 secondary schools from Ibadan to Iseyin.
While we started the contract, NYSC came calling. 2 out of the 3 consultants left to answer the National call and we reported back to Oyo state when time permits to ensure the contract was going well. We had several challenges, despite that, we succeeded in delivering the set objectives and we were elated.
We got a call from our client that our final cheque valued at 1million Naira will be paid the following week. We had 180,000 naira left in the account. We had a short meeting and decided wisely to buy one more laptop computer, making 3 in order that every consultant had a system to use. We went ahead and bought the most sexy laptop in the market costing 140,000 naira at the time and was left with 40,000naira.
Then we waited for the N1million cheque. This cheque took another 9months to arrive. We spent the 40,000naira in 2 weeks. Now the consultants are spread in 3 different locations (Lagos, Nassarawa and Abia states) and even communicating became a major problem.
We had several other bright ideas in the pipeline but we didn’t have the energy nor the resources to push it through.
Everytime that I look back, I said to myself. We should have waited till we collected and cashed the N1million cheque before we clean the accounts to make a purchase. I have never made such a mistake again. From then on, I have it stuck in my brain that ‘cash at hand is worth ten times more than incoming cash!
Don’t ask me what happened to the consultancy company!

Sharing My Experiences: Mandela Washington Fellow Aminazahra Sigat

“YALI is a great opportunity for all young leaders who believe in Africa.”

“I’m not the same person as the one who came from Kenya a few weeks ago,” exclaimed Aminazahra Sigat after spending a few weeks studying at the University of Wisconsin–Stout in the small city of Menomonie.

“I learned more about leadership. I found out about my strengths. I learned about the importance of communication, consistency, responsibility and how to win over people,” she said. “I learned how to give back to society and about how Americans are used to making donations to organizations they care about.”

Sigat plans to take what she learned to mentor young girls in her community. “I want them to see me as a role model and to learn from me so they can become better persons,” she said. Sigat is the procurement and logistics assistant for the group Transition Initiatives for Stabilization project of the International Organization for Migration.

“I also want to help empower them so they can become an entrepreneur, a leader or a good public manager — so that they can get their own income and independence.”
“YALI is a great opportunity for all young leaders who believe in Africa,” she said.

Call for Applications:Open Society Public Health Grants programme

Oct 21

Posted by Nsa Archibong

The Mental Health Initiative—part of the Open Society Public Health Program—provides grants to projects that stimulate the reform of national health, social welfare, education, and employment policies. The initiative also provides technical assistance and training in substantive areas to its grantees. Many grantees provide high-quality, community-based services which demonstrate that people with intellectual disabilities can live in their communities when they receive appropriate support.
The initiative’s funding strategy is geared toward the sustainable development of quality community-based alternatives to institutionalization for people with intellectual disabilities or mental health problems and toward the development of government policies that promote the social inclusion of people with disabilities. Accordingly, the initiative provides funding to organizations that focus on community-living, deinstitutionalization, and prevention of institutionalization.
The Mental Health Initiative supports projects that include community-based housing, early intervention, inclusive education, and supported employment for people with intellectual disabilities. The initiative also provides support for organizations working on policy-based advocacy at local or national levels with the aim of promoting community living for people with intellectual disabilities.

Eligibility Criteria

The Mental Health Initiative provides funding to nongovernmental organizations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, or to organizations based in other countries that focus their activities in this region.

Ineligibility Criteria

The Mental Health Initiative does not fund projects which are in any way connected to increasing the capacity of, or to improving, residential institutions for people with disabilities. This includes renovations or any other upgrades, equipment, charitable contributions or humanitarian aid, events organized within an institution, and any other form of core support to residential institutions.

Guidelines

The Mental Health Initiative has an open pre-application process. If your organization’s work falls clearly within the funding guidelines above and you would like to be considered for an invitation to submit a full proposal, please write a one-page letter of intent which contains the following information:

• The organization’s purpose and goals
• The project for which funding is requested
• The amount of funding requested
• The organization’s total income in the last financial year
• Some biographical details of the organization’s leadership

Please send your letter of inquiry via email to mhi@osi.hu. Please put your organization name in the email subject line.
For more information,visit here

Apply! 2015 International Forum for Human Rights and Leadership Young Leaders

Oct 10

Posted by Nsa Archibong

The next generation of human rights professionals will be required to respond to increasingly complex and systemic global challenges through innovation and ingenuity.
Our mission is to foster a network of young leaders who aim to develop accessible solutions to these challenges and advance human rights and access to justice through ethical engagement.
Deadline: October 31, 2014
The International Forum for Young Leaders brings together individuals under 30 years of age who have demonstrated their passion for implementing innovative, entrepreneurial solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, and offering them an opportunity to interact and benefit from each other’s experiences. It does this by:

• Selecting ambitious, persistent young leaders from across the world with the potential to act as change agents in their field, sector, or geographic region;
• Spreading their ideas about how to tackle major human rights and access to justice challenges and effect wide-scale change; and
• Supporting an extensive network of former Young Leaders, named McGill Echenberg Fellows, to realize the practical implementation of their vision.

Participants hail from a range of backgrounds, including NGOs, politics, government, academia, the private sector, and the media.
Young Leaders participate in a series of skill-developing sessions, workshops, roundtable discussions, and cultural events aimed at engaging with the spectrum of issues that affect human rights outcomes, in addition to keynotes, panels and debates featuring prominent international human rights voices.
The Forum is at the core of the Fourth Echenberg Family Conference on Human Rights, which will be held at McGill University in Montreal from October 11-17, 2015, and is organized by the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. Held in conjunction with the Young Leaders Forum, the Conference will explore the theme of “Human Rights and Leadership” and will focus on individuals and groups who have set themselves apart in their promotion of human rights and access to justice through innovation, entrepreneurship, collaboration and creativity.

McGill Echenberg Fellows

At the conclusion of the Conference, participants of the Young Leaders Forum are named McGill Echenberg Fellows. The Fellows remain active in a vibrant community of human rights professionals, supported by a Secretariat at the Centre. The program offers the opportunity to interact and collaborate with members of an exceptional community of committed advocates, 20 to 25 of whom will be joining us for the 2015 Forum.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply, you must:

• Be under 30 years of age as of July 31, 2015;
• Hold a university degree in any field*;
• Possess high oral proficiency in English; and
• Have shown leadership, innovation, creativity, and/or entrepreneurship in your area of focus.

The Conference will select 25 Young Leaders for the Forum on the basis of their track record of leadership, commitment, and impact in their respective fields. Previous Fellows have shown leadership and entrepreneurship through pursuits such as serving as members of advisory boards, founding or supporting non-profits, development initiatives, or social enterprises.
For those selected, the Conference will cover all costs, including travel expenses to and from Montreal, accommodation, meals, and visa expenses.
*The Conference has made exceptions to this eligibility criterion under exceptional circumstances where applicants have demonstrated a particularly strong fit for the Young Leaders Forum.

How to apply

Please submit your completed application form [.docx], a photocopy of an official ID confirming your age, two letters of recommendation, and proof of university graduation to youngleaders.law@mcgill.ca byOctober 31, 2014. Please use “Application – International Young Leaders Forum 2015” as the subject of your email.
Your recommendation letters should be written by individuals who know you in an academic or professional capacity and can provide a detailed assessment of your potential to contribute to the Forum.
For more information,click here

2015 Commonwealth Shared Scholarships – information for candidates

Commonwealth Shared Scholarships are offered by the CSC in partnership with UK universities. These scholarships are intended for students from developing countries who would not otherwise be able to afford to undertake Master’s level study in the UK, to gain skills and knowledge which will allow them to contribute to the development of their home countries.

Levels and subjects of study

Shared Scholarships are for taught Masters’ courses only; awards will not be made for undergraduate or PhD study, and will not cover any pre-sessional English language teaching.
Candidates can apply to study subjects related to the development of their home country at participating UK universities only.

• List of eligible universities and courses

Shared Scholarships are usually tenable for one-year Master’s courses only.

Terms and conditions and eligibility

• Commonwealth Shared Scholarships 2015 prospectus – includes full terms and conditions (please note in particular the eligibility criteria)

To apply for a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, candidates must:

• Be Commonwealth citizens, refugees, or British protected persons
• Be permanently resident in a developing Commonwealth country (a full list is available in the Commonwealth Shared Scholarships 2015 prospectus)
• Be available to commence their academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September/October 2015
• Hold, by October 2015, a first degree of at least upper second class Honours standard
• Not have undertaken studies lasting one year or more in a developed country
• Be unable themselves, or through their families, to pay to study in the UK

How to apply

All applications must be made through your host UK university. You must check with them in the first instance for specific advice on how to make an application and for their own closing date.
All Commonwealth Shared Scholarship candidates must be selected and put forward to the CSC by their host UK university, and must submit their application to the CSC using our Electronic Application System (EAS).
Candidates must apply for a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship using one of two methods, as instructed by the university:

1. Via university: Applying to the university in the first instance using the university’s own application form. If selected, candidates will then be asked to submit an application to the CSC using the EAS. Any applications made via the EAS only and not directly to the university first will not be considered.
2. EAS only: Applying to both the university and the CSC at the same time using the EAS.

Each university has its own closing date for applications. Any applications received after this date will be deemed ineligible.
The table on pages 5-6 of the Commonwealth Shared Scholarships 2015 prospectus indicates the method of application and closing date for each university.
Candidates may apply to more than one university, but only one offer of a Shared Scholarship may be accepted.
Full help on how to apply using the EAS is provided in our guides, which should be read in full before making any attempt to use the EAS.
The EAS will close to applicants on 16 April 2015 and no further applications can be submitted after that date. Candidates should note that most university closing dates fall before 16 April and you must submit your application by the date advised by the university to which you are applying.
How to access the EAS
All enquiries about Commonwealth Shared Scholarships should be directed to the university to which you wish to apply.
 http://cscuk.dfid.gov.uk/apply/shared-scholarships/info-candidates/