IDRC Call for Applications | Women, Peace and Security Research Award 2021 Theme: ‘Women Peacebuilders’

Apr 23, 2021 | International Development Research Center (IRDC)

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is a Canadian Crown corporation funding research in developing countries to advance knowledge and solve practical development problems. IDRC supports research which contributes to promoting inclusive growth, reducing poverty, inequalities, and exclusion, and driving large-scale positive change.

1.0 Background

To mark the 20th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), and to strengthen the implementation of the WPS agenda, the IDRC in collaboration with Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is launching an annual WPS Research Award. This award aims to advance knowledge of the key challenges that remain in implementing the WPS agenda, as well as emerging issues. The WPS Research Award will be awarded annually for five years.

The theme of this year’s WPS Research Award is “Women Peacebuilders”. This focus seeks to create greater recognition of the important role played by women peacebuilders. It seeks to focus on their contributions to gender inclusive and transformative conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes. IDRC will issue ONE award annually, with a value of CAD 20,000. Concurrently, Global Affairs Canada will be launching and directly managing a civil society award.

2.0 Scope and Objectives

For the purpose of this call, we propose the following operational definition of ‘Women Peacebuilders’. The term includes mediators; negotiators; peace and human rights activists; Indigenous, community, social and youth leaders; civil society actors; and other women contributing to prevent and resolve conflict and build peace at the local, national, regional and international levels. While peacebuilders are threatened because of the work they do, women peacebuilders face additional and different threats due to their gender, challenges which are now compounded by the pandemic.

We understand peacebuilding to be much broader than facilitating formal peace negotiations and mediation between the official parties to a conflict. Peacebuilding may include informal consultations and networking with civil society and local communities, as well as a wide range of conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding efforts at the grassroots, national, regional and/or international levels. While women peacebuilders do work on promoting women’s rights and gender issues, their peacebuilding efforts do not necessarily pertain only to advancement of women’s participation but may also include integration of a gender perspective to these peacebuilding processes.

IDRC is seeking research that sheds light on challenges, enabling factors, and best practices of women peacebuilders in their efforts to contribute to conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding through initiatives that amplify local community voices, build social cohesion, and are participatory and inclusive of diverse perspectives and experiences. The aim is to build new knowledge and learning that can be scaled up and that can inform other contexts.

To this end, IDRC is commissioning the WPS Research Award to achieve the following goals:

• Map out one or more key peacebuilding initiatives led by women peacebuilders which promote conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding efforts at the grassroots, national, regional and/or international levels, and that are inclusive, participatory and integrate a strong intersectional gender perspective
• Study and assess selected case studies in order to:
• Identify challenges faced by women peacebuilders as they seek to promote a gender perspective in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding efforts and implementation of a WPS agenda;
• Identify elements, variables, and innovations in successful and gender inclusive conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding initiatives by women peacebuilders. How do these allow for strong community participation and effective networking in promoting conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding?
• Identify effective ways to connect local women peacebuilders’ efforts to the global WPS agenda in ways that are mutually beneficial and that ensure localized knowledge and work by women peacebuilders informs the global WPS agenda
• Make recommendations to local, national, regional and international stakeholders, including the donor community, about effective ways to support women peacebuilders
• Identify key research gaps and propose a research agenda on women peacebuilders as part of implementing the WPS agenda

3.0 Eligibility, Qualifications and Experience

IDRC invites early career researchers, including independent consultants or those affiliated with academic centres, think tanks, or civil society organizations, to submit applications for this award.

IDRC will accept applications submitted by individual researchers residing in low and middle- income countries.3 Teams of two are also welcomed to apply, with at least one researcher residing in a low- or middle-income country.

Please note that the award will be granted to the recipient(s) as individual(s) rather than to their affiliated organization.

The recipients(s) should possess strong communication skills, including presenting research findings and participating in events. At least one team member should be fluent in English or French.

4.0 Application Requirements

Interested applicants are invited to submit up to three pages detailing:

• Their proposed research topic
• Key research questions and brief overview of proposed methodology (such as desk- based research, literature reviews, interviews, and focus group discussion)
• How they meet the eligibility requirements
• How they plan to assess safety risks to women peacebuilders and other research ethics considerations, and how these will be mitigated

• A tentative timeline and indicative budget
• An abridged CV(s) of no more than two pages

1. Relevance: Fit to the scope of the award
2. Quality of the proposal: Overall appropriateness, completeness, quality, and clarity of the research proposal and methodology (including consideration of feasibility, duration, and timing; originality of the research; assessment of risks including ethical considerations; contribution to existing knowledge on the issue)
3. Impact: Potential for research results to be disseminated, used and scaled by local communities and beyond; benefit to the communities where the research is taking place
4. Qualifications: Applicant’s capacity to conduct the proposed research, including qualifications and research experience

5.0 Expected Deliverables for Selected Award Recipient

The selected recipient(s) will deliver the following:

• A work plan by June 4th, 2021.
• A draft report by January 14th, 2022.
• A revised final report4 (of up to 40 pages, excluding annexes), taking into account feedback from IDRC, by March 18th, 2022. The revised report should include an executive summary highlighting key findings, research gaps and recommendations for a future work.
• Participation in other IDRC organized events, including possible webinars on the findings of the research.

6.0 Budget

IDRC will issue a single award with a value of up to CAD 20 000.

7.0 Reporting Modalities

The selected recipient(s) will work closely with Roula El-Rifai, Senior Programme Specialist and Emma Sanchez-Swaren, Program Officer, with IDRC’s Democratic and Inclusive Governance Division, who will monitor the progress of the work.

8.0 Selection Process

Applications that are complete, that meet the eligibility criteria, and whose research focus is deemed to fit within the scope detailed above, will be forwarded to an IDRC selection committee which will include external evaluator(s).

Using the criteria listed above, the IDRC selection committee will identify one successful recipient for this award. This award may be made conditionally, i.e. the candidate will be sent comments which must be addressed before the award can be confirmed.

9.0 Timeline for selection

The duration of this award is ten months from May 2021 to March 2022. The timeline is the following:

• Launch of the call for applications by March 1st, 2021.
• Applications must be received by April 23rd, 2021 (by 11:59 pm EST).
• Award recipient selected by May 21st, 2021.

By way of submitting an application under this Call for applications, the applicant consents to the disclosure of the documents submitted by the applicant to the reviewers involved in the selection process, both within IDRC and externally. The applicant further consents to the disclosure of the name of the applicant, the name of the lead researcher and the name of the proposed project, in any announcement of selected proposals.

All personal information collected by IDRC about grant, scholarship and fellowship applicants is used to review applications, to administer and monitor awards, and to promote and support international development research in Canada and in the regions where IDRC operates. Consistent with these purposes, applicants should expect that information collected by IDRC may come to be used and disclosed in IDRC supported activities.

11.0 Inquiries

All questions can be directed to wpsaward@idrc.ca. To ensure we are able to provide a response, we ask that all questions be received no latter than 11:59 pm EST on April 19th, 2021.