PASOS opens call for Skills Development Fellowships
Participants at the PASOS Skills Development training attend a session in June in Istanbul.
PASOS is inviting participants who took part in the network’s Skills Development Training event in Istanbul in June to apply for fellowships to be served at think-tanks based in the EU.
Fellows from the eight target countries – one from each – will be supported through distance learning provided by an experienced mentor to develop their work in one of the well-established independent think-tanks operating in the European Union. The host institutions will be selected for their record of experience in policy research and analysis, as well as in proposing and/or advocating for policy solutions related to furthering democratic transformation and improving policy-making processes in the EU, its member-states, and in other countries.
The fellowships are part of “Opening the Doors of Policy-Making in the South Caucasus and Central Asia,” a PASOS program funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund. The program seeks to empower civil society organizations and to enhance public participation in public policy development in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The program kicked off in June with 23 participants, who are now eligible to apply for the fellowships.
Besides distant guidance by an experienced mentor in the preparation of the proposed policy work, the program will feature the Regional Networking Conference to be organized in the Central Asia/South Caucasus region during May 2012. The event will provide the eight fellows from the target countries with new practical skills, and a networking opportunity to interact with other project participants as well as researchers and policy-makers, and to exchange best practices learned from their fellowships with think-tanks in the EU.
The fellows will learn more about, and apply, methods of policy research and analysis, e.g. public opinion surveys and research using data-mining, evidence-based policy analysis, appropriate choice of policy advocacy tools and other approaches applied in the host think-tanks. The work of the fellows will focus on specific issues of importance to their home countries.
For complete details and application rules about the call, click here. The deadline to apply is 22 August, 2011.
