They at NWI know first-hand that when young women are grounded in their histories, communities, and their lived realities, they rise with courage, clarity, and fierce commitment to equality for all. Twenty-five new, young, feminist peace and environmental activists will take part in a 6-week intensive virtual learning program from 1 September, 2025, to 6 October, 2025. The program is designed to:

• Broaden understanding of feminist leadership and resilience in the face of new global realities and emerging threats, with a focus on peace, justice, and gender equality.
• Strengthen tools and strategies for navigating uncertainty, including digital safety and adaptive leadership rooted in feminist values.
• Enhance collective learning and peer exchange by deepening mutual trust, sisterhood, and solidarity among young women activists confronting intersecting challenges.
• Support community-centered and creative action, encouraging participants to develop and apply innovative, feminist approaches to social and environmental transformation.
• Deepen feminist networks for support and collective action, and through this network build resilience.

Theme

• This year's program theme is “Rooted and Rising".

Benefits

• To ensure selected Sisters are able to fully participate, an honorarium will be provided to selected participants at the end of the program.
• This honorarium is intended to contribute to internet access, work space, transportation, care responsibilities and other potential barriers to participation.

Eligibility Criteria

• Passion for and some experience in supporting feminist peacebuilding, women’s rights and/or feminist social and environmental justice movements as volunteers, professionals, or activists.
• Drive and potential to be an impactful feminist leader within local contexts.
• Able to effectively engage in English.
• Willing and able to commit to full participation in at least 80% of live, cohort-wide sessions.
• Candidates must be between 18-35 years old.
• Trans and non-binary activists are encouraged to apply.
• Global representation.
• Applicants from East Africa and the following countries are highly encouraged to apply: Liberia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Iran, Iraq, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia, Haiti, Ukraine, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
• Diversity of socio-political contexts.
• Diversity of backgrounds.
• Previous involvement in peace processes, particularly in YPS and WPS agendas, UN Security Council Resolution 2250 and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 implementation, and peace negotiations/mediation is preferred but not mandatory.
• Experience working on feminist climate justice, demilitarization efforts, Paris Agreement, (feminist) Green foreign policy, and/or gender apartheid is an advantage.
• Candidates who aspire to become a leader/become a strengthened leader as a result of engagement in this experience and growth of their support and solidarity network:
  • Candidates who aspire to strengthen their leadership in advancing feminist climate justice and who are eager to grow their networks of solidarity and support are highly encouraged to apply.
  • Individuals with ambitions to broaden or elevate their political leadership capabilities are highly encouraged to apply.

Selection Criteria

• Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
• All candidates must have a working and reliable email address to facilitate correspondence.
• Selected candidates will be notified by email and will receive a Zoom invitation to the group interview.
• If participants require special accommodation, please note this in your reply to the Zoom group interview invitation.
• Feedback during the selection process is not provided.
• Selected candidates are responsible for providing NWI full, valid bank details to receive the honorarium.

Application Requirements

• Applications should include:
  • A personal letter or video (max 2 minutes or 1 page) outlining how the candidate has been contributing to feminist peace, social and/or environmental justice; the primary challenges in their context (contextually/personally/professionally); and how they hope the program will benefit them and their work.
  • Current resume, with up to date, detailed experience (paid, volunteer, academic).
  • Reference letter from a feminist peace, social or environmental activist or organization, with contact details for follow up.

For more information, visit NWI.