PASOS has announced a call for applications to participate in the 2016 Ilko Kucheriv Democracy Fellowship Program. Deadline to apply is April 19, 2016.
PASOS is partnering with network members the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (IKDIF) and the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) to offer the fellowships. The program, made possible with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), seeks to assist the advancement of democratic practices in transitional democracies.
Professionals at independent democracy and human rights advocacy NGOs and think-tanks from Ukraine are eligible to apply. Applicants from all of the country’s regions are encouraged to apply for the four fellowship positions that are available.
The fellowships will focus on specific democratic transformation issues, such as media freedom, constitutional law, parliamentary democracy, judiciary, gender equality, public opinion research, electoral processes, free and fair elections, and building democratic awareness among the public. The program is named after Ilko Kucheriv, a prominent activist in the Ukrainian civil-society movement who succumbed to cancer in 2010.
Kucheriv was the founder of the think tank that now bears his name and personally contributed a great deal to the advancement of democratic ideas in Ukraine. In the early 1990s, he understood the importance of public opinion for the development of a civic society, and DIF was the first organization to make available the results of social research to the broader public and to train journalists in understanding public opinion polling.
Fellows will work with the hosting institute for a six-month period or project co-operation and mentoring, and spend four weeks in the office of the hosting think-tank. Fellowships will also provide one-on-one, hands-on training with the host institute’s expert as mentor. The goal is to provide a mentoring opportunity for an in-depth, on-site, and interactive experience in democratic transformation and protection of human rights.
The deadline for applying for a fellowship is 19 April 2016. For complete details about the application process, download the Call for Fellows here.