a training programme for youth leaders in refugee contexts oﬀered by COHERE Charity and UNHCR

Cohere Charity is an international organization that specializes in supporting refugee leaders to lead in the humanitarian response through capacity strengthening, advocacy, coordination and funding.UNHCR, in collaboration with Cohere Charity are therefore launching a global 6-month part-time training programme for young (aspiring) leaders across Middle East, MENA (Middle East and North America), Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The overarching objective of this training is to support selected refugee youth from the selected countries to develop substantive knowledge and practical skills to advance their public speaking, leadership, content generation, advocacy, and other relevant capacities, thus equipping them to participate eﬀectively and lead change in their communities and beyond. The training aims at empowering these young people not only to tell their own unique stories but also to speak with conﬁdence on the complex issues they have ﬁrst-hand experience of, such as peacebuilding, social cohesion, opportunities for their future, and to lead eﬀorts to expand initiatives, including on education, livelihoods, protection and solutions for refugees.

The training will give participants access to youth networks, relevant information, and opportunities to share ideas and experiences, and provides an avenue to collaborate to develop and scale their contributions to society.

Audience

The programme targets young people from regions which host youth who are 1) displaced, 2) returnees and 3) active members of their community. The target age of participants is 15-30, with some ﬂexibility depending on individual circumstances.

Prerequisites

Participants are expected to:

Understand, write and speak English

Be willing to commit to the entire six-month programme, including 2-3 hour sessions and 1 hour for self-study per week.
Have a demonstrated interest in one or more of the following:

volunteering in the community,
- leading or engaging in entrepreneurship projects,
- tackling social issues,
- building peaceful societies,
- expanding access to higher education and livelihoods for displaced youth, and/or
- a commitment to community and youth work, youth participation, and/or activism.

Commit to remaining engaged with the group after the end of the programme, including creation of a regional youth network, and participating in relevant events/dialogues and content development.
Be open to sharing the skills they have acquired with others in their community/region/country, in particular youth who may not meet the English language requirement.

Content and structure

The programme consists of:

1 weekly expert session on topics relevant to youth leadership.

The Session topics listed below are tentative based on consultations with refugee students, networks and leaders.

Introduction to refugee youth leadership
Leadership and critical thinking in humanitarian context
Use of media and delivering positive messaging
Organization capacity building
Regional networking
Media engagement and campaigning
Higher education paths for displaced youth
From learning to earning( internship, interview and CV)
Digital engagement and connected education
From resilience to action( What does local action mean?)
Employment and entrepreneurship
Content creation and speech writing

Peace building , mediation and conﬂict resolution
Youth-led global advocacy
Reporting and documentation
Climate action and refugee engagement
Age, gender and diversity

All sessions will be facilitated by 2 representatives from of the Tertiary Refugee Student Network (TRSN), and the Connected Learning in Crisis Consortium (CLCC) who will be responsible for:

Encouraging youth to attend, participate during sessions, and stay engaged throughout the programme
Moderating sessions, introducing speakers, moderating Q&A
Recording sessions and technical facilitation (presentations, videos, etc) where required.

Weekly thematic sessions will be led by external experts identiﬁed by Cohere Charity and UNHCR. Upon completion of the Programme, certiﬁcates will be issued to the participants.

Logistics

Participants to ensure they have stable and reliable internet connectivity to ensure eﬀective participation in online sessions . Weekly thematic sessions will take place every Wednesday at 1pm CET(to be conﬁrmed with participants in case of other AGD considerations).

After the training programme

At the end of the training, refugee youth are expected to stay engaged and support the following training cohort by creating a hub for youth to be connected and lead initiatives and campaigns. Youth participants in each country are expected to organize a country-level (or, where this is not feasible, county/settlement level) youth-led event at the end of the training, supported by the UNHCR country oﬃce and partners, to share their learnings and initiatives with other displaced youth.

Country-level events will be followed by a regional conference in early 2023, where a selected number of representatives from each location will come together in person to connect, share their experience and good practices, and present projects for funding by UNHCR. UNHCR, ILO, UNICEF and/or thematic experts will constitute an expert panel to evaluate projects presented during the conference. Promising projects will be supported in applying for funding for refugee-led grant agreements by local UNHCR oﬃces/the regional bureau, with funding up to USD 4,000.

Lastly, upon completion of the programme, ILO, UNHCR and UNICEF regional and country oﬃces will create youth leaders’ proﬁles and repositories to facilitate their engagement in upcoming regional and global speaking, advocacy and other opportunities.

Learning, adaptation & feedback

The learnings of this youth training programme will facilitate other training in 2024 and provide valuable insights into needs and capacities of youth across the region. To capture learning, and collect feedback, a baseline questionnaire will be administered to participants before the ﬁrst session, a midline questionnaire after 3 months, and an end-line survey after completion of the programme. Participants will also have the opportunity to channel anonymous feedback through the TRSN /CLCC facilitators.

Schedule

Call for applications: 15th May 2023

Application deadline: 28th May 2023

Successful candidates announced: 19th June 2023

Programme start date: 28th June 2023

If interested, please apply here. Cohere and UNHCR value diversity.