Cultivating Inclusion for Food Security (Cultivate) Fellowship

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The Cultivate Fellowship is a capacity-strengthening opportunity for field-based emergency and resilience food security implementers who are interested in using qualitative methods to increase gender and youth inclusion.

Over three months, a cohort of 16-20 members will participate in both an in-person workshop, regular online meetings, and independent work to develop innovative solutions to increase gender and youth inclusion in their programs.

The Cultivate Fellowship supports fellows to design and use qualitative methods to address their program-specific questions and deepen their contextual understanding of social inclusion and resilience dynamics of their activities, in order to adapt programming for transformative change. By the end of the Cultivate Fellowship, fellows will:

  • Collaborate with peers and explore how systems thinking tools and strategies can deepen our understanding of inclusive resilience dynamics.
  • Design learning questions, a qualitative inquiry process, and qualitative inquiry tools to answer program-specific questions.
  • Conduct this qualitative inquiry within their own program, including:
    • Collecting data;
    • Analyzing results;
    • Convening a team to apply learning within the program; and
    • Revising the tools for broader use.
  • Engage with a robust Alumni Network committed to creative, collaborative, and critical innovation around inclusive resilience-focused qualitative inquiry.

Who Should Apply?

Prospective applicants should apply as a pair working within the same program, ideally representing:

  • Applicant 1: Gender, youth, and/or social inclusion components or the equivalent
  • Applicant 2: Monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and/or collaboration, learning, and adaptation (CLA) or adaptive management equivalent

What is Expected of Participants? 

  • Fellows’ program/activity will fund travel costs  (e.g., travel, accommodation, per diem)  associated with attending the in-person workshop (mid-March 2024, Zimbabwe)
  • Fellows will engage in three months of activities, including, but not limited to, virtual preparatory meetings, a 5-day in-person workshop, biweekly virtual meetings following the workshop, informal and formal technical mentorship calls, and a virtual learning event
  • During the Fellowship, Fellows will be required to complete an inclusive resilience-focused qualitative inquiry within their program/activity.

What is the Time Commitment for the Fellowship?

  • Virtual Preparatory Meetings: 2-3 Weeks, 2.5 hours per week
  • In-Person Workshop in Zimbabwe: 5 Days, 8 hours per day
  • Virtual Follow-Up Meetings: 6-8 Weeks,1.5 hours per week + time to complete a qualitative inquiry project

For more information on the fellowship: https://www.fsnnetwork.org/gaya-fellowship

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