Dear Everyone,
The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) are seeking Call for Applications from interested Researchers/Experts/Academic Institutions within West Africa and Lake Chad Basin to produce a Working Paper intended to influence and guide stakeholders’ efforts in promoting peace and security agenda in the 18 targeted West Africa and Lake Chad Basin of the REcAP project.

As part of this effort, the study is intended to evaluate and determine the effectiveness of existing partnerships, the level of collaboration between partners, the modalities of working relations, challenges in these relations, and how engagements can be strengthened and made more effective in preventing conflict and violent extremism in the Sahel. In essence, the REcAP project is dedicated to improving practices and policies to prevent conflict, violent extremism, and peacebuilding.

As indicated in the attached Terms of Reference in French, English, and Portuguese, the interested Researchers/Experts/Academic Institutions should send their applications by e-mail to the Project Secretariat (recapsecretariat@wanep.org). Attention must be paid to the application deadline 30th September 2023, with the subject line, “WP – Multi-Stakeholders’ collaborative partnerships”.

Kindly feel free to share the Call for Applications within your respective web of professional networks and partners in West Africa and Lake Chad Basin.

Yours Sincerely

Conferences, seminars and workshops will be organised to disseminate research products, and policy briefs and evidence-based recommendations to technical and financial partners, and policymakers. Likewise, conferences, seminars, workshops and policy dialogues will be bringing together policy makers (including key policymakers at the ECOWAS, AU, EU, UN and other multilateral organizations), practitioners, academics and other relevant institutions to exchange experience, lessons learned, research findings and conclusions to inform and advocate for policy changes

hese events will also facilitate professional networking and cross learning by network members. Specifically, there will be an annual general conference of REcAP Network’s experts. The theme and programme for the annual conference will be determined by the project partners and the leadership of the expert network. Furthermore, there will be a seminar, workshop or policy dialogue on a priority research area or relevant thematic area led by the relevant experts and supported by project partners at least once in a quarter. Some of the events will be held physically and others virtually. The venue for the in-person events will be determined and agreed upon by the project partners. For each of the events, a report will be produced, published and shared with the relevant stakeholders.

Studies will be undertaken on the three thematic areas of focus of the REcAP Project namely: Peacebuilding, Prevention of Conflict and Violent extremism in the 18 target countries in West Africa and Lake Chad Basin. These studies will be undertaken to deepen understanding in the targeted countries to enhance policy decision making purpures. This will also involve, conducting in-depth assessment and analyses around emerging peace and security issues and contexts, as way of enhancing peacebuilding and conflict prevention strategy.

Part of this effort also include strengthening the role for civil society, including regional, national and community practitioners and researchers in effective peacebuilding, crisis management and prevention of conflict and violent extremism in West Africa and the Lake Chad Basin to enable more informed decision making by policy makers. The regional network will foster experiential learning, production of knowledge and scientific information and provide conflict-sensitive, favourable, neutral, and objective grounds for discussions, debates, and cross-learning. In addition, the regional network will promote exchanges of expertise and best practices among professionals from West Africa, the Lake Chad Basin and Europe.

Policy dialogues will be organised with the purpose of informing and advocating for specific policy changes on specific subjects with thematic clusters experts and the larger network bringing together policy makers, practitioners, academics and other relevant institutions to exchange experience and to inform and advocate for policy changes. This activity is about connecting local CSOs and youth and women organisations with national, regional and international policy and decision-makers, in order to bring to their attention community contributions to peacebuilding, conflict and violent extremism prevention policies, strategies and practices. In doing so, the project will encourage more inclusive public policy that takes into account local perceptions and are potentially more relevant to the realities experienced and observed by the communities.

There will also be community-based dialogue with the general objective to bring key community stakeholders to discuss challenges and concerns affecting or are likely to weaken the social cohesion and disrupt peaceful coexistence in the target communities in West Africa and Lake Chad Basin. The objective is to bring key community stakeholders (communities, youth and women’s organisations and other local civil society actors) to collectively identify and discuss challenges and solutions, analyse conflict dynamics, and deepen understanding of key issues affecting or are likely to disrupt the social cohesion and peaceful coexistence in target communities. This is part of an effort to establish future evident-based peacebuilding and conflict prevention intervention in target communities in West Africa and Lake Chad Basin, in line with the timely intervention logic of the project.