Call for Applications to Produce State-of-the-Art Reviews: Project on Women, Girls, and Civic Engagement in Africa
Application deadline: December 20, 2019
Established in 1973, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) seeks to promote the voices of African and Diaspora scholars in the social sciences and humanities on the most important questions concerning Africa and its place in the world. This effort is motivated by the belief that sound knowledge of the continent is invaluable to efforts to make Africa a better place for its peoples and societies. CODESRIA pursues its goal primarily through the interrelated work of supporting research, training researchers and publishing and disseminating knowledge.
Women, Girls and Civic Engagement in Africa
With funding from the Ford Foundation, CODESRIA seeks to undertake work on women, girls and civic engagement in Africa. This work falls under CODESRIA’s thematic cluster on democratic processes, governance, citizenship and security in Africa as well as its cross-cutting theme on gender and generations as articulated its 2017-2021 strategic plan. It also continues CODESRIA’s long engagement with the important question of gender and its role in social and political processes on the continent.
The project on Women, Girls and Civic Engagement in Africa examines the nature, extent and dynamics within civic spaces in Africa and how variations within them explain how women and girls engage and utilize these spaces. The project seeks to understand the constraints women and girls experience in operating in these spaces and the strategies they deploy to deal with these constrictions. This includes the innovative ways in which women and girls hold the line or push back against violence and other methods of disempowerment. The project aims to make sense of the possibilities and limits of these spaces as arenas through which the (dis)empowerment of women and girls can occur. The following are the key questions that the project will explores:
- How does physical and structural violence against women and girls manifest in and affect their participation in civic spaces?
- What strategies are deployed by women and girls to counter various forms of violence? • Is the civic space shrinking uniformly for all classes, genders and generations? In what ways is it shrinking for women and girls? Is it shrinking at all in any manner?
- What are the institutional safeguards in place to prevent violence against women and girls, and enhance their civic participation?
CODESRIA seeks four scholars that will each produce a 15,000-word state-of-the art review of scholarly and policy research on the questions outlined above. Each review should be anchored in a thorough exploration of processes of women and girls civic engagement in one or two African countries, while placing the analysis of processes in the countries in a sound understanding of the broad literature on the theme. These reviews should:
- Demonstrate an adequate understanding of the literature in the field;
- Be grounded in an understanding of Africa’s history;
- Engage constructively with African futures;
- Be theoretically ambitious with a clear goal of providing innovative ways of understanding African social realities;
- Demonstrate familiarity with knowledge produced by CODESRIA on the subject
- researched.
Each of these scholars will, in addition to the state of the art review, also produce a 3000-word policy brief based on the review produced.
Successful applicants for this project will be individuals with a significant history of research and publication on the questions of civic engagement from a gendered perspective. They will have three (3) months to produce a first draft of the review and policy brief and another month to submit final drafts of these two documents upon receipt of comments from CODESRIA. Scholars will be awarded a grant of USD 10,000 to fund their work. Depending on the quality of work undertaken, these scholars will also be invited to participate in other CODESRIA activities including the Democratic Governance Institute and Gender Institute as well as in several CODESRIA Advanced Research Policy Dialogues (CARDS).
How to apply
Interested applicants should submit application packages containing the following materials as Word documents. Applications that lack any of these elements will not be considered.
- A proposal with the following clearly titled sections: 1) introduction, statement and contextualization of question(s); 2) brief review of literature and central argument; 4) methodology; and 5) work plan. Proposals should not exceed 5 pages (font: Times New Roman, 12; line spacing: double).
- A cover letter listing full details of the applicant – name, email and physical addresses and telephone numbers
- CV of applicant, including full contact details
The deadline for submission of applications is December 20, 2019. Notification of the result of the selection process will be done by January 20, 2019 and applicants who do not hear from us by then should consider their applications unsuccessful. Applications can be submitted on the CODESRIA website using the link https://codesria.org/submission/.
To learn more about CODESRIA’s Project on Women, Girls and Civic Engagement in Africa please contact:
Research Program CODESRIA
BP 3304, CP 18524 Dakar, Senegal
Tel: +221 – 33 825 9822/23
Fax: +221- 33 824 1289
E-mail: research@codesria.org
Website: https://codesria.org
