Fellowships

2024 cohort of the Latin American Youth Climate Scholarship program is now open. APPLY NOW!

Latin American Youth Climate Scholarship program

AdminJanuary 26, 2024

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Latin American Youth Climate Scholarship program

How can I apply?

To apply you must consider the following criteria, if you meet them, proceed to fill out the form below:

Dear candidate,

Before we start this process we would like to thank you for the interest in applying. Below you will find all the relevant information regarding our program, please read it carefully as it might enhance the chances of a successful application.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: 11/02/2024

Requirements

Age: We will consider applicants who are between 18 and 30 years of age, flexible up to a maximum of 35, given that they have been contributing to youth and climate movements in recent times.
Language: English knowledge is NOT required. The entire project will have a team of professional interpreters and the primary internal languages used are Portuguese and Spanish.
Gender: We will ensure to maintain gender balance among the scholars, with a view of enhancing female and LGBTQI* participation.

Race and ethnicity: Only applicants who self-identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color will be selected.
Country of origin/geographic balance: We will work to ensure that geographical balance is maintained taking into consideration representation of minorities and the most affected by climate change (Check the list of valid countries for this application that appears on the form).
Applicant’s background story / work: Applicants will be asked to share their stories, experiences and expertise in relation to climate change, environmental degradation and sustainability issues. This refers on the one hand to their work in the past related to climate/environmental and related domains including, but not limited to: their individual/group/organisational projects and their experiences. This also includes their personal experiences in terms of being directly or indirectly affected by the impacts of climate change in various ways. The most important criteria from this section will be engagement at the local/community level. We will prioritise people without international experience, aiming to dismantle gatekeeping practices that exist in the international youth climate community.

Applicant’s motivation: The applicants have been asked to describe their motivation to join the project, what role they envision for themselves as well as their communities and what perspectives they would bring in.

Expectations

The Latin American Youth Climate Scholarship is more than an event/travel based opportunity. This initiative came from the understanding that marginalised and grassroot youth voices are underrepresented in the United Nations climate sphere. The main objective of LAYCS is to prepare the selected scholars to actively engage and follow the negotiations happening at the climate conferences, as it is in these closed meetings that our future is being decided.

We expect the select scholars to:

Read, follow and abide by our Awareness Protocol on Discrimination. This document is a tool to protect our selected scholars, team members and anyone actively supporting LAYCS and to set in place anti discriminatory guidelines.
Join and actively participate in our online capacity building programme. There will be five sessions from March to May and nine sessions from July to November. The sessions are two hour long and will cover general UNFCCC understanding, negotiation agenda items, anti-racism and indigenous knowledge training. Skills building workshops might be provided e.g public speaking and effective communication. Language interpretation for Spanish and Portuguese will be provided. As of now we are unsure on the day and time of the sessions, but we will accommodate the different time zones as much as possible.

Commitment to the program schedule while on ground at the climate conferences and during the in-person preparation days. We understand some scholars will have additional agendas whilst at the conferences but we expect LAYCS to be treated as a priority, in order for the goal of the project to be met. Several LAYCS meeting will be mandatory attendance.
Responsive and clear communication. LAYCS is an independent project and we count on the collaboration of the scholars to ensure an effective relationship between our team and all parties.