Foreign Ministry seeks young Finnish peacebuilder for international mentoring programme

In June, Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen announced Finland’s and South Africa’s joint mentoring programme for young mediators. The programme is part of the implementation of the Letter of Intent on cooperation in mediation between Finland and South Africa.

The programme brings together fifteen young people from around the world who are actively working for peace. The programme offers these young people an opportunity to get to know South African and Finnish mediators and to visit the African Union’s and the United Nations’ mediators. During the two-year programme, the young people will also be provided with training in mediation.

The programme comprises four one-week visits to Pretoria, Addis Abeba, New York and Helsinki and short virtual workshops.

The Foreign Ministry’s Centre for Mediation invites Finnish civil society organisations and networks working on youth and peace issues to propose Finnish young people for the programme. Each organisation may propose one person. The programme defines a young person as a person between the ages of 18 and 29 years in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace and Security.

The Centre for Mediation is seeking young Finnish persons who have experience in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, diplomacy or international relations. We particularly welcome persons with management experience. The person selected for the programme should have a bachelor’s degree or at least two years of higher education studies in the relevant field.

The language of the programme is English, and the selected participant should be able to work and study in English in an international environment. The participant should also be able to travel internationally, attend virtual workshops and commit to the mentoring programme for the entire two years.

We ask organisations to send a short proposal of up to one page to the Centre for Mediation by email at [email protected] by 1 December 2024. Please attach to the email the candidate’s curriculum vitae and a page-long motivation letter written by the candidate to present their background and competence. In the motivation letter, the candidate should also explain how they would make use of the lessons learned from the programme and what they could contribute to the programme.