The 1325 Scholarship was established in memory of gender equality expert and peacebuilder Zaida Catalán.
Since the 1950's, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs have been implemented worldwide. These programs have been used both during wars and after peace agreements to transition ex-combatants from civil conflict back into mainstream society.
Since the 1980s, international organizations, donors, and national governments have increasingly viewed these programs as essential for promoting durable peace and preventing conflict recurrence. DDR also represents a central approach for countering/preventing violent extremism (CVE/PVE). However, policymakers and analysts have been hamstrung in their attempts to understand what lessons are transferable from one DDR setting to another. While between 1945 and 2009 more than half of all civil wars were followed by an additional war, there is little evidence about whether DDR programs can contribute to limiting the risk of war recurrence. Research on the effectiveness of DDR programs has grown, but with little aggregation and comparison of data on DDR programming, there is still limited understanding of the relative contribution of such programming to the prevention of conflict recurrence.
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Are you a young peacebuilder at the beginning of your career with a strong commitment to women, peace and security? Do you have experience working in this field in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Afghanistan and want to take your commitment to the next level? Then you have the opportunity to apply for the 1325 scholarship for 2026.
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