Otto & Fran Walter Rotary Peace Center will train regional peacebuilders through a one-year Rotary Peace Fellowship held at Bahçeşehir University.
The event for the signing ceremony of the Otto & Fran Walter Rotary Peace Center was held on 8th February 2024 at Bahçeşehir University Future Campus. The center provides a certificate program for peace and development for professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to have sustainable peace.
The certificate program aims to focus on various aspects of peacekeeping, peace-making, and peacebuilding processes by equipping community leaders with advanced knowledge and skills that focus on pivotal issues pertinent to the MENA region. These include land and identity disputes, climate change, food insecurity, refugee integration, and community development.
CIFAL Istanbul, as the local training center of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), will provide further academic studies, field visits, seminars, and workshops for the program fellows, deepening the program’s perspective. Program participants will employ the theoretical knowledge that they gained into the practice for a nine-month social change project within the region and conclude their fellowship with a capstone seminar to present the results.
Sustainable Peace in the Middle East and North Africa region.
BAU President Prof. Esra Hatipoğlu points out the critical position of BAU by saying “Bahçeşehir University brings deep local expertise in the Middle East and North Africa, embodying a commitment to multiculturalism and understanding” and she added that “Our collaboration with Rotary, a renowned leader in peacebuilding, merges academic rigor with hands-on knowledge, allowing us to address conflict transformation with a practical, grounded perspective and transitioning peace from a hopeful aspiration to an achievable goal.”
The fellowship at Bahçeşehir University in Otto & Fran Walter Peace Center is open for applications who are dedicated peace and development leaders from the MENA region to upbring qualified, educated leaders to establish peace in the region.
