Nobel Women’s Initiative (NWI) invite applications for the 2025 Sister-to-Sister Young Feminist Leadership Program.
For over a decade, the Sister-to-Sister Young Feminist Leadership Program has been a cornerstone of NWI's strategy to foster a world where feminist peace and security prevail.
The Sister-to-Sister program brings together young feminist leaders – sisters - in an intensive virtual program which fosters crucial solidarity, support, sisterhood, and skills-building to better equip activists for the challenges ahead.
This year's program theme is “Rooted and Rising"
Women have always been on the frontlines of peacebuilding and the fight for climate justice—yet they remain excluded from the very spaces where decisions about our planet and our futures are made. The 2025 Sister-to-Sister program, rooted in the powerful legacy of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, affirms a foundational feminist truth: the climate crisis is not gender-neutral, environmental justice and gender equality are inextricably linked.
Across the world, women—especially those from frontline, Indigenous, and Global South communities—bear the brunt of environmental degradation, yet are systematically denied access to land, resources, and decision-making power. These inequities are symptoms of the same patriarchal systems that exploit the earth and marginalize women. The fight for climate justice must be centered on dismantling these intersecting systems of oppression and uplifting the leadership of those most impacted.
We at NWI know first-hand that when young women are grounded in their histories, communities, and their lived realities, they rise with courage, clarity, and fierce commitment to equality for all.
Guided by the lived experiences of NWI’s Nobel laureates and inspired by Maathai’s visionary leadership, this year's Sister-to-Sister program reflects our commitment to cultivating the next generation of feminist climate justice leaders through collective care, intergenerational learning, and transformative action.
Twenty five new, young, feminist peace and environmental activists will take part in a 6-week intensive virtual learning program from 1 September, 2025, to 6 October, 2025. The program is designed to:
- Broaden understanding of feminist leadership and resilience in the face of new global realities and emerging threats, with a focus on peace, justice, and gender equality.
- Strengthen tools and strategies for navigating uncertainty, including digital safety and adaptive leadership rooted in feminist values.
- Enhance collective learning and peer exchange by deepening mutual trust, sisterhood, and solidarity among young women activists confronting intersecting challenges.
- Support community-centered and creative action, encouraging participants to develop and apply innovative, feminist approaches to social and environmental transformation.
- Deepen feminist networks for support and collective action, and through this network build resilience.
Sister-to-Sister is designed and delivered by NWI.
To ensure selected Sisters are able to fully participate, an honorarium will be provided to selected participants at the end of the program. This honorarium is intended to contribute to internet access, work space, transportation, care responsibilities and other potential barriers to participation.
*In order to receive the honorarium, selected applicants must supply full, valid bank details
Criteria for applicants:
- Passion for and some experience in supporting feminist peacebuilding, women’s rights and/or feminist social and environmental justice movements as volunteers, professionals, or activists.
- Drive and potential to be an impactful feminist leader within local contexts.
- Able to effectively engage in English.
- Willing and able to commit to full participation in at least 80% of live, cohort-wide sessions.
- Candidates must be between 18-35 years old.
- Trans and non-binary activists are encouraged to apply.
Criteria for selection:
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Global representation.
- Applicants from East Africa and the following countries are highly encouraged to apply: Liberia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Iran, Iraq, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia, Haiti, Ukraine, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico
- Diversity of socio-political contexts.
- Diversity of backgrounds.
- Previous involvement in peace processes, particularly in YPS and WPS agendas, UN Security Council Resolution 2250 and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 implementation, and peace negotiations/mediation is preferred but not mandatory.
- Experience working on feminist climate justice, demilitarization efforts, Paris Agreement, (feminist) Green foreign policy, and/or gender apartheid is an advantage.
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Candidates who aspire to become a leader / become a strengthened leader as a result of engagement in this experience and growth of their support and solidarity network.
- Candidates who aspire to strengthen their leadership in advancing feminist climate justice and who are eager to grow their networks of solidarity and support are highly encouraged to apply.
- Individuals with ambitions to broaden or elevate their political leadership capabilities are highly encouraged to apply.
Application Process:
To be considered, candidate applications are due before 11:59pm ET, on 25 July, 2025. Applications should include:
- A personal letter or video (max 2 minutes or 1 page) outlining how the candidate has been contributing to feminist peace, social and/or environmental justice; the primary challenges in their context (contextually / personally / professionally); and how they hope the program will benefit them and their work.
- Current resume, with up to date, detailed experience (paid, volunteer, academic).
- Reference letter from a feminist peace, social or environmental activist or organization, with contact details for follow up
The full application form is available here:
Selection process and next steps:
- Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
- All candidates must have a working and reliable email address to facilitate correspondence.
- Selected candidates will be notified by email and will receive a Zoom invitation to the group interview.
- If participants require special accommodation, please note this in your reply to the Zoom group interview invitation.
- Feedback during the selection process is not provided.
- Selected candidates are responsible for providing NWI full, valid bank details to receive the honorarium.
For more information about the program, see here.
With questions, please reach out to [email protected]