Resilience Fellowship

The Fellowship is part of the GI-TOC's flagship Resilience Fund, which provides grants and support to civil society individuals and organizations working to counter the impacts of criminal governance and violence across the world. Established with a grant from the government of Norway, the Resilience Fund is also supported by the governments of Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand and works in partnership with international organizations and NGOs worldwide.

The Fellowship offers support through the following mechanisms:

-Grants: In fragile environments, the scarcity of financial resources is a pressing issue. Due to ongoing conflict, weak governance and socio-economic disparities, traditional sources of support are often underdeveloped or unavailable. The 2024 Resilience Fellowship will directly address this gap by providing grants of US$15 000 to individuals in such environments for community projects that build resilience. By focusing on fragile contexts, the Fellowship will ensure that resources reach those who are typically overlooked, making a tangible difference in communities that are most in need.

-Capacity building: Through the Fellowship’s training and mentoring programme, Fellows will receive guidance on navigating the unique challenges presented by their environments, such as cyber threats, physical security risks and the complexities of criminal economies. This approach begins with an understanding of fragility: identifying the local manifestations of organized crime and developing strategies to counter them.

-Networking and collaboration: The Fellowship will provide networking and collaboration opportunities through its Resilience Dialogues and the Resilience Fund Community Platform to influence global policy and strengthen Fellows’ initiatives. By fostering an interdisciplinary, global and cross-sectoral network, the Fellowship aims to support a diverse range of solutions, share resources and best practices, and strengthen community resilience to organized crime in fragile contexts.

For the 2024 Fellowship, we are working with civil society actors who support communities in contexts of fragility, particularly communities facing conflict.

The results of the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index show that conflict zones are particularly vulnerable to organized crime. High levels of conflict in a country not only affect its resilience to organized crime, but also allow illicit economies to flourish and create space for the involvement of domestic and foreign criminal actors. States that have been embroiled in conflict and instability rank high under the Index in terms of their criminality levels.

In fragile contexts, where state institutions are weak or lack legitimacy, civil society organizations play a critical role in countering the effects of criminality. Civil society actors often fill the gap left by the state by assisting victims of crime, implementing prevention programmes and initiating investigations. Civil society becomes a lifeline in fragile communities.