Opportunity: Open Call - Partners for Human-Nature Storytelling Fellowship [CLOSED]

The hosting partners of Human-Nature Storytelling Fellowship will collaborate on developing, organising and delivering a mentorship programme that will provide a platform for 4 fellows to work together and individually on developing their storytelling skills.

The fellowship partnership objectives for the 2 host partners are:

• Develop organisation’s skills and capacity to collaborate internationally and embed arts and climate into their practice.
• Create a network of artists, climate experts, academics and initiate a community of practice.
• Collaborate internationally and expand their own networks.

The host partners are expected to:

• Design, deliver and evaluate the pilot fellowship programme with support from the British Council Arts team in Malaysia.
• Support, enable and develop the capacity for at least 4 fellows to explore, understand and tell the stories of how communities in both regions relates to their environments and adapt to climate change through arts, culture and multi-disciplinary approaches by providing fellow artists with the context, access to communities, guidance on ethics and engagement rules with the communities in their respective countries.
• Provide fellow artists with support and logistics.
• Mentor the fellow artists by organising learning sessions/workshops with experts in the fields of arts and climate: They will be responsible for sharing with the fellows the work they do in creative climate action with the communities, the issues and challenges they face, the solutions they work on, programming visits to communities, and create a programme that allows fellows to meet with all the stakeholders where they need to research and understand their contexts
• As a cohort, hosting partner organisations and fellows will also be responsible for co-creating a sharing event and activating a network or community of practice between the fellows, the arts communities in UK and MY and the hosting partners. The network aims to continue the exchanges and connections beyond the project timeline and should be a space for networking, sharing knowledge and opportunities. 

To apply please review and submit the following documents by 18 September 2024. To access all documentation and to participate to this tender, we ask you to create a log in on our online tendering portal called In-Tend. Once you have created your account and express interest for this project, you will be able to submit a proposal within tender timeline. In-Tend Reference Number: British Council/03583. Please download below, a user guide of this in-tend platform to help you to register and create your account.

• Request for Proposal (RFP)
• Annex 1 – Framework Agreement
• Annex 2 – Supplier Response (to be completed by Supplier)
• Annex 3 - Pricing Approach (to be completed by Supplier)
• Annex 4 – Concept Note

Please direct any questions or queries to Florence.Lamber@britishcouncil.org and Erica.Choong@britishcouncil.org.

Tender Timeline

We are seeking one Malaysian and one UK partner organisations who will work with or represent communities from Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor, Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Pahang, and communities impacted by climate in the UK, and who can demonstrate:

• The vision and mission of their organisation is aligned with the aims and objectives of Human-Nature (listed above in first section) and with the outcomes, we are trying to generate through the programme.
• Legitimacy to represent indigenous people in Malaysia and local communities in the UK
• Experience in accessing, representing, and dealing with indigenous communities and the challenges they face: What is the organisation’s level of understanding and engagement with challenges and issues faced by indigenous and rural communities. What are the fields of expertise covered by the organisation members and have networks and access to the expertise required.
• Professionalism and relevant experience of team members to be involved in the activity with British Council (CVs and past experiences of projects involving collaborations with externals and local communities).
• Experience in collaborating with external and international organisations and individuals on projects.
• A long-term and strong ambition to develop their capacity to embed arts and creative responses into their practices and who will commit resources and time to the programme, its activities, and learnings.
• The extent of their network and previous collaborations with various stakeholders such as Indigenous communities, scientists, anthropologists, researchers, local agencies and authorities, policy makers, NGOs, CSOs and arts communities.
• Their capacity and experience in curating and delivering mentoring and international exchanges with a real impact on the artists’ development (artistic and or advocacy skills)
• Their capacity and experience in tackling climate adaptation topics and to share their networks and experience with the fellows
• Their capacity to deliver on monitoring and evaluation and communications plans for the activities.
• Experience in participatory approach for past projects.

Whilst prior collaboration is not necessary, the two partners are required to submit a joint proposal and demonstrate the desire, ability, experience and capacity to collaborate equitability.

For further questions, please contact Florence.Lamber@britishcouncil.org and Erica.Choong@britishcouncil.org.