Call for Statements of Interest: 2025 Protection of Civilians Trends Report

Call for Statements of Interest: 2025 Protection of Civilians Trends Report

Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) invites civil society organizations, journalists, and/or research institutes and think tanks to express their interest in contributing to CIVIC’s second annual Protection of Civilians trends report. Submissions may take any number of forms (e.g. analysis based on qualitative or quantitative research, illustrative datasets conveyed through compelling visuals, original articles, or photo-essays) but should help tell the story of the Protection of Civilians (POC) in 2024, including how protection concerns for civilians evolved and how sub-national, national, and multi-national actors are responding to these concerns. 

Background: 

In 2024, CIVIC launched a new flagship project designed to raise awareness of the most important protection of civilians
challenges and trends for a global audience, and to showcase the opportunities to mitigate the potential, current, and lingering effects of violence and war on civilians with policymakers.
This year, CIVIC is continuing the project with a second annual report. The report will be organized into four main report categories:

• Prevent:  Calling attention to specific phenomena that exacerbate civilian harm in conflict settings and are likely to increasingly do so in the future—including climate change, disinformation, the use of explosive weapons with wide-area affects in populated areas, the use of private military security companies (PMSCs), attacks on dual-use infrastructure, and the deployment of artificial intelligence on battlefields. This section will also highlight prevention and early warning systems and tools. 

• Protect: Highlighting trends and analysis relating to the impact of high levels of violence or armed conflict. This section will include global data sets and a series of “spotlighted” case studies from countries experiencing intense conflict. 

• Recognize: Profiling areas that are affected by conflict, but where data is scarce, where media attention is not focused, or where for other reasons the public is less likely to be focused.  

• Amend: Highlighting the need to recall harm that has already occurred resulting from conflicts that may have ended or in places undergoing “transition”, and the need to provide meaningful remedy and support.  

In each section, the report may include: 

• Trends Analysis: Summary analysis of key trends, illustrated by global or local data sets and indicators. 

• Spotlights: Case studies, focused on areas or themes worthy of focus and attention. 

• Agents for Change: Stories or examples of leadership or courage from civil society, positive steps taken by states or their institutions; and examples of impactful journalism or media. 

Call for Expressions of Interest: 

CIVIC will select and provide small grant funding for 2 submissions from individuals or organizations. Submissions may take any number of forms (e.g. short form analysis based on qualitative or quantitative research, illustrative national or sub-national datasets conveyed through compelling visualization or infographics, short original articles and essays, or photo-essays) but should help tell the story of the state of Protection of Civilians in 2024.  Each submission should fit within at least one of the main report categories (Prevent, Protect, Recognize, Amend). Submissions need not include original research conducted for this project but should reflect original analysis or include a creative process that generates novel insights or reflections from existing data. (Submissions must cite the source of all data and information used.) 

Awarded parties will be able to work independently but are expected to inform CIVIC on their final choice of medium, methodology, and the data used in the production of the final submission and should expect a process of collaboration with CIVIC to edit the submission for inclusion in the report. Full attribution will be given to the author and each source of the contribution in the final report, and contributing parties will be invited to participate in public and private dissemination activities.
Pro-bono submissions aligning with these categories are also invited.  

Final deliverables for selected partners will be due (in English) no later than
July 11, 2025, and
are expected to be no longer than 2-3 pages. Although CIVIC fully expects to use each contribution, CIVIC reserves the right to manage the final contents of the report. 

Budget: 

While the range of estimates may vary, the average cost of a project submission is expected not to exceed $3,000. Each project selected will be funded using a fixed award contract. 

Eligibility:  

Eligible individuals or organizations should:  

• Have the legal ability to work on a fixed award contractual basis with CIVIC’s US or Netherlands office. 

• Have the capacity to deliver the final product in English.  

Application Requirements: To apply, please submit a letter of interest, not to exceed one page in English. The letter of interest should provide: 

1. A description of the submission, and why it fits the intent and scope of the annual Protection of Civilians Trends Report. 
2. A short reference to the means you will use to ensure the ethical and safe treatment of data and sources. 

For independent consultants/individuals, in addition to the above, please include your professional resume.

For organizations, in addition to the above, please provide: 

1. Your organization’s mission and approach and its relevance to the protection of civilians. 
2. Your organization’s experience or expertise in the research or field related to the proposed submission.
   
3. Brief professional biography (or resume/CV) of the expert or experts who will work on the project. 

Deadline for letters of interest: 13 June 2025   

Contact and Submission: To submit a statement of interest, please click "Apply for This Job" at the top of this page.