WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Center begins soliciting proposals for its 2020 Open World exchange program from U.S. based organizations with established foreign visitor programs or a demonstrated ability to host foreign visitors. Organizations submitting proposals design 8-day professional development programs for emerging political, civic, and community leaders from the Eurasian region. All professional programs link Open World delegates to national, regional, and local levels of governance in an effort to support the legislative diplomacy efforts of Congress.

As a legislative branch agency, the Open World Leadership Center directly supports Congress by bringing influential young Eurasian leaders to congressional districts across the United States. In 2019, the Open World program hosted delegations in 49 states. Today, Open World has nearly 29,000 alumni and a network of more than 9,000 host families in nearly 2,100 communities throughout the United States.

The solicitation features 152 programs designed for delegates from the following Open World program countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Key themes for 2020 includes legislative development for Members of Parliament and staff, Rule of Law for judicial professionals, and accountable governance for civic leaders. Sub themes for civic programs include: media literacy, countering false information, anti-corruption, environmentalism, urban development, women in STEM, entrepreneurism, combatting domestic violence, investigative journalism, treatment for PTSD, combating infectious diseases/outbreak response, cybersecurity, inclusive education, national parks management, librarians, and youth leadership and community involvement.

The application deadline for all country programming in this solicitation is September 19, 2019.

To view the 2020 Grant Guidelines, please click here: https://www.openworld.gov/grants/apply-grant.

For questions, please contact openworld@openworld.gov.

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