The application deadline for the Mountain Top Fellowship Program 2025 For Leaders is November 8, 2024.
Tell Me About The Mountain Top Fellowship Program:
The Mountaintop Fellowship is a prestigious, paid, one-year, full-time fellowship designed for emerging leaders who aim to drive systems change in lower-income communities worldwide. Fellows receive a $3,600 grant, paid in monthly instalments, and participate in a fully funded two-week Leadership Institute hosted at Harvard University’s Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics. The Leadership Institute provides skill-building workshops, small group activities, and personalized coaching, along with excursions to high-impact organizations. In addition, fellows benefit from monthly one-on-one mentorship, access to world-renowned experts, and eligibility to apply for the Catalyst Fund, which offers up to $2,500 for community projects. With ongoing support, two virtual retreats, and a lifelong community of peers, the Mountaintop Fellowship equips promising leaders with the tools and connections to create transformative change in their home communities.
Which Fields are Eligible?
All fields
Type:
Fellowship
Who can Apply for The Mountain Top Fellowship Program 2025 For Leaders?
Also, applicants are to ensure they meet the following criteria:
Committed to serving their home country, community, or state/province throughout their career.
Committed to attending a two-week, full-time, in-person training at Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, USA, July 12-23, 2025 (Mountaintop covers all costs, including flights, lodging, meals, ground transportation, and visa fees).
Committed to dedicating 40 hours per week to the fellowship project
Committed to 5 additional hours per week spent on virtual activities, including mentorship sessions, monthly speaker sessions, and peer troubleshooting meetings.
Which Countries Are Eligible?
All countries
Where will the Award be Taken?
USA/Home countries
How Many Awards?
Not specified
What is the Benefit of the Award?
Furthermore, applicants will also benefit the following:
A $3,600 grant, paid in 12 monthly installments of $300.
Full coverage of travel, lodging, meals, ground transportation, and visa fees for the two-week Leadership Institute at Harvard University.
Access to small group activities, custom coaching sessions, skill-building workshops, and excursions to high-impact organizations.
Monthly one-on-one mentoring sessions with an expert in your field and additional access to Mentorship Office Hours with leading social impact experts.
Eligibility to apply for the Catalyst Fund, which provides up to $2,500 for implementing a community project.
Additional leadership coaching, on-call support, two virtual multi-day leadership retreats, and access to a monthly speaker series.
Inclusion in a lifelong, supportive community of inspiring peers, fostering friendships, professional networking, and mental resilience.
The United States and Israel are on the brink of war with Iran. While the Biden administration has publicly stated that it does not want “escalation,” it has made clear that it will support Israel regardless of what Netanyahu does. Nearly every bomb dropped on Gaza and Lebanon was made in the US and given for free to Israel by the Biden-Harris administration.
A natural gas refinery in the South Pars gas field in Asalouyeh, Iran, on the northern coast of Persian Gulf. November 19, 2015 [AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi]
For Netanyahu, who faces multiple criminal indictments once he leaves office, this moment presents an opportunity to realize the long-held, grotesque ambitions of the Israeli ruling class: to destroy the Iranian regime through war. As the Financial Times warned this past weekend, “the chances of an Israeli attempt to topple the Iranian regime cannot be fully discounted.” The paper noted that last week Netanyahu declared, “When Iran is finally free—and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think—everything will be different.”
The Trump faction of the American ruling class has expressed its full backing for such a war. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former Middle East adviser, wrote a long post on X arguing for Israel and the US to topple the Iranian regime. He stated, “Iran is now fully exposed. … Failing to take full advantage of this opportunity to neutralize the threat is irresponsible.”
Though other sections of the ruling class have voiced concerns about the spiraling situation, the logic of their position—unconditional support for Israel’s actions—puts them on the same road toward war with Iran. The Democrats may have tactical differences with Trump about how to overthrow the Iranian regime but both salivate at the prospect of doing so.
The removal of the Iranian regime, while a geopolitical end in itself for American imperialism, is also a critical steppingstone in its economic and military confrontation with its chief adversary: China. All factions of the American ruling class unconditionally support Israel because they know that controlling the resource-rich Middle East—and ending the Ayatollah’s power—will significantly increase their power and flexibility in a war with China.
The importance of Iranian hydrocarbons
Iran is a large country, roughly the size of Spain, Ukraine and France combined. Eighty-nine million people live there. Compared to Iraq, its neighbor, which was invaded by the US in 2003, Iran has almost four times as many people and a far more sophisticated military and economy.
Iran has a long history of colonial subjugation, including British control over its oil industry in the first half of the 20th century, the CIA-MI6 coup in 1953 to prevent the nationalization of its oil industry and several decades of bloody rule by the US-backed Shah.
Everyone knows that Iran’s wealth primarily comes from its oil. Iran produces a little more than 3 million barrels of oil per day, about 3 percent of the world’s total. What is not as well understood, however, is the potential for Iran’s oil production to expand. Only three other countries in the world have larger reserves of commercially realistic oil (Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq). Additionally, Iran has the second-largest reserve of natural gas in the world after Russia.
Oil and natural gas remain the energetic bedrock of the global economy. Despite efforts to promote new alternative energies, the “energy transition” under capitalism remains a half-hearted and contradictory affair. The principal concern of the US and Europe with their investment in EVs and critical minerals is not stopping global warming but ensuring their economic and geopolitical supremacy vis-à-vis China, which has excelled in this area. Fifty-seven percent of the world’s energy comes from oil and gas, another 27 percent from coal, and just 1 percent comes from solar, a record high.
Given the enduring supremacy of oil and gas, countries holding large, cheap reserves of the commodity remain essential to geopolitical calculations. It is striking that Russia, Iraq and Iran—after Saudi Arabia—are the world’s largest holders of cheap oil reserves. Each country has been a principal target of US imperialism over the last quarter-century. The US invaded Iraq and is now on the brink of war with both Russia and Iran, the second and third largest holders of oil and gas reserves.
What is more, each of them—partially due to being squeezed and sidelined by economic sanctions—has a relatively underdeveloped oil industry, deprived of vital streams of capital and advanced technology required for production. This is evident in the case of Iraq, where after the US’s brutal invasion, American and European oil companies significantly raised production, increasing output from 2 million to almost 5 million barrels per day today.
The US oil boom’s role in imperialist strategy
Were the current US-Israeli onslaught taking place 10 or 15 years ago, the impact on global markets would be significantly worse. In the last few days, oil prices have risen by about 10 percent, the largest increase in two years since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, a dramatic shift in global oil and gas markets has tempered the effect.
In the last 15 years, the US has experienced the largest oil and gas boom in world history through hydraulic fracturing. This method allowed the US to grow from about 5 million barrels of production per day (mb/d) to over 13 mb/d. This represents about 15 percent of the world’s oil supply and is the only major source of supply growth internationally during this time.
The US ruling class is in an entirely different situation today regarding controlling global oil and gas production than when it was planning the Iraq invasion in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By being able to put a lid on oil and gas prices through fracking, US imperialism has been able to afford the loss of oil from Libya, Russia and Iran on the world market, allowing the US and its NATO allies to squeeze these countries and make plans for their regimes’ overthrow. (In Libya’s case, a “successful” plan that has led to a permanent state of civil war.)
The US oil boom, however, will not last forever. Generous estimates give it another 10 years, after which it will precipitously fall.
In his critical work Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism written in 1916, Lenin explained the importance of imperialism remaining one step ahead of its current needs. He wrote,
The more capitalism develops, the more the need for raw materials arises, the more bitter competition becomes, and the more feverishly the hunt for raw materials proceeds all over the world, the more desperate becomes the struggle for the acquisition of colonies.
To this, one could add that resources also deplete, and as they deplete, this “feverish hunt” further intensifies.
Where are the future supplies of oil and natural gas—so vital to the global economy—that will persist as other sources dry up, such as US fracking? They remain in the Middle East and Russia, with Iran, Russia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia being some of the most important future sources.
China and the US
It is important to stress that a key driver of US imperialism is the growing military and economic collision with China’s development. The US and its allies are fundamentally opposed to giving Chinese capitalism a “seat at the table” of the most advanced capitalist countries.
For several decades, China served as the cheap goods platform for the world’s major companies. But due to its own internal development—particularly in education and more advanced manufacturing processes—China has now created domestically controlled industries that seriously challenge US and European companies.
This is most obvious in the realm of automobiles, where Chinese EVs, advanced and cheaper than those of the US, have experienced rapid growth. In just a few years, China’s auto exports have gone from being a small fraction of those of Japan, the US and Germany to now overtaking all of them.
Having completely jettisoned past rhetoric of “free trade,” the US and its allies seek to prohibit Chinese corporations from playing a major role in the global economy at all costs. Confronting its own deepening economic and social contradictions, the US seeks to use its still dominant military and financial power to undermine the economic rise of China.
A central reason to control geostrategic resources like oil and minerals is not simply to profit from them but to pressure countries by denying access to this vital supply of energy and resources.
China, for its part, has much of the world’s critical mineral processing located inside the country, posing a problem for US imperialism’s war plans. However, while China has a relative advantage in critical minerals and batteries, the US has the advantage in oil and gas, at least for the next five to 10 years.
A RAND Corporation study on how the US could win a war against China noted, “If China is vulnerable to critical shortages in a war with the United States, it could be … in oil supplies, of which it imports about 60 percent and has a declared strategic reserve of just ten days.” Indeed, it is likely that one of the key reasons China was so quick to pioneer EV technology was its ruling class’s awareness of this serious weakness.
Almost all the oil China imports comes from the Middle East. Now that that oil no longer flows to the US, due to the fracking boom, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Iraq and the UAE send their oil east to China. China imports a staggering 11.4 mb/d of oil, making it the largest importer of oil in the world. China is the top recipient of Iranian oil.
Oil and World War III
Taking the geopolitical situation as a whole:
The US currently has control over global oil and gas markets more than any other country.
This level of dominance, however, has a limited window of about five to 10 years before that control significantly erodes due to the eventual decline of fracking.
The US, economically threatened, plans for a military confrontation with China centered around Taiwan.
China is strategically vulnerable when it comes to oil, relying on massive daily flows of oil from the Middle East. Iran’s largest oil export partner is China.
The Middle East and Russia, in the long term, will be the principal sources of the world’s remaining oil and gas. Iran is one of the single largest sources of undeveloped oil and gas reserves.
Taking these components together, it is evident that Iran’s oil and gas are of great interest to the United States and its partners. While many other factors go into the consideration of war, it is no accident that the principal targets of US imperialism are the most resource-rich countries in the world.
Netanyahu’s threats that Iran will “soon be free” reflect the fact that Israel, acting as a US attack dog, has been given a blank check to restructure the Middle East. The Israeli ruling class has its own distinct set of interests, but the Israeli war machine is ultimately funded, armed and driven by US geostrategic interest in the region.
This is the cold geostrategic logic that underlies the US-Israeli war against Iran and its proxies in the Middle East. The US seeks to strengthen and deepen its hold over this vital region as it prepares for a potential war against China.
For those who are disgusted by the rampage of Israel in the region and the blood-soaked, hypocritical role of the US, it is essential to understand that this war is not a “policy choice.” Capitalism, in its nationalist pursuit of profits at all costs, drives American imperialism toward a conflict that threatens the lives of billions of people. However irrational and dangerous, the American ruling class sees no other way out to its deepening spiral of economic, social and political crisis.
In September, the CEO of Deutsche Bahn (DB) Richard Lutz presented a new “General Renovation Programme” to the company’s supervisory board. The intention of the so-called S3 programme is to restore the fortunes of the ailing German rail system within three years in three different areas: infrastructure, rail operations and economic efficiency.
Rail workers in Germany [Photo by to.wi / flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]
The details of the 110-page plan remain unknown and have only been made available to selected media editorial offices. The Süddeutsche Zeitung comments that the latest plan is “neither new nor realistic.” Lutz made the same promises five years ago for 2024, but failed to keep them.
The third goal is evidently at the centre of the plan: i.e. profitability. By 2027, the railway is to return to profitability and generate an operating profit of €2 billion. To achieve this end, further cuts are to be made, more outsourcing will take place and even more pressure put on employees.
In the spring of this year, Lutz, (annual income €2.2 million) announced the first measure to be implemented, namely the loss of 30,000 jobs. Now his new restructuring programme explicitly confirms that 10,000 to 15,000 full-time positions are to be cut by 2027, with more than 15,000 jobs to go in the following years.
This alone makes clear that the new restructuring plan will intensify attacks on the workforce. Management is acting in the interest of the German government—the sole owner of Deutsche Bahn AG. In order to comply with the government’s debt brake and finance its rearmament and war plans, the government is tightening the screw on all spheres of social infrastructure. To this end the two main rail unions, the EVG and GDL, fully support the cuts at Deutsche Bahn.
The Rail Action Committee in Germany has warned that the cutbacks will further increase work pressure, ruin the health of employees and increase the risk of catastrophic accidents for employees and passengers. Even prior to the planned cuts, serious, life-threatening and fatal occupational accidents have taken place on the railways.
In an interview with the FAZ newspaper on September 20, Lutz explained that the backlog of maintenance work now amounts to more than €90 billion. He said that “around 80 percent of this unpunctuality can be attributed to the state of the infrastructure.” In this situation, the new S3 programme, which is supposed to provide the basis for the renovation of large sections of track, bridges, junctions and signal boxes, is at best a drop in the ocean. Transport Minister Volker Wissing (Free Democratic Party, FDP) has promised a mere €27 billion for the renovation between now and 2031.
Deutsche Bahn faces enormous problems: more than 200 signal boxes are in disrepair, according to the rail union EVG. Forty-one busy railway lines are in urgent need of renovations. In an interview with the FAZ, Lutz admitted that “the capacity utilisation on highly used lines and junctions is sometimes more than 125 percent: With unplanned construction sites, we quickly reach critical levels.” That is why “traffic jams and congestion are a constant occurrence.”
Some of the measures envisaged in the plan are simply stopgaps to circumvent acute problems that have been accumulating for years. According to RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), the S3 programme envisages withdrawing more long-distance trains from overloaded main stations in Frankfurt/Main and Berlin and having them start and end at Frankfurt Airport or at the local Berlin station Gesundbrunnen.
One controversial cost-cutting measure is already partially in place on trains: in addition to the driver, there is to be only one attendant for over 900 passengers in a high speed, 400-metre-long ICE train.
Other measures planned are simply counterproductive. In order to comply with the debt brake, the government and DB are sticking to the decision to sell the DB subsidiary Schenker to the Danish logistics company DSV. The sale means that new job cuts are inevitable. Despite DSV’s promise to respect existing employment contracts for two years, a programme to cut around 1,000 jobs at Schenker has already been launched. So far, the freight forwarding company employs 15,000 people in Germany and more than 70,000 worldwide.
The plans for DB Cargo transport, based on recommendations by the Roland Berger management consultancy, also amount to a devastating cutback.
The monthly €49 ticket (Deutschlandticket), which was originally available for €9, will cost €58 in future. Not only is the ticket constantly becoming more expensive and thus excluding those in need; it is also no longer available as a plastic chip card, thereby excluding anyone who does not have an e-ticket-compatible mobile phone. It is another example of how the DB management and the government are dismantling popular measures aimed at encouraging environmentally friendly means of transport.
As far as digitalisation at Deutsche Bahn is concerned, the management plans are simply risible. On September 6, the SWR media outlet reported on an internal paper, according to which Deutsche Bahn plans to save money by refraining from equipping digital signal box technology by 2028. The only exception is the new Stuttgart station, which will have digital technology.
The internal DB paper states that the “faulty old signal boxes” will initially be equipped with conventional and therefore “quickly available” technology from the 1990s. This means that trains passing through Stuttgart will have to be equipped with both digital and analogue technology in future.
Such a decision underlines the narrow-minded, nationalist approach of the DB management and the German government. Stuttgart is already integrated into the European Train Control System (ETCS). This system is intended to coordinate more than 20 different train systems in Europe as a standardised Europe-wide train control system. Two years ago, Deutsche Bahn management hired a special digitisation officer with ETCS in mind. Now, however, the Deutsche Bahn wants to do without ETCS for all areas except Stuttgart and has apparently recently dismissed its digitisation officer.
In a recent mocking commentary on the Deutsche Bahn, the FAZ asked: “Can the traffic gridlock still be averted?” The frustration has “reached historic proportions” and will “continue to grow due to cuts in funding, which are hardly reducing congestion.” The newspaper, which advocates staff cutbacks, points out the contradiction that Deutsche Bahn is cutting staff in the name of digitalisation, while at the same time refraining from providing any new modern technology.
The management plan highlights the major dangers facing train drivers, rail workers and other employees: every possible advance is being reversed. Modern technology, which would actually make it possible to ease heavy and dangerous work processes, reduce long working hours and make the railway profession attractive once again, is being cynically abused to worsen conditions for employees and customers.
Financial stimulus measures announced by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) last week have had their intended effect in leading to a stock market surge. The CSI index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-list companies jumped 8.5 percent on Monday, its biggest single-day rise since 2008, bringing the cumulative rise over the previous week to 24 percent.
A young couple walk near office buildings in Beijing's Central Business District on March 2, 2024. [AP Photo/Andy Wong]
However, the market is still 31 percent lower than its high in 2021. While the PBoC’s actions have been welcomed in financial circles, the general sentiment is that much more must be done to lift the economy, not least because financial stimulation has lost the effectiveness it had in the past.
There is now what one report described as a “deafening” call for more radical action by the government, centering on the need for a fiscal boost of around $1.4 trillion as proposed recently by Liu Shijin, a former top official at the PBoC.
In a recent article, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London-based Telegraph reported comments from Freya Beamish and Rory Green of the financial firm TS Lombard. They said the monetary transmission mechanism was broken and the economy was heading for an outright contraction in GDP growth next year.
“We’ve both been covering the economy for our entire careers and we’ve never been more worried about Chinese growth. Policymakers have chosen demand deflation and that is what they are getting,” they said.
By demand deflation they mean the refusal of the government to initiate fiscal stimulus measures because of their desire to reduce debt.
In a post earlier this week, hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, who has a long history of activity in China, welcomed the central bank’s measures. He called on the government to “do what it takes,” recalling the pledge of former European Central Bank governor Mario Draghi at the height of the crisis of the euro in 2012. But that would “require a lot more than has been announced,” Dalio said.
One of the main issues confronting policymakers is what to do about the housing and real estate crisis. Following the global financial crisis of 2008, real estate and construction became a key pillar of Chinese economic growth, accounting for as much as 30 percent of GDP, according to some estimates.
Today, the real estate crisis has become one of the main forces dragging down the economy. From 1980 to 2010, China’s growth rate was around 10 percent per annum. According to the IMF, it will only be 4 percent over the next five years, while other projections are lower.
The extent of the housing crisis was highlighted in an analysis published by the Wall Street Journal this week. It said the real estate bust had left behind “tens of millions of empty housing units,” which left city authorities “with homes they might never be able to fill.”
It cited a tally of estimates by economists which indicate that “the country could have as many as 90 million empty housing units.”
Another earlier report in the Journal estimated the paper loss on housing real estate at $18 trillion.
One of the measures being called for by those advocating a fiscal stimulus is for increased social security measures, so that households are encouraged to spend, thereby providing a boost to the economy via increased consumption spending.
But at least so far, the government is opposing such measures. Chinese President Xi Jinping is on record as saying that “welfarism” fosters “lazy people who get something for nothing.”
The central thrust of Xi’s economic strategy is focused on the development of “high quality productive forces” in the area of high-tech, producing goods for export. But this program is running into obstacles being erected by the major potential markets.
The US is continually escalating bans on the export of high-tech components to China and restricting the import of its goods with connections to the internet, particularly electric vehicles, on “national security” grounds, while other countries are looking to raise tariffs on Chinese goods.
The significant downturn in the Chinese economy is not only a major problem for the ruling regime, because of the danger that it will erode its social base among the upper middle class and set in motion struggles by the working class. It also has vast global implications under conditions where, since 2008, China has been a major contributor to world growth.
The situation in Hong Kong is an indication of what could develop more rapidly as the mainland economy deteriorates.
A report on Bloomberg this week pointed to a significant downturn in the real estate market, particularly at the high end with some properties selling at a 50 percent discount.
The downturn extends more broadly, according to the report, with a funding squeeze “putting Hong Kong businesses and individuals under strain in a way not seen for decades.”
“China’s economic slowdown is undercutting demand for everything from real estate to dining in a sharp reversal from the boom years. Historically high interest rates and falling property prices are prompting sellers to offer larger discounts, leading to a downward spiral. Weak consumer spending is depressing sales at retail businesses leading to the closure of outlets and further undermining public confidence.”
So-called small and medium enterprises, which employ about 45 percent of Hong Kong’s private sector workforce, are being hit hard. More than three-quarters of them have failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels and more than a third expect conditions to worsen next year.
Corporate failures are on the rise. In the eight months to August, 305 companies were wound up by a court order with the level of bankruptcies on track to surpass last year’s total of 354, the highest level since 2010.
Retail sales fell by 12 percent in July compared to a year earlier.
The article cited the comments of Angus Chang, the deputy manager of a food company. He said that Hong Kong’s economy was “totally different before the pandemic and after the pandemic.”
“The structure of the economy is based in property and stocks, so when those markets are so weak, you cannot grow. No one likes to buy things or spend money. It’s painful,” he said.
Eligible Countries: Students from African and Developing countries
To be taken in: Belgium
About the Belgium ARESScholarship: Each year, the Academy of Research and Higher Education (ARES) grants an average of 150 fellowships in the framework of the Masters and 70 fellowships in the framework of the internships to the nationals of the countries of the South.
Eligible Countries: South Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cuba, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Uganda, Peru, Philippines, DR Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia, Vietnam and Zimbabwe
Accepted Subject Areas (Masters):
Master of Specialization in Development, Environment and Societies
Specialization Master in Human Rights
Master of Specialization in Aquatic Resource Management and Aquaculture
Master of Specialization in Risk and Disaster Management
Specialized Master in Integrated Management of Health Risks in the Global South (IManHR)
Specialized Master in International Development
Master of Specialization in Transfusion Medicine
Specialized Master in Microfinance
Master of specialization in integrated production and preservation of natural resources in urban and peri-urban areas
Specialized Master in Public Health Methodology
Master of Science in Public Health – Methods of Research Applied to Global Health
Master of Science and Environmental Management in Developing Countries
Specialized Master in Transport and Logistics
Accepted Subject Areas (Training):
Internship in control and quality assurance of medicines and health products
Research Initiation to Strengthen Health Systems
Internship in Geographic Information System
Internship in secondary resource development for sustainable construction
Methodological internship in support of innovation in family farming
Type: Masters, Training
About the Belgium ARES Scholarship: Within the framework of the Belgian policy for development cooperation, the Minister for Development Cooperation and the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation entrust the Belgian Higher Education Institutions with the preparation of Postgraduate Programmes (Advanced Masters) and Training Programmes that are specifically oriented towards young professionals from developing countries.
International Courses and Training Programmes are part of the global study programmes of the Higher Education Institutions. They are open to all students who satisfy the conditions of qualification but aim at proposing training units that distinguish themselves by their openness towards specific development issues.
Eligibility: The following will apply for the selection of holders of scholarships:
Originally from a developing country. To be eligible, applicants must reside and work in their own country at the time of filing;
Only nationals of the following countries are eligible to apply for scholarships ARES: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cuba, Ecuador, Ethiopia ( only for courses in English ), Haiti, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Peru, Philippines, DR Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Vietnam ;
Either under the age of 40 for courses and under 45 for training periods at the start of training;
Either holds a diploma comparable to a diploma of the second cycle of Belgian university education. However, for certain types of training, different requirements may be set out, which will be specified below;
Demonstrates a professional occupation in a developing country of at least two years after completing his / her second cycle or three years after the end of his / her studies when the candidate holds a post-graduate diploma from a university in an industrialized country;
Good knowledge of written and spoken French. For courses organized in another language, it is necessary to have a good knowledge of the language of the course, written and spoken. The candidate will also be asked to commit to learning French to participate in everyday life in Belgium;
Apply for a single training
Selection Criteria:
The academic curriculum
For courses, priority will be given to candidates who are already holders of a diploma third cycle, save in exceptional circumstances duly justified in the application.
Priority will be given to candidates who have not already received a grant in Belgium.
Professional experience
Belonging to a partner institution: The commitment of the candidate in development activities
Nationality requirements
Gender equality
The future reintegration prospects
Number of Scholarships: Belgium ARES grants 150 scholarships for participation into the masters and 70 scholarships for participation into the training programmes.
Value of Belgium ARESScholarship: Travel (internal and external), Monthly living allowance, Indirect mission costs, Installation costs, Tuition fees, Registration fee, Insurance costs, Housing allowance, Allowances for dependents, Return fees, In 1st session completion bonus (June).
How to Apply: Would you like to submit an application form and receive a grant? Are you unsure about your eligibility?
Important: Applying for a Belgium ARES Masters and Training scholarship is free of charge. ARES does not charge any fee at any stage of the application or selection process. You may raise any question or concern about persons or companies claiming to be acting on behalf of ARES and requesting the payment of a fee by emailing ARES at maryvonne.aubry[at]ares-ac.be. Any application containing cash will be automatically rejected.
US and Israeli officials openly endorsed a large-scale attack on Iran Tuesday, following a strike by Tehran on Israel with 185 ballistic missiles the same day.
Projectiles fly through the sky over Jerusalem as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Iran towards Israel, in Jerusalem, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024 [AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean]
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called for strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, a move that has been planned by Israel and the US for decades.
“We must act *now* to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, its central energy facilities, and to fatally cripple this terrorist regime,” Bennett declared, demanding that Israel must “strike the head of the octopus of terror.”
He was joined by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who said, “I would urge the Biden administration to coordinate an overwhelming response with Israel, starting with Iran’s ability to refine oil,” implying a damaging US attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
He was joined by Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who declared, “I urge the reimposition of a maximum pressure campaign against Iran and fully support Israel’s right to respond disproportionately to stop this threat.”
The warmongering comments were bipartisan. Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said in a statement, “My voice and vote follow Israel to ensure they have whatever resources they need—whether that’s military, financial, or intelligence—to prevail over terror.”
Nearly one year after the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, which were facilitated by a deliberate stand-down of the Israeli military and intelligence services and the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, it has become clear that the United States and Israel have seized upon the events of that day as a pretext to carry out a long-planned regional war throughout the Middle East, with Iran as the central target.
Iran’s missile strike on Israel took place just one day after Israel launched a ground offensive in Lebanon, following days of escalating air bombardments that left thousands of people dead.
On Saturday, Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, using 85 massive bombs that completely leveled high-rise residential buildings, killing hundreds.
Iran’s foreign minister released a statement saying the attack was a response to “the assassination of the head of Hamas’ political office in Tehran, who was an official guest of the Iranian government, as well as the assassination of the Secretary-General of Hezbollah in Lebanon and General Nilforoushan, a senior Iranian military advisor, in Beirut.”
Both the US and UK’s military forces participated in efforts to shoot down missiles used in the strike, which was larger, more sophisticated and less telegraphed than an earlier strike on Israel by Iran in April. US and Israeli officials sought to present the strike as having no impact, despite widespread footage on social media showing missiles impacting Israeli military bases.
Iran’s top military official, Mohammad Bagheri, stated on state TV that the missiles fired at Israel were aimed at three military bases—Nevatim, Hatzerim and Tel Nof—as well as the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. He emphasized that civilian areas and infrastructure were intentionally not targeted.
All sections of the US political establishment restated their support for Israel’s actions in Gaza and its broader attack throughout the Middle East. “Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel,” said US President Joe Biden. He added, “The attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective, which is a testament to Israeli military capability and the US military.”
Responding to Iran’s missile strike, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared, “Israel, with the active support of the United States and other partners, effectively defeated this attack,” adding, “We demonstrated, once again, our commitment to Israel’s defense.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ candidate for president in the November election, added that the US would “never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend US forces and interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists.” She added, “I’m clear-eyed. ... Iran is a destabilizing, dangerous force in the Middle East, and today’s attack on Israel only further demonstrates that fact.”
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “The United States will continue to stand by our ally Israel in support of Israel’s right to defend itself. ... Iran and its proxies must be held accountable.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Lebanon continued, with at least five Israeli airstrikes attacking the southern suburbs of Beirut on Wednesday. The number of people killed by Israel in Lebanon in the past 12 months is approaching 2,000, compared to the 1,200 people killed in Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon.
And in Gaza—where the official death toll since last October has surpassed 41,000 but is likely over 186,000—at least 37 people were killed in two separate Israeli’s airstrikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp and a school in Gaza City, where displaced families were sheltering.
The escalating calls for massive strikes on Lebanon came amid a report by Politico that US officials authorized Israel’s ground offensive on Lebanon.
Politicoreported, “Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the US would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah—even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes.”
The report continued, “Presidential adviser Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, told top Israeli officials in recent weeks that the US agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad strategy to shift Israel’s military focus to the north against Hezbollah. ... Behind the scenes, Hochstein, McGurk, and other top US national security officials are describing Israel’s Lebanon operations as a history-defining moment—one that will reshape the Middle East for the better for years to come.”
A group representing a network of more than 1,200 food banks and hunger-relief organizations recently published data revealing that food bank usage in Ontario, Canada’s most populace province, has more than doubled since 2019.
The Toronto city skyline [Photo by Maksim Sokolov / CC BY-SA 4.0]
Between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024 a record 1,001,150 unique individuals visited a food bank to supplement their dietary shortfalls in the business and financial heart of the country. Over that time food banks were visited 7,689,580 times, an increase of 31 percent over 2022-2023, and 134 percent over 2019-2020.
Feed Ontario CEO Carolyn Stewart stated in a September news conference, “People in Ontario are drowning in the rising tide of unaffordability.” She added, “The cost of living has surged, and for too many people there’s simply no life raft in sight. Instead of being thrown a lifeline, more and more people are being pulled under, trapped in the cycle of poverty and living in circumstances that make it impossible to get their heads above water.”
The Feed Ontario report notes that 2023-2024 is the eighth consecutive year food bank use has risen in the province and that working people are among the fastest-rising groups accessing those services. “Unless we do something soon to address food insecurity and poverty needs in this province, they are going to continue to grow out of control,” Stewart said.
Noting that close to 70 percent of food banks in the Feed Ontario network are now reporting concerns about food shortages, Stewart said, “This is what happens when you rely on a system that’s meant to provide and deal with emergencies.” She added, “These programs are falling into disrepair. They have basically been ignored for a very long time.” Stewart also pointed out that while the need for donations is higher than ever, many former donors are now turning to food banks for support themselves.
Last year at this time, before the Thanksgiving holiday, the CBC reported that the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto invited in nearly 200 volunteers to help sort and pack donations for families in need. Daily Bread CEO Neil Hetherington explained that it had been another record year of demand, with more than 12,500 new people now relying on the food bank for the first time each month compared to 1,000 people before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the volunteers were Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Speaking to reporters, Chow said, without making any demands or commitments, “When I’m sorting, I get very grateful for your contribution. I also get really angry and say ‘Well, you know what, [it] shouldn’t be like this,’” adding “Let’s be angry about the situation but remain hopeful we can make a difference.” As for the premier, he had little to offer beyond platitudes and some vague and unconvincing affordable housing goals, declaring, “It’s very tough right now. Times are tough.”
Several months later, the scene repeated itself for the Easter 2024 holiday in which Hetherington revealed further shocking news. In the month of February alone, the Daily Bread Food Bank had over 300,000 client visits at its 200-plus programs across Toronto. That represented a 40 percent increase from February 2023, and a 136 percent increase from the same month the year before.
Explaining that roughly one in 10 Torontonians were now relying on food banks, he said, “We surpassed a milestone we never thought was possible,” adding, “What’s new is that there are individuals who have an income, who are working, who are cobbling together two or three part-time jobs and they still can’t make it.”
Food insecurity in Ontario has been a chronic social blight, particularly since the end of the post-war economic boom in the late 1970s, which ushered in high unemployment, runaway inflation and crippling interest rates. The Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto was founded in 1983 in response to those devastating conditions, which left the vulnerable exposed in the face of government policy to lay the full force of austerity and deindustrialization on the backs of the working class and the poor.
Fifteen years later, ongoing austerity and handouts to big business by all levels of government had made food banks an accepted fact of life in Canada. In October 1998, we wrote:
Several reports over the past weeks have drawn attention to the growth of hunger and homelessness across Canada, and in Ontario in particular.
One such study conducted by the Canadian Association of Food Banks, called Hunger Count 1998, reveals that the number of people forced to use food banks has increased dramatically in the past several years. More than 700,000 people used one of 2,141 food banks last year in Canada, an increase of 5.4 percent over 1996.
More than a quarter century later, the total of 700,000 people in Canada as a whole who used food banks in 1998 is dwarfed by those relying on them in a single province in 2024.
While food banks were initially intended to provide short-term assistance during the devastation of the severe recession of the early 1980s, they have since become an entrenched part of the economic status quo. Public generosity and goodwill have worked to soften the impact of decades of government policy that amounted to austerity for the working class and unrestrained exploitation and profits for corporations and the rich.
This outrageous situation was compounded by the initial phase of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The New Democratic Party- and trade union-supported Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau funneled $650 billion to the banks and big business, literally overnight, while placing workers who had lost their income during the shutdowns on rations with inadequate temporary benefits. Food bank use skyrocketed and the trend has not slowed since.
The devastation of working class living standards produced by these policies, supported by the entire political establishment and reinforced by the union bureaucracy’s suppression of the class struggle, goes hand in hand with a dramatic growth in corporate profits and investor wealth. A report from February of this year by the Centre for Future Work think tank stated:
Year-end data from Statistics Canada show that corporate profits in Canada remained historically high in Canada in 2023, despite the stalling of economic growth, rising unemployment, and stagnating consumer demand. Total after-tax corporate profits equaled $577 billion for the year, down 3% from record 2022 levels—but still over $200 billion (or 55%) higher than in 2019, the last year before the COVID pandemic.
The report specifically contradicts the pleas of innocence from food retail executives that their operations are not at least partially to blame for increasing food insecurity across the country.
The new Statistics Canada data confirm once again that profit margins in the food retail industry (dominated by the five largest chains) have in fact increased, far above pre-pandemic norms. The average food retail profit margin for 2023 increased by 20 basis points (0.2 percentage points) from 2022.
Food retail margins have increased steadily since the onset of the COVID pandemic; the strong margins generated in 2023 have reinforced that trend. Current margins are more than twice as high as typical margins earned in the years before the pandemic.
A key factor in the massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top contained within these figures is the trade union bureaucracy, which has been a major backer of the Trudeau federal government over the past nine years as it has enforced austerity to pay for imperialist war around the world. The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), its various affiliates—including the United Steelworkers, CUPE, OPSEU and the teacher unions—and Unifor, claimed that they could demand progressive policies from successive provincial Liberal governments through pressure and working together. That strategy merely achieved the desired effect of maintaining the perks and privileges of the union bureaucracy while keeping a lid on the class struggle.
Since 2018, when the hard-right Ontario government of Doug Ford (who recently publicly accused the poor of being lazy) was first elected, the unions frequently vowed to fight his sweeping pro-business agenda. In fact, the unions have strangled workers’ struggles whenever they have threatened to develop into a direct confrontation with Ford in Ontario or Trudeau at the federal level, including education support workers in 2022, West Coast dockers in 2023, and rail workers this year. They have also enforced concession-filled contracts throughout all economic sectors, cooperating in the creation of low-wage, precarious workers who are forced to rely with increasing frequency on food banks.
