UN fellowships realigned to building Africa’s capacity

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, or ECA, has relaunched its fellowship programme in line with Africa’s transformative agenda to provide a platform for young African graduates to gain professional on-the-job experience in a range of development-related fields.

Relaunched at a side event in Dakar, Senegal, on March 22 where Africa's ministers of finance, planning and economic development were attending the annual African Union-ECA Conference of Ministers under the theme, "Growth, inequality and unemployment", the six-month-long fellowship programme has been realigned with the ECA’s mandate of promoting the economic and social development of its 55 member states, fostering intra-regional integration and promoting international cooperation for Africa's development.

In an interview with University World News, Stephen Karingi, ECA director in the Capacity Development Division, said the fellowship programme will be implemented in conjunction with high-ranking African universities and institutions of higher learning which will then select suitable candidates.

Karingi said the realignment of the fellowship programme was meant to ensure a better fit with the continent’s new Capacity Development Strategy and to respond proactively to the capacity development needs of member states.

“The programme is meant to support young African scholars acquire professional knowledge and operational experience as fellows and to apply this new and innovative knowledge to help Africa's transformative agenda,” said Karingi.

Community of experts

It also aims to provide an opportunity for young African scholars to gain exposure to working in an international environment, and to build a community of experts in Africa that can serve as a resource for formulating, implementing and monitoring development activities at the national, sub-regional, regional and international levels.

The Africa Agenda 2063 was adopted by the Assembly of the African Union in January 2015 as the continent's new long-term vision for the next 50 years. Its focus is capacity building and skills development for the youth across Africa.

It envisages that by 2063 at least 70% of all high school graduates will go on to have tertiary education, with 70% of them graduating in the sciences, technology and innovation programmes, thus laying the basis for competitive economies built upon human capital to complement its rich endowments in natural resources.

In October 2012, the ECA embarked on a strategic retooling and reorientation process to ensure relevance to the changing dynamics of Africa's development. The fellowship programme was seen as an avenue for knowledge-sharing and to provide opportunities for Africa's youth to contribute to shaping policy on the continent.

Karingi said the programme is expected to start in July and could be extended for another six months based on individual performance and availability of funding. ECA will select up to 30 fellows across the continent to start with but the number could go up, he said.

During the attachment period the fellows will become familiar with the ECA’s broad programmes and services to its 55 member states and sub-regional bodies.

African development

Fellows will be based at the ECA headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and at sub-regional offices: Rwanda for East African fellows, Cameroon for fellows in Central Africa, Morocco for the fellows in North Africa, Zambia for the Southern African region, and Niger for West African fellows. Here they will have the opportunity to interact with commission staff and gain exposure to the commission’s research on a variety of leading issues in African development.

“Fellows will work on a predefined project, designed to contribute to specific aspects of the work programme of the receiving section,” said Karingi.

The new fellowship framework fits into the four key areas identified by ECA as fundamental to ensuring regular, relevant and sustained contributions to Africa's transformative agenda. These include policy research, knowledge delivery, dynamics for an integrated and coherent approach, and aligning corporate incentives and support systems.