Launched in 2013, the World Bank Group (WBG) Africa Fellowship Program targets young talented African nationals who are completing or recently completed a Ph.D. in an area relevant to the World Bank’s work. The fellowship program has been very successful since its inception, building a strong pipeline of young African talent interested in a career in development, in international institutions, African governments, think tanks, and academia.

The program offers chosen fellows a six-month assignment at World Bank Group (WBG) offices in Washington D.C. or in country offices to gain hands-on experience in the operations of the WBG. This includes knowledge generation and dissemination, design of global and country policies, and the building of institutions to achieve inclusive growth in developing countries. While benefitting from research and innovation in multiple sectors, fellows will also work on research, economic policy, technical assistance, and lending operations that contribute to the World Bank’s goal of eliminating poverty and increasing shared prosperity.

The WBG’s Africa fellows have proven to be valuable resources for their hiring units. They contribute to the work program of their respective units and to the World Bank’s mission. In the process they (i) gain a better understanding of the World Bank’s operations; (ii) access quality data for their research; (iii) interact with and learn from seasoned experts in the field of development.

The application period opens between August and September of each year.

Eligibility Criteria

• Be a Sub-Saharan national who are recent Ph.D. graduates, or current doctoral students within a year of completing or graduating from a Ph.D. program in all relevant field of development, including, but not limited to economics, education, health, governance, energy, agriculture, infrastructure, demography.
• Have an excellent command of English, both written and verbal
• Be under the age of 32 by the closing of the application period

About the current cohort of Fellows (2018 cohort)

The 2018 cohort attracted 3,029 candidates, of which 144 from 26 African countries were preselected as potential fellows ready for hire. Twenty-four fellows have been selected and assigned to work in various World Bank Group units, including agriculture, energy, and trade. The cohort is composed of 15 women and eight men from 12 African countries.

Fellows are working in the following units across the World Bank: Agriculture, Education, Energy & Extractives, Governance, Africa Chief Economist Office, Development Economics, Health, Nutrition & Population, Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment, Social Protection & Labor, Poverty, Climate Change, Infrastructure & Public-Private Partnerships, Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV), and Gender. The program is supported by the Think Africa Partnership (TAP), the FCV Fund, as well as IDA resources of the WBG Africa region.

Country	Fellow	World Bank Unit	Research Focus
Benin	Prudence Dato	Energy and Extractives	Economic analysis of the transition to renewable energy and investment in energy saving technologies.
	Toyimi Médès Frida Adjalala	Poverty	Shock transmission mechanisms in monetary union with a focus on the West African countries.
Burkina Faso	Roukiatou Nikiema	Governance	Issues related to development economics, especially issues related to domestic resources mobilization, quality of institutions and economic growth.
	Teegwendé Valérie Porgo	Health, Nutrition and Population	Development of evidence-based policies to improve healthcare resource allocation
Cameroon	Lauretta Sandra Kemeze	Agriculture	Rural development; Bioenergy Economics; Climate Smart Agriculture; Impact Evaluation, Choice Modelling, Technology Adoption; Economic valuation of public goods.
	William Theophile Ewane	Development Economics Research Group	Estimating intra-national trade costs.
	Claudia Noumedem Temgoua	Poverty	Migration (highly skilled international migration, rural-urban migration andforced displacement); International knowledge diffusion and innovation.
	Soazic Elise Wang Sonne	Fragility, Conflict and Violence	Intersection of applied impact evaluation on health, education, agriculture and gender in conflict and post-conflict affected countries in Sub Saharan Africa.
Côte d’Ivoire	Aïssata Coulibaly	Social Protection and Jobs	Effect of financial development on the labor market in developing countries.
Ethiopia	Kaleb Girma Abreha	MTI	International trade and FDI Productivity analysis; CEOs and firm performance; Women’s career outcomes
	Tigist Mekonnen Melesse	Office of the Chief Economist for Africa	Agriculture, Poverty and Social Impact Analysis and Impact Evaluation of Development Programs and Policies using large cross-sectional and panel household surveys.
	Ashenafi Belayneh Ayenew	Office of the Chief Economist, HD Vice Presidency	Applied Development Economics (shocks, insurance, and health in rural areas of developing countries)
Ghana	Florence Nimoh	UNHCR	Development Economics (quantitative evidence aimed at improving welfare policies in developing countries).
Guinea	Nene Oumou Diallo	Social Protection and Jobs	Emergence of a dynamic private sector in developing (alleviation of credit constraints for micro, small and medium enterprises).
Mali	Setou Diarra	Education	Health economics; Maternal and Child Health, Gender issues; Human Capital Development; Applied econometrics
Niger	Ahmed Ousman Abani	IFC (Sector Economics and Development Impact)	Energy economics; Energy markets; Investment incentives; Regulatory and market designs; Renewables; System Dynamics
Nigeria	Belinda Archibong	Governance GP	Development economics; Political economy; Economic History and environmental economics with an African regional focus
	Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed	Social Protection and Jobs	Social Protection; Women’s Economic Empowerment; The Care Economy (paid and unpaid); Urban development.
	Kevwe Pela	Education	Issues that influence the efficient structural transformation process of developing countries (education, labor allocation, income and gender).
	Uche Eseosa Ekhator	Gender	Issues related to health, gender, and conflict in developing economies.
	Yvette Efevbera	Health, Nutrition and Population	Quantitative and qualitative methods to understand contexts affecting the health and well-being of children, adolescents, youth, and women in settings of adversity.
Senegal	Ibrahima Sarr	UNHCR	Labor Economics, Development Economics, Experimental Economics and Microeconometrics.
The Gambia	Kebba Jammeh	Office of the Chief Economist for Africa	Micro-foundations of macroeconomic issues especially in the use of computational tools to understand welfare cost of risk and uncertainty; Earnings/income dynamics; Optimal taxation; Remittances as a source of insurance for households in developing economies.
Togo	Komlavi Akpoti	Climate Change	Issues related to the land suitability modeling, especially rice crop suitability mapping in Inland valleys in West Africa under current and future climate conditions
	Ismael Issifou	Forced displacement group	Development Economics (international migration, natural resources, civil conflicts, governance and institutions)