2022 Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships – Fully Funded: (Deadline 15 October 2021)

Application call for 2022 Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships – Fully Funded. The fellowship is open to all nationalities and the deadline is 15th October 2021.

The mission is guided by ECA’s five new strategic directions which are: advancing ECA’s position as a premier knowledge institution that builds on its unique position and privilege to bring global solutions to the continent’s problems and take the local solutions to the continent; developing macroeconomic and structural policy options to accelerate economic diversification and job creation; designing and implementing innovative financing models for infrastructure, and for human, physical and social assets for a transforming Africa; contributing solutions to regional and transboundary challenges, with a focus on peace security and social inclusion as an important development nexus; advocating Africa’s position at the global level and developing regional responses as a contribution to global governance issues.

As part of its program to support member States, ECA is partnering with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to promote leadership development through a practical and on–the–job fellowship. The program is aimed at enabling young African professionals to develop leadership capacity in a large institution, gain knowledge of the functioning of the United Nations, have a better understanding of Africa’s socio–economic challenges and contribute to the analytical, advocacy and policy advisory work of the Commission. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation (the “Foundation”), is financing this Fellowship position in the ECA. The Fellow will perform the duties and responsibilities of the position at the headquarters of ECA in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Benefits of 2022 Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships

• This position is NOT a regular position of the United Nations Secretariat/ ECA. The Fellow will work with the ECA for a period not exceeding twelve (12) months and the Foundation will finance an annual stipend which will be paid monthly by the ECA
• All expenses related to the Fellow’s official mission travel, including travel insurance will be met by the ECA
• The Foundation will invite the Fellow to participate in its annual Forum
• The travel costs for the assumption of duty and repatriation at the end of the appointment will be borne and paid out of the funds provided by the Foundation.

Eligibility for 2022 Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships – Fully Funded

• The Fellowship is for young female and male professionals, mid–career and executives alike who are nationals of ECA member States, residing anywhere in the world;
• Applicants must be under the age of Forty (40) years old on the date of the application deadline (15 October 2021); 
  • Consideration will, however, be given to women under the age of Forty–Five (45) years old with children on the date of the application deadline;
• Applicants must not be employees of the United Nations Secretariat/ ECA.
• Applicants should have at least 7 years of relevant work experience and must be able to demonstrate competency in professionalism, teamwork, client orientation, planning and organizing and leadership potential.
• Experience in strategic planning and execution;
• Knowledge of negotiating and change management; 
• Enhanced skills in examining and re–engineering operations and procedures;
• Experience in formulating policy, and developing and implementing new strategies and procedures;
• Ability to communicate and interact with officials at all levels of government and to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community; 
• Experience in research/analytical work in a socioeconomic related area;
• Experience with working on African issues is an advantage.
• Ability to work in teams and simultaneously on several assignments.
• Applicants must hold at least a Master’s Degree or higher in Economics, Social Sciences, International Development, Business Administration, Law, Finance, Engineering, or any discipline relevant to the work of ECA.
• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this, fluency in either English or French is required. Working knowledge of the other language is an advantage.
• Sound knowledge of the Internet and basic software for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations is required.

Application Procedure of 2022 Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships

• UN Personal History Profile (PHP) in PDF format, including a cover letter within the PHP (to be submitted as an attachment to email submission) 
  • Applicants will be evaluated primarily based on the information contained in their PHPs.
    Therefore, applicants are advised to thoroughly complete the PHP and their descriptions of their education, training, language proficiency and work experience, as well as the cover letter within the PHP document;
  • The UN Personal History Profile (PHP) can be created at: https://inspira.un.org
  • Applicants should refer to Pages 6–10 of the document of the Apply Now link, which contains detailed step–by–step instructions about how to create a PHP within the Inspira system and generate a PDF of the document that must be attached to your email submission;
  • There is no Job Opening for this Fellowship within the Inspira system. The instructions referenced above detail how applicants can create a draft PHP (not tied to any published Job Opening) within Inspira, and save the draft PHP as a PDF for inclusion as an attachment to the applicant’s email submission;
  • ECA does NOT have an ability to retrieve draft/ created PHPs from Inspira; thus, email submissions that do not contain a complete PHP as a PDF attachment will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed;
  • A blank sample PHP is included for reference on Pages 11–13 of this document. Your PHP should look similar (except with all of the relevant information/ fields filled in) after following the steps outlined on Pages 6–10;
  • The cover letter is created as part of the online PHP creation process in Inspira, and will be visible on Page 1 of the PHP PDF under the heading “Cover Letter for this Application” (refer to page 11 of this document for an example);
  • If after reviewing the information above, you are still unable to generate the PHP in the indicated PDF format, you may email matthew.meyer@un.org for technical support. Please plan your time and attempt to create the draft PHP well in advance so that you have sufficient time to seek technical support if needed.
• Copies of academic degree certificates for all relevant degrees
  • Applicants should include scanned copies of any/ all master’s degrees, as well as doctorate/ terminal degrees; 
  • Copies of academic certificates that are NOT degrees, and copies of high school diplomas/transcripts are NOT required; 
  • Since a master’s degree is the minimum degree required, submission of documentation related to first–level (e.g. baccalaureate) degrees is not required.
• Three (3) letters of reference/recommendation
  • Letters of recommendation should be addressed to the “2022 ECA Mo Ibrahim Leadership Fellow Selection Committee”;
  • Letters of recommendation from referees should be sent from referees directly to applicants. Applicants are to include the letters of recommendation in their email
    submission to ECA which contains all required documents in PDF format (PHP, degrees, and recommendation letters);
  • Letters of recommendation sent directly from referees to ECA (letters not transmitted via the applicant) will NOT be considered and applications submitted by applicants that lack all three letters of recommendation will be considered incomplete and will not be further reviewed.