Applications are now open for the 2024 African Union (AU) Digital and Innovation Fellowship Program Cohort 2.
The African Union Digital and Innovation Fellowship Program is a robust 12-month program which aims to identify and deploy highly competent tech innovators from the African continent to units and organs within the African Union headquarters as ‘resident fellows’ to understand the system within those units, identify data management challenges within the systems and solve the challenges identified by co-creating and building innovative tailor-made products and processes that improve data management processes and the overall work of the AU, while ensuring the sustainability of the developed products and processes post the fellowship timeline, by strengthening the internal capacity of the AU staff within those units.
Eligibility Requirements
- Be based in Africa and must be a National of an African Union member state;
- Be under the age of 34 prior to the time of application;
- Hold a tertiary education degree or its equivalent;
- Have the capacity to gather comprehensive information on complex problems or situations, and the ability to evaluate and analyze information accurately in order to identify key issues and proffer solutions;
- Have experience and technical know-how in designing innovative technology products/solutions;
- Be available to travel to participate in an induction workshop;
- Be available and willing to dedicate 12 months. Fellows will be required to take a break from current obligations and relocate to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- Applicants who speak more than one AU official language (Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Swahili) are strongly advised to apply.
Benefits
- Participate in several capacity building training that will be facilitated by top experts from the African innovation ecosystem.
- Receive mentorship support from experienced industry experts drawn from the AfriLabs community.
- Network and benefit from several peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
- Receive monthly stipends throughout the period of the Fellowship.
- Embark on several all-expense-paid trips to ecosystem events, onboarding/offboarding, study/learning tour, etc.
- Attend a grand graduation ceremony where certificates will be awarded to fellows.
- Be recognized as a fellow/alumni of the African Union Digital and Innovation Fellowship Program.
During the Fellowship, all fellows’ travel expenses for deployment to Addis Ababa, events, learning tour, offboarding, etc. will be fully covered by the Fellowship.
- Induction Workshop: During the duration of the Fellowship, The fellows will be supported through several capacity building training beginning from an Induction Workshop.
- Virtual Pre-deployment Workshop: Before fellows are deployed to the AU departments/organs in Addis Ababa, the fellows will participate in a virtual pre-deployment workshop that will be delivered by experienced tech fellowship experts.
- Needs-based Capacity Building Training: The fellows will receive a needs-based capacity building training which will be developed to tackle the fellows needs areas that will be identified through a needs assessment of the fellows. The training will be delivered by experienced trainers drawn from the AfriLabs network.
The fellows will be taken on a learning tour at a top tech organization with experience and technical expertise in supporting brilliant tech innovators to develop technologies and innovations that solve specific challenges in government and organizational administration processes.
Application and Selection
The African Union Digital and Innovation Fellowship application is open to all eligible applicants and the selection process is completely merit-based.
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the African Union Digital and Innovation Fellowship Program