United Nations African Policy Innovation Fellowship 2025: Fully Funded Opportunity for Africa’s Emerging Policymakers

In response to the decision for motion voiced in resolutions A/75/917 and A/77/644, the United Nations is poised to launch a groundbreaking initiative: the United Nations African Policy Innovation Fellowship. This initiative goals to handle the structural inequalities that affect Africa’s improvement trajectory, as outlined within the stories of the Secretary-General.

During its evaluation of United Nations assist for Agenda 2063, the Committee for Programme and Coordination underscored the need of initiatives geared toward enhancing institutional capacities in coverage evaluation, design, and monitoring. The Fellowship program aligns instantly with this mandate, providing junior to mid-level African coverage makers alternatives to strengthen these abilities. By bridging the hole between coverage formulation and implementation on the nationwide degree, this program seeks to contribute to sustainable improvement and peacebuilding in Africa.

The United Nations African Policy Innovation Fellowship seeks to foster a era of policymakers who’re well-versed in coverage evaluation and implementation and deeply dedicated to advancing the values of inclusivity, transparency, and accountability. Through collaborative studying, mentorship, and publicity to international finest practices, the Fellowship goals to domesticate a cadre of African policymakers who will champion sustainable improvement and peacebuilding efforts of their respective international locations and past. This imaginative and prescient is rooted within the perception that investing in Africa’s human capital sows the seeds for a extra affluent and equitable tomorrow.

Through a structured, multi-phase mannequin, the fellowship permits junior and mid-level authorities officers to develop and implement data-driven, contextually grounded coverage options aligned with nationwide priorities. Oversight of administrative and coordination points will probably be performed by the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA), aligning with its mandate to handle the basis causes of improvement and peace challenges on the continent, aligned with the Secretary General’s 6 transitions:

• Food techniques
• Energy entry and affordability
• Digital connectivity
• Education
• Jobs and social safety
• Climate change, biodiversity loss, and air pollution

Structure: The fellowship employs a structured, three-phase programme that mixes conceptual coaching, coverage design, and utilized implementation assist. It goals to equip collaborating policymakers with the analytical and operational capacities to design data-driven, fiscally grounded, and context-responsive coverage interventions aligned with nationwide improvement priorities and institutional mandates. Fellows are anticipated to finish the programme in its entirety, submitting all required paperwork for every of the three phases, and failure to take action could consequence within the termination of the fellowship.

• Phase 1 – Conceptualization: 
  • Fellows start the programme with a studying part that focuses on conceptual readability, diagnostic evaluation, and coverage design fundamentals.
  • Fellows refine their mission proposals into actionable coverage frameworks grounded in nationwide knowledge techniques and institutional realities.
  • Interactive classes will probably be delivered by UN coverage specialists, improvement economists, and knowledge specialists, with an emphasis on utilizing administrative knowledge and nationwide statistics for decision-making.
  • Fellows obtain tailor-made mentorship on aligning their proposals with nationwide planning frameworks and sectoral methods.
  • The output of this part will probably be a conceptual framework doc and knowledge stock to assist additional analysis and evaluation.

• Phase 2 – Policy Innovation Development:
  • Fellows will deepen their understanding of how worldwide norms, financing devices, and cooperation frameworks interface with home policymaking.
  • Fellows are positioned inside a bunch UN entity aligned with their proposed coverage innovation (linked to one of many UN Secretary-General’s Six Transitions).
  • They take part in intergovernmental and interagency coverage dialogues, contributing African views to international conversations whereas refining their interventions in actual time.
  • Fellows obtain technical assist to strengthen the fiscal and institutional feasibility of their tasks, together with methodologies for integrating DRM methods and local weather finance or leveraging SDG-aligned budgeting.
  • The output of this part will probably be a accomplished coverage paper outlining the coverage innovation method being proposed.

• Phase 3 – Preparation for the programmatic implementation:
  • Fellows focus on making ready for the implementation of their mission inside their nationwide establishments.
  • They will interact with related ministries and stakeholders to evaluate institutional match, political feasibility, and financing pathways.
  • They will refine implementation plans and conduct preliminary threat and stakeholder analyses.
  • Fellows formally current their coverage frameworks to nationwide authorities for suggestions and alignment with ongoing nationwide improvement plans and UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks.
  • The output of this part will probably be a accomplished implementation technique containing a powerful funding part.

• Following the six-month core fellowship:
  • Fellows reintegrate into their public sector establishments with the target of pursuing the implementation of their mission utilizing the outputs of the earlier phases.
  • OSAA will keep structured follow-ups and technical assist, facilitating entry to UN system capacities and catalytic partnerships.
  • Formal monitoring will probably be performed yearly to evaluate progress, seize classes realized, and feed into coverage dialogue at nationwide and regional ranges.

Fellowship Application Process: Prospective fellows should submit a mission proposal as part of a aggressive choice course of. Proposals shall deal with a national-level coverage problem associated to one of many six transitions. The proposal ought to:

• Incorporate an information stock outlining obtainable sources and knowledge gaps.
• Demonstrate how nationwide knowledge will probably be leveraged to develop an actionable coverage framework.
• Include a powerful financing part linked to home useful resource mobilization, fiscal coverage coherence, or revolutionary financing mechanisms (e.g., carbon markets, remittances, SDG-aligned bonds).
• Proposals have to be submitted utilizing the template supplied – submissions in another format is not going to be thought of.

Eligibility Requirements: Please seek advice from the Fellowship Terms of Reference for the total particulars on eligibility necessities.

• Applicants are anticipated to be present junior to mid-level civil servants of their home international locations engaged in key ministries similar to finance and planning, power, agriculture, training, and homeland safety.
• Applicants will need to have demonstrated work expertise in analysis/analytical work in socio-economic and political improvement, commerce and funding, pure useful resource administration/legislation, regional integration, infrastructure improvement, together with transportation, logistics, power, governance, peace, and associated areas within the context of Africa.
• The fellowship programme is concentrated on coverage analysis and evaluation. Thus, candidates are anticipated to have sturdy analytical, analysis, knowledge, communication, and interpersonal abilities.
• Applicants will need to have a complicated college diploma (Master’s or doctorate, or their equivalents) linked to the realm of specialization contained of their mission proposals. A primary-level college diploma together with two years of related work expertise could also be thought of in lieu of a complicated diploma.
• The most age restrict is 40 years on the time of application.
• Applicants should submit a supervisor’s endorsement letter confirming assist and releasing the man for the in-person part (see the pattern letter on this web page).
• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. Fluency in both language is required for the fellowship, and dealing information of the opposite is a bonus.

Logistical Information:

• Subject to passable completion of the preliminary part of the Fellowship and the issuance of an applicable visa by the host nation, an in-person part at UN Headquarters in New York is foreseen.
• During this part, Fellows will probably be supported with a return air ticket, a month-to-month stipend, and medical cowl, topic to UN laws.
• Note that the stipend is meant to assist fellows in overlaying the prices of lodging, board and different necessities and isn’t supposed as a wage or honorarium, or to assist fellows’ bills of their home international locations.
• Payment of the ultimate month-to-month stipend is topic to the submission of all required paperwork for this part of the fellowship.

Important consideration and How to Apply: 

The 2025 Fellowship application interval is open and closes at midnight New York time on 20 June 2025. Submissions after this time is not going to be thought of.

Please familiarize your self with the knowledge under earlier than submitting your application. The choice course of could embrace a competency-based interview and a written evaluation.

• The 2025 version will run from July to December 2025, and fellows might want to be sure that they will take part in your complete programme:
  • July: Online digital conceptualisation part from the man’s home nation.
  • August-October: Policy improvement part in-person at UN HQ New York.
  • November-December: Implementation preparation part in collaboration with the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office within the fellow’s home nation.
• Please submit your application, consisting of the next paperwork through the application type on the highest proper of this web page:
  •  A one-page resume (curriculum vitae)
  • The signed supervisor’s endorsement letter
  • Your accomplished mission proposal

Contact: All queries relating to the fellowship may be submitted to: osaa-fellowship@un.org

More data right here

Disclaimer: The Fellowship programme is topic to funding availability, budgetary approval, or extension of the mandate. The format, length and variety of annual fellows could also be adjusted topic to funding availability.