2016/2017 EASST Visiting Scholar Fellowship Program for East Africans for East African Social Scientists to study in the USA.

Application Deadline: Thursday, March 31, 2016, at 11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time.

The EASST Visiting Fellowship seeks to equip East African social scientists with the skills needed to carry out rigorous evaluations of economic development programs. During a four-month fellowship, researchers will be based at the University of California Berkeley , or other CEGA campuses. Fellows may visit either during the Fall semester (approximately August 20 – December 20, 2016) or the Spring semester (approximately. January 20 – May 20, 2017).

Each fellow will be paired with a faculty mentor affiliated with the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), a research network based in the United States. A list of CEGA faculty affiliates is available online at http://cega.berkeley.edu/faculty/.

Eligibility

Eligible candidates for all EASST programs must:

• Be a resident of an EASST country: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, or Uganda;
• Have a PhD or Master’s degree (completed within the last 8 years) or be enrolled in a graduate program in economics, statistics, epidemiology/public health, or another social science discipline;
• Hold a staff position at a research institution, university or other organization in East Africa, preferably one that supports policy-relevant, quantitative social science research;
• Have participated in or have familiarity with impact evaluation research (either randomized or quasi-experimental studies);
• Have participated in field-based data collection and rigorous empirical research/analysis;
• Be computer literate, fluent in English, and a strong public speaker;
• Plan to return to a research institute in East Africa for at least 1 year after the fellowship.

Selection Criteria

Successful candidates must:

• Demonstrate strong analytic skills, with past coursework in economics or statistics.
• Demonstrate an interest in rigorous program evaluation, policy analysis, and micro-level field data collection.
• Demonstrate a commitment to building the capacity of African research institutions/universities.
• Submit a clear and innovative research proposal to evaluate a specific public policy or program, using randomized controlled trial or quasi-experimental methodologies.
• Past fellows have worked in such fields as agriculture and resource economics, education, health, technology, inequality and finance.
• Strong preference will be given to researchers working in the field of women’s economic empowerment.

Female applicants are strongly encouraged to apply. Preference will be assigned to fellows who have already completed a doctoral degree (PhD) in a relevant field of study.

Benefits:

• The fellowship program will cover room and board, health insurance, monthly stipend, visa fees, and roundtrip economy air travel for the selected fellow.
• CEGA staff will provide mentorship not only throughout the semester, but also once the scholar returns home. Please note that the fellowship does NOT include financial provisions or support for any additional family members or spouses.
• Small grants of up to $10,000 will be provided to fellows who return to their home institution, to hold trainings in impact evaluation, build institutional capacity, or to forge new linkages with government policymakers.

Research Proposal

Applicants must submit a research proposal of no more than 2 pages along with their fellowship application.

Your research proposal should lay the groundwork for a full research project. However, in contrast to a complete grant application—which requires strong partnership with implementing organizations, detailed outcome measures, and a field research plan—the design idea can be at earlier stages of development.

Proposed designs should be quantitative in nature or should use mixed methods (i.e., a mix of quantitative and qualitative data collection). While the evaluation questions should be very clear, the 2-page design statement is not expected to fully elaborate on the evaluation’s implementation.

The design statement must not exceed two pages and must include the following seven sections (do not leave any section blank):

• Problem statement
• Contribution to learning
• Description of program(s)
• Target population
• Evaluation Design
• Policy Relevance
• Other Funding Sources

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the EASST Visiting Scholar Fellowship Program