Application Deadline: 6th August
When is the Acumen West Africa Fellowship?
The next West Africa Fellowship runs from January 2021 to December 2021.
What is the Acumen West Africa Fellowship?
Practical skills meet moral imagination in this intensive year-long leadership development program designed to equip extraordinary individuals with the tools, mindset, and community to tackle poverty and injustice in their communities.
The West Africa Fellowship will bring together entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and organization-builders from both the public and private sectors who are modeling leadership, and who are hungry to do more.
Year 1
- Join a diverse cohort of social change leaders in a rigorous year-long experience
- Improve your capacity to innovate and drive change with a mix of in-person and online seminars
- Part-time — you stay in your job while participating in four 5-day seminar in various locations across West Africa.
Beyond Year 1
- Be a part of a lifelong fellowship that extends beyond your first year
- Join a larger local and global community committed to a world beyond poverty and injustice
INFORMATION SESSIONS
Virtual Info Session with West Africa Fellows - 10 July
What makes a fellow?
Our fellows are extraordinary leaders who dare to embrace the difficult journey of social change. Here’s what we want from you—and what you can expect from your cohort.
- Entrepreneurs: Leaders of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations providing critical goods or services to the underserved.
- Intrapreneurs: Builders from any sector tackling poverty and injustice from within by shifting the institutional culture—and building new collaborations.
- Organizational Builders: Leaders (other than the Founder or CEO) supporting the growth of institutions combating poverty and injustice
What will you learn?
The Fellowship curriculum is centered around the principles of moral leadership:
- Adaptive Leadership: Based on Ron Heifetz’s work, Adaptive Leadership is a practical leadership framework that supports Fellows’ ability to catalyse and embrace the gradual and meaningful process of creating change.
- Authentic Voice: Grounded in Marshall Ganz’s life's work, the Authentic Voice curriculum allows the Fellows to develop the capacity to articulate a hopeful vision, speak across lines of difference, and move others into action.
- Good Society Readings: Modeled off The Aspen Institute, the Good Society Readings explore the meaning of a just society, and the moral and historical foundation of social change through text based dialogue
- Managing Polarities: Based on Barry Johnson’s work, Polarities aims to cultivate an individual’s ability to lead effectively when opposing but interdependent and equally important values are in tension.
- Systems Thinking: Fellows explore the concept of Systems Thinking by working collaboratively on live challenges—enabling them to better understand larger, systemic problems and design more effective interventions.
How to Apply:
Application process consists of the following steps.
Step 1: Leave us your information here and be the first to know when applications open
Step 2: Apply online - Applications open 1 July and closes 6 August
Step 3: Complete Stage 2 application between 7 Sept and 24 Sept
Step 4: Attend an in-person Selection Conference in mid-November
Step 5: Fellows are announced in January 2021
When will you find out?
- Our Fellows are selected in early December
- Fellows are announced in January 2021
