Sports Ministry announces 'Gamal Abdel Nasser Leadership Fellowship'

CAIRO - 8 May 2019: The Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports (Central Administration of the Parliament and Civic Education - African Youth Bureau) announced the “Nasser Fellowship for African Leadership” to be held during the period from June 8 to 22, in Cairo, according to a Wednesday press release by the ministry.

The Fellowship targets 100 young bright leaders from the African Union member States, as Decision-makers in the Government Sector, Executive Leaders in the Private Sector - Civil Society Activists - Heads of National Councils for Youth - Faculty members at Universities - Researchers in Strategic Research Centers - Members of Trade Unions - Journalists and Media Professionals.

Based on the results of the second African Youth Forum, held in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, from 24 to 26 April 2019, to invest in African youth, the Nasser Fellowship is one of the mechanisms to implement the Million by 2021 initiative, launched to empower and develop young people in Africa by building the capacities of one million young Africans in the areas of education, employment, entrepreneurship and participation by 2021, same objective that the Nasser Fellowship strives to achieve in the educational sector.

The aim of the Fellowship is to transfer the long-established Egyptian experience in national institution-building and to create a new generation of young African transformational leadership whose vision is in line with the orientations of Egypt's presidency of the African Union, and which is committed to serving the objectives of African unity through integration in a changing world.

This is implemented within the framework of the keenness of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, chaired by Dr. Ashraf Sobhi, to play its mandated role in strengthening the role of African youth through providing them with all forms of support, rehabilitation and training, as well as empowering them in leadership positions and benefiting from their abilities and ideas, in implementation of what was endorsed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during the World Youth Forum, as well as his resolution regarding 2019 to be the year of education.

The selection criteria of participants:

1. The applicant must be a non-Egyptian African and non-resident in Egypt.
2. Passport valid for 6 months after the end of the Fellowship.
3. English speaking proficiency (Speaking, Reading and Writing).
4. The applicant must have experience in field work.
5.The applicant shall have the nationality of an African Union country or African Diaspora.

According to the press release, the Nasser Fellowship is the first (African-African) fellowship to target young African executive leaders with diverse operational disciplines within their communities, as well as one of the critical mechanisms of empowerment of the African transformational leadership endorsed by the African Union’s Agenda (in text) in order to stimulate and promote African values through self-reliance, solidarity, hard work, collective prosperity, building on the African successes, experiences and best practices for the formulation of the African model of transformation and development.

The Fellowship is also one of the mechanisms of "harnessing the demographic dividend through investment in youth" in conjunction with the assumption by Egypt of the presidency of the African Union in 2019.