Irish Aid review endorses fellowships
Programme extends to Sierra Leone and South Africa
A review of the Irish Aid programme has given a strong endorsement to the value of study fellowships, recommending that this area be ‘substantially’ expanded in pursuit of Ireland’s overall development goals.
The Irish Aid Fellowships Programme will be substantially expanded, and will continue to strengthen institutions by helping students from developing countries to undertake postgraduate studies at colleges and universities in Ireland, as well as in their own region. A new stream of fellowships focussed on more vocational and labour market skills will be developed.
- One World, One Future: Ireland's Policy for International Development (p32)
Two recent initiatives have already begun to steer a course in this direction.
Firstly, a new fellowship programme has been introduced for South Africa - The Kader Asmal Fellowship - with two awardees now in Ireland for the pilot year.
Secondly, an additional ‘technical’ strand has been added to the IDEAS Fellowship for Vietnam, which resulted in five awardees arriving for 2013-14.
With the number of successful candidates through the Fellowship Training Programme also increasing this year, Irish Aid scholarships for Masters’ level study in Ireland rose by more than a third overall - to 65 awardees.
Another notable development is the extension of the Fellowship Training Programme to Sierra Leone, which becomes one of Ireland’s ‘key partner countries’ following the review. Applications recently opened in the west African country and the first arrivals are expected in Ireland as part of the 2014-15 intake.
See p3 for more on the new policy document for Ireland’s international development progamme, ‘One World, One Future’.