Duty Station: Addis-Ababa
Post Title: Mo Ibrahim Leadership Fellowship
Application Period: 22 September 2025 to 20 November 2025
Deadline for Application: 20 November 2025, 11:59 p.m. (23:59) Addis Ababa time (GMT +3)
Any applications received after this deadline will not be reviewed; no exceptions will be made.
Please plan to submit your application in advance to account for any technical difficulties you
may experience.
Duration of Assignment/Conditions: This Fellowship is awarded for a period of 12 months.
The Ibrahim Leadership Fellowships were established in 2011 to identify and mentor the future generation of outstanding African leaders. Each year three Fellows have an opportunity to work in the executive offices of the AfDB (Abidjan), ECA (Addis Ababa) or the ITC (Geneva), with a stipend of $100,000.
During their 12-month programmes, Fellows gain both technical and leadership skills, while contributing directly to research and policy design. A special feature of the programme is the opportunity to benefit from the direct mentorship of the heads of the host organisations.
Fellows also become members of the Now Generation Network (NGN), through which they continue to contribute their skills and insights to building a better Africa.
The Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) mission is to deliver ideas and actions for an
empowered and transformed Africa; informed by the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.
The mission will be guided by ECA’s five new strategic directions which are: Advancing ECA’s
position as a premier knowledge institution that builds on its unique position and privilege to
bring global solutions to the continent’s problems and take a local solution to the continent;
developing macroeconomic and structural policy options to accelerate economic diversification
and job creation; designing and implementing innovative financing models for infrastructure,
and for human, physical and social assets for a transforming Africa; contributing solutions to
regional and transboundary challenges, with a focus on peace security and social inclusion as
an important development nexus; advocating Africa’s position at the global level and
developing regional responses as a contribution to global governance issues.
As part of its programme to support member States, ECA is partnering with the Mo Ibrahim
Foundation to promote leadership development through a practical and on-the-job fellowship.
The programme is aimed at enabling young African professionals to develop leadership
capacity in a large institution, gain knowledge of the functioning of the United Nations, have
better understanding of Africa’s socio-economic challenges and contribute to the analytical,
advocacy and policy advisory work of the Commission.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation (the “Foundation”) is financing this Fellowship position in the
ECA. The Fellow will perform the duties and responsibilities of the position at the headquarters
of ECA in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Mo Ibrahim Leadership Fellowship Programme is a selective Fellowship that prepares the
next generation of outstanding African leaders by providing them with unique work opportunities at the most senior level of prominent African institutions or multilateral organizations, whose mandate is to improve the economic and social prospects of Africa.
The Fellowship allows talented individualsto increase and enhance their professional capacity, with
the intention of contributing to the governance and development of their countries, thereby
creating a pipeline of future African leaders.
The Foundation Fellow will be mentored by the Executive Secretary of ECA and/or a
designated Representative in the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES). With this guidance,
the Fellow will work on the design and implementation of strategic assignments in support of
the ECA’s mandate of contributing to the governance and development of member States.
As part of his/her general responsibilities, the Fellow will be expected to:
• Advise on and develop strategic initiatives to advance ECA’s mission and objectives.
• Support the programmatic and administrative functions of OES.
• Plan, develop, and implement strategies for promoting regional integration.
• Conceive, develop, and promote innovations in ECA’s development policies,
including helping Africa to meet its special needs.
• Review activity reports and financial statements to determine progress and status in
attaining objectives and revise objectives and plans in accordance with current
conditions.
• Undertake other duties as assigned.
• The Fellowship is for young female and male professionals, mid-career and executives
alike who are nationals of ECA member States, residing anywhere in the world;
• Applicants must be under the age of forty (40) on the date of application deadline (20
November 2025);
o Consideration will, however, be given to women under the age of forty-Five (45)
with children on the date of the application deadline.
• Applicants must not be employees of the United Nations Secretariat/ ECA.
Applicants should have at least 7 years of relevant work experience and must be able to demonstrate competency in professionalism, teamwork, client orientation, planning and organizing and leadership potential.
Applicants must also have proven:
• Experience in strategic planning and execution.
• Knowledge of negotiating and change management.
• Enhanced skills in examining and re-engineering operations and procedures.
• Experience in formulating policy and developing and implementing new strategies
and procedures.
• Ability to communicate and interact with officials at all levels of government and to
work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community.
• Experience in research/analytical work in a socioeconomic related area.
• Ability to work in teams and simultaneously on several assignments.
• Experience in working on African issues is an advantage.
• This position is NOT a regular position of the United Nations Secretariat/ ECA. The
Fellow will work with the ECA for a period not exceeding twelve (12) months and the
Foundation will finance an annual stipend which will be paid monthly by ECA.
• The selected Fellow will receive a Letter of Award from the ECA before
commencement of service.
• All expenses related to the Fellow’s official mission travel, including travel insurance
will be provided by ECA.
• The Fellow will cover his/her own medical insurance, child education and retirement
plan arrangements for the period he/she will be working at ECA.
• The Foundation will invite the Fellow to participate in its annual Forum.
• The travel costs for the assumption of duty and repatriation at the end of the
appointment will be borne and paid out of the funds provided by the Foundation.
The application consists of four main elements, listed below, all of which are mandatory for an
application to be considered complete. Candidates must submit their applications via email, containing the following documents as PDF attachments (any other document/ attachment
types will not be accepted). Large documents may be combined/ compressed into a zip file (.zip)
if necessary. Please do NOT use any other file compression formats (e.g. RAR).
a. UN Administrative Profile (AP)* in PDF format, including a cover letter within the AP (to be submitted as an attachment to email submission)
o Applicants will be evaluated primarily based on the information contained in their APs. Therefore, applicants are advised to thoroughly complete the AP and their description of their education, training, language proficiency and work experience, as well as the cover letter within the AP document.
o *The UN Personal History Profile (AP) can be created at: https://inspira.un.org.
o Applicants should refer to pages 7-10 of this document, which contains detailed step-by-step instructions about how to create an AP within the Inspira system and generate a PDF of the document that must be attached to your email submission.
o There is no Job Opening for this Fellowship within the Inspira system. The instructions referenced above detail how applicants can create a draft AP (not tied to any published Job Opening) within Inspira and save the draft AP as a PDF for inclusion as an attachment to the applicant’s email submission.
o ECA does NOT have an ability to retrieve draft/ created APs from Inspira; thus, email submissions that do not contain a complete AP as a PDF attachment will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed.
o A blank sample AP is included for reference in pages 11-13 of this document. Your AP should look similar (except with all of the relevant information/ fields filled in) after following the steps outlined on pages 7-10.
o The cover/motivation letter is created as part of the online AP creation process in Inspira and will be visible on Page 1 of the AP PDF under the heading “Cover Letter/Motivation Statement for this Application” (refer to Page 11 of this document for an example).
o If after reviewing the information above, you are still unable to generate the AP in
the indicated PDF format, you may email kassahunb@un.org for technical support.
Please plan your time and attempt to create the draft AP well in advance so that you
have sufficient time to seek technical support, if needed.
b. Copies of academic degree certificates for all relevant degrees
o Applicants should include scanned copies of any/ all master’s degrees, as well as doctorate/ terminal degrees.
o Copies of academic certificates that are NOT degrees, and copies of high school diplomas/ transcripts are NOT required.
o Since a master’s degree is the minimum degree required, submission of documentation related to first level (e.g., baccalaureate) degrees is not required.
c. Three (3) letters of reference/recommendation
o Letters of recommendation should be addressed to the “2026 ECA Mo Ibrahim Leadership Fellow Selection Committee”.
o Letters of recommendation from referees should be sent from referees directly to applicants. Applicants are to include the letters of recommendation in their email submission to ECA which contains all required documents in PDF format (AP, copies of degrees, and recommendation letters).
o Letters of recommendation sent directly from referees to ECA (letters not transmitted
via the applicant) will NOT be considered and applications submitted by applicants
that lack all three letters of recommendation will be considered incomplete and will
not be further reviewed.
d. Complete our online survey: >>Click here.
o Applicants MUST complete the online survey before submitting your application.
o Once the applicant has completed the online survey, please take the screenshot showing that your responses have been sent in PDF format.
o The applicant’s responses will be held in strict confidentiality and will be used for
internal purposes only.
• Late submissions will not be considered under any circumstances. Please plan to submit your application well before the deadline to account for any technical challenges that may be encountered.
• Incomplete submissions will not be considered under any circumstances. Applicants are required to submit ALL required application documents in the indicated PDF format (AP, copies of degrees, and recommendation letters) at one time and in one email. In case multiple submissions are received by the same applicant, only the most recent submission will be reviewed/ considered.
• Due to an anticipated high volume of applicants, only finalists will be contacted, and no
feedback will be given to unsuccessful applicants.
• An update will be posted to: https://www.uneca.org/about/fellowship once the selection process for the 2026 Mo Ibrahim Leadership Fellowship has concluded.
• Received applications will be acknowledged within one week of receipt.
THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS. (APPLICATION INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, TRAINING OR ANY OTHER FEES). THE UNITEDNATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON BANK ACCOUNTS.
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