Overview of the Transformation Fellowship
The ACET Transformation Fellowship program is a unique initiative that aims to build a dedicated “corps” of transformation leaders who can advance Africa’s economic transformation agenda. The program provides fully funded Fellowships to talented and motivated young professionals with a strong interest in Africa’s economic development issues and solutions.
The program offers different tracks of specialization, depending on the Fellows’ interests and qualifications. Each track focuses on a key aspect of economic transformation, such as structural change, productivity, gender, resilience, recovery, and evidence-based policymaking. The Fellows support the work of ACET and its partners. They also contribute to cutting-edge research, analysis, dialogue, collaboration, and advocacy that can shape the future of Africa.
The ACET Transformation Fellowship program is more than just a job opportunity. Successful candidates join a dynamic team of experts and practitioners who are passionate about Africa’s economic transformation and gain valuable experience and exposure to some of the continent’s most pressing economic development challenges and opportunities.
Key Contacts
Current Transformation Fellows
Hellen Tamanda Sakala
ACET Transformation Fellowship
Country Economic Transformation Outlook (CETO)
The CETO Fellowship focuses on supporting COVID-19 recovery strategies programs in Africa. The Fellow work helps deepen the economic transformation agenda at the country level by conducting a comprehensive diagnostic of a country’s transformation progress and challenges and offering country-specific policy advice to public and non-public actors. Their work programs also align with engaging country governments, national think tanks, and other relevant key stakeholders to create continuity in policy dialogue and effective uptake in national development plans.
Hellen Tamada Sakalla works under this program in Zambia.
Habtamu Tesfaye Edjigu
ACET Transformation Fellowship
Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG)
The STEG Fellows research program focuses on primary sectoral drivers of transformation to better understand structural change, productivity, and growth in low- and middle-income countries. These may include industrialization (particularly the impact of SMEs and the role of sustainable export zones), agriculture (particularly agro-processing, climate change, demographics and skills, innovation, regional integration, land tenure, and the role of smallholder farmers), and creating markets for employment and skills, manufacturing, extractives, and resource mobilization.
Theophiline Bose-Duker
ACET Transformation Fellowship
Gender
Transformation Fellows support the work of ACET while building capacity and networks for young development practitioners. They contribute to research, analysis, dialogue, collaboration, and advocacy to further the economic transformation agenda. At the same time, they expand their own understanding of development issues facing Africa and help craft solutions to some of the continent’s biggest challenges. To date, only 15% of our Fellows have been female. ACET believes that with a gender intentional approach, we can increase the number of African female economists that apply for the ACET Transformation Fellows program. With the support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we want to design and deploy a targeted effort to reach and bring early career female economists into the program.
ACET Transformation Fellowship Alumni
Frank Adu
ACET Transformation Fellowship Alumnus
COVID-19
During his work at the Ministry of Finance, Policy Coordination unit, he produced two significant research papers on digital taxation and “Ghana’s Financial Sector Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Policies, Impacts, Lessons, and Way Forward.”
He also spearheaded projects with significant national impact, including technical assistance in drafting and approving Ghana’s Medium Term Revenue Strategy, a crucial requirement for the IMF program.
Yohannis Mulu Tessema
ACET Transformation Fellowship Alumnus
Youth Employment and Skills
As an ACET Transformation Fellow in 2018, Yohannis Tessema supported ACET’s broader economic modelling work, primarily focusing on the African Transformation Index.
Mohamed Traoré
ACET Transformation Fellowship Alumnus
Economic Management and Governance
As ACET Transformation Fellow from 2020 to 2022, Mohamed supported the drafting of six country studies and two global reports for the Beyond Zero Harm project. The project was funded by IDRC, and undertaken in collaboration with the World University Services of Canada (WUSC).
Rianna Owusu
ACET Transformation Fellowship Alumnus
Youth Employment and Skills
As an ACET Transformation Fellow from 2019 through 2022, Rianna Owusu coordinated data collection, wrote reports, and convened stakeholders for the YES program. She helped draft and synthesize the multi-country study reports on Strengthening and Learning Systems to Deliver a 4IR-ready work force. She currently works with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ( FCDO) UK as an Economic Strategy Advisor.
Sanogo Tiangboho
ACET Transformation Fellowship Alumnus
Youth Employment and Skills
Sianogo Tiangboho was a resident ACET Transformation Fellow in 2019, where he supported programs on Youth Employment and Skills and Private Sector Development. After his Fellowship in 2020, he served as the task manager for the G20 Compact with Africa peer learning event organized by ACET in Abidjan in September 2019. He joined the World Bank as a country economist for Cote d’Ivoire in early 2020.
Current Openings
Latest News from our Transformation Fellows
Our Partners
CEoG Fellowship
STEG Fellowship
COVID-19 Fellowship
Commentary
Harnessing technology to improve Africa’s productivity and economic transformation
Better contemporary research is needed at the Africa-firm level and from a country-level policy perspective on the causality between technology and productivity.
4IR Productivity increases Technology upgrading Transformation Fellowships