4 Things to Consider When Applying for A Fellowship

In recent times, I have been asked by mentees and colleagues on what they can do to get admitted into a  fellowship program. Consequently, I have decided to put this piece together as four things to consider, if you are trying to be part of a fellowship. I have put this together in reflection of the four fellowship program I have been selected for, in the last five years (I wrote about one of them here). Do let me know if this resonates with you, and if you find this useful in your most important work. 

Purpose match. Every fellowship has its own purpose, and that purpose should match your personal career goal. In 2014, I became a School of Data Fellow. The purpose of the fellowship was to bring activist that work around data together in one place, exchange knowledge, and after one week, go back to their country to teach civil society organizations and journalists on using data to advocate for change and creating compelling stories respectively. In 2012, when I co-created Follow The Money, all campaigns were data-driven, and also that I had led more than five training focused on the same purpose for the fellowship. You can relate this to the statement of purpose or personal statement that is always requested when applying for fellowships or scholarships. So if you are applying for that fellowship, check if your personal statement or motivation will show any significant contribution you have made to your field or your community and that such contribution matches the purpose of the fellowship.

Fellowship Target. Most fellowships have a group they are targeting. The Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program at Yale University targets mid-career professionals. This means you must have had between 7 – 10 years experience in your profession. If you have just kickstarted your career, you might need to wait a bit before applying to be part of such fellowship. In mid-2015, after seven years of experience working in the social sector, I was admitted into the Stanford University Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law Fellowship. It wouldn’t have been a good fit if I had applied 2 or 3 years before that time as they were looking for mid-career professionals. One way to know if the fellowship targets you, is to look at the profile of past fellows (Most fellowship programmes have past fellows profile on their website), and check to match it with yours.

Volunteer and Intern locally. If you are still thinking about how and where to get experiences, even if it is just a year experience, then I suggest you volunteer locally. You can use your volunteer experience to establish your purpose. Volunteering gives you that leverage to understand how the social sector works. If you are hardworking enough, and the organization you volunteer with got some extra resources – they might look at you first before recruiting external personnel. My first experience working with a UN agency in 2011, was brought about by initially volunteering with the Standby task force. Your volunteer prowess could be shown on your resume and in your personal statement. Just to add, when you volunteer your time and skill, request for a letter showing how much time, and a description of the work you put into the task you have accomplished. 

Recommendation. Keep relationships with your co-workers, mentors, mentees,  lecturers, bosses, and subordinates. At some point, you might need their recommendations in your proposal or application. Past fellows of fellowship programmes are also a plus if you can get them to recommend you. I do not like reaching out to them only when I need them to write a recommendation. I have created a circle of mentors (who are friends, partners, investors, colleagues, lecturers, bosses) who I share updates with, on my career, and next project. Once I encounter a fellowship that matches my goal, I quickly share the link of such opportunity with them, and ask for their thoughts on how useful such fellowship could be to my career, and if they will be willing to write a recommendation for me if they think it’s a good fit. At times, my mentors do send me fellowship opportunities. If you come highly recommended for a fellowship, you are highly likely to be selected.  

Finally, do not be deterred by refusals, keep trying and doing your good work. I have had more refusals than acceptance to fellowship programmes. There are other things to consider, I have only highlighted the once I feel is important, do let me know in the comment box if you have some other things to consider as a co-fellow. By the way, I found this a very useful resource, if you are considering your next fellowship.

8 Websites to find Scholarships for African Students

If you are from Subsaharan Africa, you need to explore the opportunities for studying abroad. I will say mainly to learn processes of proper education, share your knowledge and network. Afterwards, you should then come back and apply that knowledge back in your motherland. After all, Arabs and Europeans had at one point been in Africa to study at the University of Timbuktu, as affirmed in Hunwick and Boye’s “The Hidden Treasure of Timbuktu”. In this article, I will share websites that provide great resources that you can leverage on to apply for scholarships abroad. All the best as you wrangle through!

1. AuthorAid http://www.authoraid.info/en/

AuthorAID is a free pioneering global network that provides support, mentoring, resources and training for researchers in low and middle-income countries. AuthorAID supports over 19,000 researchers in low and middle-income countries to publish and communicate their work. I like this website because it doesn’t only provide opportunities, it also provides a knowledge exchange platform for students to learn about reading and writing while sharing experiences. I will recommend this website for aspiring scholars.

2. AfricaDesk http://www.africadesk.ac.uk/pages/funding/scholarship

Africa desk highlights a number of postgraduate scholarships available to African scholars to study in the UK. Some of the scholarships are offered as part of broader schemes, which are not restricted to African students, while some are specifically for African students. 

3. Afriwide Scholarships https://www.afriwidescholarships.com/

If you are looking for information on international scholarships and fellowships, this website should interest you. Developed by an African after concluding his studies in London. The website also has links to resources on preparing and writing IELTS (International English Language Testing System exams).

4. AfterSchool Africa https://www.afterschoolafrica.com/

AfterSchool Africa is a repository of internships, fellowships and scholarships that are available to African undergraduate and graduate student. I like the fact that it has stories from past users of the website that eventually got a scholarship or fellowship. I recommend that you go through some of the testimonials, so you can be properly guided on what you need to do to secure that fellowship or scholarship. Note that there is an opt-in-page on the website, to navigate just re-enter the URL and quickly click on the available tab – voila!

5. Advance Africa.com https://www.advance-africa.com/

Advance Africa provides information on graduate and undergraduate scholarships, fellowships, grants for NGOs, and volunteer opportunities in Africa.

6. Opportunities for Africans https://www.opportunitiesforafricans.com/

The Opportunities for Africans (OFA) portal hosts opportunities such as scholarships, fellowships, internships, conferences, jobs, competitions, Volunteering and other life-changing opportunities for Africans. The OFA portal was created with the aim of helping Africans achieve their potential by seizing the latest opportunities around the Globe.

7. Opportunity Desk http://www.oppdeskblog.com/

Started in 2012, Opportunity Desk provides information on scholarships, conferences, fellowships, awards, jobs, internships, and grants for individuals and organizations worldwide. The website also has documented stories and experiences of individuals and groups that have accessed such opportunities using the website. I encourage you to read those success stories, as they will be helpful in your journey.

8. Scholarships for Development http://www.scholars4dev.com/

Scholars4dev, short for Scholarships for Development, is an updated listing of international scholarships specifically for people from developing countries, people who would like to pursue development-related fields, and people who seek global and national development through further education. I like this website because the opportunities had been categorized by countries. For example, if you are looking for an opportunity in Germany, you can just click on Germany tab. Opportunities are also categorized by level of study, a field of study and by the deadline.

In addition, you should find Rachel Strohm website useful https://rachelstrohm.com/scholarships/ and do add to the comment box if you know of some other interesting websites that provide information on scholarships for African students

The WhatsApp Generation

[This post is an excerpt from Accountability Technologies, my recently published handbook]

In the second quarter of 2018, popular messaging application WhatsApp achieved 450 million daily active users and it is becoming a favourite technology tool to mobilize citizens and form groups across borders. In 2017, all activists I interviewed in West Africa, for the handbook on Accountability Technologies confirmed that this is becoming a great new tool to mobilize citizens. However, it can be daunting getting citizens and government on the same platform as alluded by Abdul from Network Movement for Democracy and Human Right (NMDH) in Sierra Leone. On NMDH community service delivery project, they added government and Civil Society Organization (CSO) members to a WhatsApp group to exchange information on what concerned government officials can quickly respond to, as it regards service delivery in the health sector. After sometimes, the government officials on the platform had to leave because of false information shared.

Before the 2015 elections in Nigeria, I was able to coordinate 879 election observers in 26 states of the country using WhatsApp as one of the reporting tools for our Ushahidi platform. The WhatsApp group were created for the 26 states, while coordinators were chosen to lead the administration of each group. Police Monitor, an initiative of the Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN) uses its WhatsApp group to mobilize journalists and activists to hold the police in Nigeria accountable for human rights abuses. The WhatsApp group also had police officials who responded to these abuses. The initiative has since moved to Telegram, as WhatsApp could not contain its over 250+ members. In 2016, when CODE’s Follow The Money was initiating the decentralization of its campaigns, it piloted communications with members using WhatsApp. A group was created by regions for members. After piloting this for 4 months, it became chaotic, as knowledge was lost, and new members couldn’t have access to initiate conversations. The WhatsApp groups have been closed, while the architecture has been transferred to a niche network.

Creating groups on WhatsApp can be frustrating for the administrators, but these simple steps could make it easy to use to meet your objectives. Just in case you have more tips, feel free to put them in the comment box.

  1. Know the objective of setting up the groups and write down your rules of engagement on the team based on this goal. It is essential to think through what you will achieve with your group, to reduce distractions.
  2. Create a Code of Conduct. This can be used as a binding agreement between intending members and your organization. CODE’s Follow The Money has a Code of conduct for its 1000+ members.
  3. Before adding people to the WhatsApp group, inform them about your objective and that you will like to add them to your team. This will allow you to communicate your objective to them, and get feedback from people that will decline.
  4. Add those that agreed to be on the platform and then post guidelines and rules of engagement.
  5. As the creator of the group, you must be ready to engage members on issues related to your objective. Set the tone. Some teams fix a time in a week to discuss accountability issues, while another post can be a discussion of the critical problems related to the group objective. Some choose a day for general topics. Most WhatsApp groups are distractions, scheduling conversations could be more fruitful than a free to post at any time, anything – group.
  6. WhatsApp can be used to spread rumours and fake news swiftly, always verify images, text and videos that are posted using tools like Google Images and TinEye.
  7. Introduce Perks or Badges, members of your group will be encouraged to discuss better. The Police Monitor Group in Nigeria announces Birthday Greetings for members.
  8. Whenever you add new participants, send the rules and guidelines immediately.
  9. Have two or three more administrators that can help in moderating discussions on the platform.
  10. Democratize the process by requesting a vote for administrators in the coming year. It is a way to show leadership, and show you support participatory democratic systems.
  11. Encourage members to use emojis on a post sent in by members. It will encourage members to post and facilitates more discussions.

Misinformation and Alternative Facts in our Brave New World!

At the beginning of 2018, I embarked on a 26 – day ethnography study, to know the number of fake news that is shared within WhatsApp groups that I belong. The results were shocking and worrying – at least, 3 different unverified and fake news is been shared within 2 days, in six groups. That’s 18 fake stories within 2 days, and 234 fake stories within the 26 days. What is more worrying is that the target groups were civil society activist group. Today alone, you might have received tens to hundreds of WhatsApp messages, Facebook Posts, and Twitter Messages. It is highly likely that some of those messages might be unverifiable and false, most times – false alarm. So what about those from the mainstream media – TV, Radio, and Newspapers? They are complicit as well, but owing to their regulation, false information from them might not spread as fast as information dissemination medium that is internet based. As changemakers, in our various domains, we have the civic duty to verify information and use evidence-based information to engage critically. This article is about strategies you can use to halt the spread of false and unverified news. A society should not be built on propaganda, false alarms and untrue information, but by critical thinking and evidence-based discussions.

How Fake News Spread on WhatsApp
One of the WhatsApp Group when a fake news was posted. I normally respond with a Fake News Alert and reasons why the story should not be trusted.

False news, misinformation and propaganda has lived with us since the beginning of the world, through the medieval age, and the renaissance time.  Noam Chomsky’s classic – Manufacturing Consent, gave a detailed picture of how countries, organizations, and individuals have utilized propaganda as a tool to suppress and misinform rivals. It has become more ubiquitous because of the proliferation of the internet. As of today, there are 3.9 billion internet users. That’s about a 42% increase in people using the internet in just three years. The social media gains 840 new users each minute. Since 2013, the number of Tweets each minute has increased 58% to more than 455,000 Tweets per minute in 2017. Since 2013, the number of Facebook Posts shared each minute has increased 22%, from 2.5 Million to 3 million posts per minute in 2016. This number has increased more than 300 per cent, from around 650,000 posts per minute in 2011!

Remember, you are the first line of defence against false information. When you see one, stop it, and give reasons why the story should not be trusted. Together, we can halt the spread!

Strategies to shield yourself from false Information, Stories, or News (Culled from How to Spot Fake News)

1. Consider the source. Are you familiar with the source? Is it Legitimate? Has it been legitimate in the past? If not, you may not want to trust it. If it is a WhatsApp message with no source included, ask for the source of the information from the poster.

2. Read beyond the headline. if the headline is provocative, read all the write – up before passing along the information. Even when the information is legitimate, the headline might not tell the whole story. For example, “Jonathan Bribed lawmakers with 17 billion Naira to pass the budget – Okonjo Iweala”. That is a provocative headline, which ends up untrue.

Also, there are some screaming headlines designed to pull a fast one on the reader. These posts are designed to encourage clicks and generate money for the creator through ad revenue, but they aren’t news.

3. Check the Author’s credential. If it was sent to you without an author, ask the sender who the author was. You can then look up the Author’s name using Google Search.

4. What’s the support sources? Many times, false news or stories will cite official – or official sounding sources, but once you look into it, the source doesn’t back up the claim. For example, there is a false news that the state house budgeted 70 million for the presidency haircut in the Nigeria 2018 budget, but if you check the 2018 approved budget details, Page 118 which has the statehouse budget have nothing of such in the budget line.

5. Double Check the Reference or Source Given. Some false information is not completely fake, but a distortion of real events. They take legitimate stories and twist it, or even claim that something that happened long ago is related to current events. Recently, there was a news that former minister of finance, Okonjo Iweala, in her new book – Fighting Corruption is Dangerous, The Story Behind the Headlines said Jonathan bribed the National Assembly before they could pass the 2015 budget. However, if you flip to Page 80 of the book, where you have a related story, it was not true.

 6. Check your biases. Confirmation bias leads people to put more stock in information that confirms their beliefs and discount information that doesn’t. The next time you are automatically appalled at some social media post concerning, say a politician you oppose, take a moment to check it out. Try this:

What other stories have been posted to the news website that is the source of the story that just popped up in your social media feed? You may be predisposed to believe a story about a politician you don’t like but if the alleged news site also features a story about a football match involving India and Nigeria that ended 99 – 0 in favour of India maybe you should think twice before sharing. And that’s actually a fake news that has been around since the 80’s 😉

7.  Consult the Experts. We know you are busy, and some of this verification takes time. But fact checkers get paid to this kind of work. Contact them at http://africacheck.org ; https://www.snopes.com/

9 Nonprofit Group You Should Join

Recently, I have heard my mentees ask networks they could join since they are interested in Nonprofit Management. I took time to do some research on available ones, and also the one that I have joined, and in which their conversations have really helped in my work. Please find below this nine, and if you know of any other great ones, please add them in the comment box, I will add them to the list. The world will be glad you did!

  1. Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN)

With 13,076 members (last accessed, November 6, 2017) It’s a National Movement that provides professional development, networking and other resources for young nonprofit professionals.

2.  The Nonprofit Times

With 17,582 members (last accessed, November 6, 2017), the group is focused on developing a strong image for your non-profit. Discussions are around accounting, fundraising, marketing and human resource.

3. The Nonprofit Professionals Forum

Have 22,920 members (last accessed, November 6, 2017). It provides a forum to discuss new ideas, strategies and challenges faced by professionals, and also a platform for networking with other professionals.

4. GuideStar – The Nonprofit Conversation

It’s a meeting place of 13,485 Nonprofit professionals (last accessed, November 6, 2017) and organizations. If you need the latest information about nonprofits, then you should be here.

5. LinkedIn Nonprofit Solutions

This is a virtual collaborative space for 4,532 nonprofit professionals (last accessed, November 6, 2017) to tell their stories, foster relationships, engage future partners, staff or board members.

6. Non-Profit Network

This is the largest nonprofit group on LinkedIn with 254,716 members (last accessed, November 6, 2017). There are general discussions from organization management to program management, trade, sustainability et al. Members can actually invite other members.

7. Nonprofit Board Forum

If you are looking for a learning community on the responsibility of board members in a nonprofit organization, then you should be here. Every founder, board member, aspiring nonprofit professional should endeavour to share experience and learn from this group. There are 11,085 members (last accessed, November 6, 2017) that discuss challenges facing nonprofit boards!

8. Nonprofit and Charity Network

Have 18,014 members (last accessed, November 6, 2017) sharing ideas, asking advice from people who work in the same thematic areas. Are you trying to get your head around a burning issue with your nonprofit, then get – in now!

9. The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Have 119,496 members (last accessed, November 6, 2017). In this group, you can connect with other nonprofit professionals, find out about latest online events and job openings. Welcome to the World of Philanthropy!

Know of any other great group, kindly comment with the name of the group and link to the group. I will be glad to add them to the list. Holla!