The Mawazo Institute Fellowship is genuinely different from most funding programs covered in this hub — it isn’t primarily a financial grant, though it includes research funding, and it isn’t a scholarship to send you abroad, because it’s designed specifically to keep you in Africa. It’s a 15-month, non-residential program built around one specific goal: creating a network of African women PhD students who can influence policy and public discourse on the continent, not just publish within it. The most recent cohort’s deadline was July 31, 2026, now closed. The next cohort hasn’t been formally announced yet — based on prior years, expect the window to open in early-to-mid 2027. Everything below covers how the program works and what to prepare before that window opens.
Quick Facts
- Host: The Mawazo Institute, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya
- Duration: 15 months, non-residential — you continue your PhD at your current university throughout the fellowship
- Who It’s For: African women currently enrolled in a PhD at an accredited African university
- Cohort Size: Up to 60 fellows (grown significantly from 10 in the inaugural 2021 cohort)
- Fields: All disciplines — STEM and social sciences both welcome
- Mawazo Fellowship Deadline: July 31, 2026 — now closed. Next cohort expected 2027.
- Application Fee: None
- Age Limit: No formal age limit, though the program strongly encourages applications from those under 35
- Eligible Countries: All African countries — the program has grown from Kenya-only (Cohort 1) to pan-continental
The Fellowship’s Growth: From 10 to 60 Fellows
Understanding where the Mawazo Fellowship has come from is genuinely useful for understanding where it is now, because the program has expanded dramatically since its founding — and that trajectory affects both competitiveness and the program’s actual value to recipients.
Cohort 1 (2021): 10 fellows, Kenya only. Cohort 2: Expanded to 40 fellows from across East Africa. Cohort 3: 40 fellows from across the African continent. Cohort 4 (current): 60 fellows from diverse countries across Africa.
That progression from 10 Kenyan fellows to 60 pan-African fellows in roughly four years tells you two things simultaneously: the program is maturing and gaining institutional confidence, and the network it’s building is becoming genuinely continental in scope rather than regional. For a fellowship whose core value proposition is the peer network — not just the training or the funding — that scale matters more than it would for a purely financial award.
What Makes Mawazo Institute Fellowship Distinctive
Most scholarship programs for African women PhD students focus on the degree-completion funding problem: how do you pay for your research? Mawazo is built around a different problem: how do you ensure that the research you produce actually shapes policy and public discourse in Africa, rather than ending up in a journal no policymaker reads?
The goal of the programme is to build a network of African women experts who are poised to influence policy and public discourse in academia and beyond, increasing the application and implementation of practical, evidence-based ideas that will drive Africa’s development.
That framing has real practical implications for who the fellowship is designed for, and what it selects for. You don’t need to be in a STEM field — any doctoral discipline is eligible, including history, economics, law, public health, and education. But you do need to have a genuine interest in translating your research into something that can move outside academia, and a credible plan for doing that in the African context specifically.
What the Fellowship Provides
The fellowship provides: participation in Mawazo’s in-house virtual training and professional development programme, offered through the Mawazo Learning Exchange (MLEx) e-learning platform; connections to expert and peer mentors through a structured mentorship programme, as well as exposure to leaders from academia, industry, government and other sectors; funding for research activities with access to grants; and visibility via Mawazo Voices, Mawazo’s public policy and engagement, strategic communications, and strategic partnerships programme.
Breaking those down in order of what actually matters for most fellows:
Research funding grants — access to grants for research activities is a real financial component of the fellowship. The program doesn’t publish a fixed grant figure, but confirmed access to research funding is a meaningful benefit for PhD students whose institutional budgets often leave significant gaps between what’s needed and what’s available.
MLEx virtual training — the Mawazo Learning Exchange is Mawazo’s own e-learning platform, built specifically for the fellowship’s objectives. Training covers leadership, management, communications, policy engagement, and research methodology — not generic professional development, but a curriculum specifically designed around African women researchers navigating the gap between academic research and real-world policy impact.
Structured mentorship — connections to expert and peer mentors across academia, industry, government, and other sectors. For a program that’s now in its fourth cohort with 60 current fellows and three prior cohort networks, this alumni and mentor network is one of the more tangible and growing assets of the fellowship.
Mawazo Voices — a strategic communications program that gives fellows actual public platforms and media training, not just generic “communications skills.” This is where the policy-influence goal gets operationalized: fellows learn to write for general audiences, engage with journalists, and navigate the specific landscape of African policy and media.
Eligible Fields and Thematic Priorities
While all eligible PhD students are more than welcome to apply, the program encourages applications from those working in specific thematic areas. Across the sources I reviewed, these priority areas include climate and environment, health and wellbeing, education, food and agriculture, and digital transformation — thematic clusters aligned with Africa’s most urgent development challenges.
That said, the program explicitly welcomes applications from all disciplines, including humanities, law, and social sciences. A legal scholar researching women’s land rights in East Africa, an economist studying informal labor markets in West Africa, or a historian documenting colonial health systems all fit the program’s policy-influence mission, even if they don’t map onto a narrowly STEM-defined priority area.
Mawazo Fellowship Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible, applicants must: be a woman (including cisgender women and transgender women, as well as AFAB non-binary, AFAB gender non-conforming, and other AFAB genderqueer individuals who have historically been excluded from decision-making spaces); be a national of an African country (born in an African country, originate from a country located on the African continent, or be a refugee or stateless person); have a good command of written and spoken English (individuals from Francophone countries are encouraged to apply, with the understanding that the application process is conducted in English); and be enrolled for their PhD at an accredited university in an African country.
Additional requirements: be available to fully participate in the programme in the relevant year, and be willing to dedicate at least 5 to 10 hours a week to the programme once selected. The fellowship does not have an age limit, though applicants under 35 are strongly encouraged to apply.
The time commitment is worth taking seriously: 5 to 10 hours a week over 15 months is not a passive honor — it’s an active program with training, mentorship sessions, and communications engagement built in. The non-residential structure means you stay at your current university and continue your PhD, but this isn’t a letter on your CV; it’s a regular commitment alongside your doctoral work.
Who the Mawazo Fellowship Is and Isn’t For
A strong fit if:
- You’re currently enrolled in a PhD at an African university
- You’re in any field, including social sciences, law, history, or education — not only STEM
- You see your research as having real-world policy or practice relevance in Africa, not just academic publication value
- You’re specifically committed to building your career in Africa rather than seeking a pathway abroad
- You can genuinely commit 5-10 hours a week to the program alongside your PhD
A less strong fit if:
- You’re looking primarily for financial support to complete your degree — the funding component exists, but it’s a research-activities grant, not a living stipend or tuition waiver
- You’ve not yet started your PhD — enrollment at an African university is a hard requirement, not a conditional one
- You’re not yet comfortable with English — the program is conducted entirely in English, even for Francophone applicants
How to Apply
- Confirm you meet the eligibility criteria: African national, enrolled in a PhD at an accredited African university, good command of English, and available to commit to the program fully.
- Prepare your application materials — Mawazo’s application focuses heavily on your research and its policy-relevance, not just your academic record. Spend time articulating how your PhD research connects to a specific development challenge in Africa, and what a more policy-engaged version of your research would look like in practice.
- Obtain a strong letter of support from your doctoral supervisor or a senior academic in your field — the letter should speak to both your research quality and your potential as a communicator and policy influencer, not just academic credentials: Recommendation Letter for Scholarship
- Prepare a statement of purpose that positions your research within its African policy context specifically: Personal Statement for Scholarship / SOP Examples
- Submit through Mawazo’s official application portal (mawazofellowship.smapply.org) before July 31, 2026.
This Fellowship Alongside Others
Mawazo is deliberately complementary to, not a substitute for, the other programs in this hub. A practical way to think about how they fit together:
- OWSD PhD Fellowship funds PhD research conducted at a host institution in another developing country — you leave your home institution to do the research. Mawazo keeps you at your home institution while building your policy-engagement skills alongside your research. These can be sequential, not competing.
- L’Oréal-UNESCO Sub-Saharan Africa Programme provides a research grant (€10,000-€15,000) specifically to fund research activities. Mawazo provides a similar research-funding component but wraps it in 15 months of leadership and communications programming.
- British Council Women in STEM funds a Master’s degree in the UK — different career stage, different geographic direction. Mawazo is specifically for PhD students staying in Africa.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Mawazo Institute Fellowship currently accepting applications?
The July 31, 2026 deadline for the current cohort has now passed. The next cohort hasn’t been formally announced yet — watch the official portal at mawazofellowship.smapply.org and the Mawazo Institute’s site for the next cycle’s announcement, which based on prior years is likely to open in early-to-mid 2027.
Do I need to be in a STEM field? No. The fellowship is aimed at African women pursuing PhD studies in any field at accredited universities in Africa. Social sciences, humanities, law, and education all qualify.
Is the fellowship residential? No. The Mawazo Fellowship is a 15-month, non-residential program — you continue your PhD at your current university throughout the fellowship.
How many fellows are selected each year? Cohort 4, the current cohort, consists of 60 fellows drawn from diverse countries across Africa — grown from 10 Kenyan fellows in the inaugural 2021 cohort.
Is there an age limit? The Fellowship does not have an age limit. However, it strongly encourages applicants under the age of 35 to apply.
How much time does the fellowship require? Fellows must be willing to dedicate at least 5 to 10 hours a week to the programme once selected. This is a real, active commitment alongside your doctoral work — not a passive honor.
Can applicants from Francophone African countries apply? Yes. Individuals from Francophone countries are encouraged to apply, with the understanding that the application process will be conducted in English.
Official Resources
- Mawazo Fellowship application portal: mawazofellowship.smapply.org
- Mawazo Institute (official): mawazoinstitute.org/mawazo-fellowship/
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