CEGA Expands Fellowship Program with Support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

The first cohort brings scholars from displacement contexts who promise to help bolster the evidence base on this topic.

Berkeley, CA (28 Oct. 2024) — The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) has expanded its fellowship program, with support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, to improve the quality and quantity of policy-relevant evidence by supporting scholars from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to conduct rigorous research in the areas of forced displacement, early childhood development, and youth livelihoods.

In Spring 2025, the Hilton Fellowship, hosted by CEGA, a research hub at the University of California, Berkeley that generates evidence decision makers use to reduce global poverty, will bring an initial cohort of scholars to campus for a four-month residential fellowship. During the fellowship, they will develop independent research, audit courses, work with faculty mentors, and expand their research networks. This first cohort of scholars will research forced displacement topics and its impact on their home countries.

The scholars in the spring cohort include:

• Susan Awor, from Uganda, is researching a development project designed to improve the lives and livelihoods of refugees and host communities in Uganda.
• Oscar Díaz, of Colombia, is studying the effects of restorative justice practices on human and social capital in Bogota.
• Ayalnesh Yalew, from Ethiopia, is running a randomized controlled trial to understand how integrating financial and social support with small businesses can improve displaced women’s economic empowerment and children’s wellbeing. 

“Refugees and displaced people should have access to economic opportunities and the means to promote healthy development for their families,” said Carly Olenick, Officer of Learning and Evaluation at the Hilton Foundation. “This new fellowship program builds on our strong collaborative history with CEGA to advance refugee inclusion and integration in host communities by investing in more and better evidence.”

More than 108 million people are forcibly displaced, and three-fourths reside in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Yet, LMIC scholars, and displaced scholars in particular, are severely underrepresented in academic research. For example, just one percent of the world’s research outputs were produced by African scholars between 2013-2016. Meanwhile, the majority of academic papers on forced displacement are published in high-income countries, although most of the research is conducted in LMICs. This inequity is rooted in structural barriers that privilege limited perspectives and favor scholars from high-income countries over locally-grounded expertise. 

“We are thrilled to partner with the Hilton Foundation to invest in a more equitable research community, with leadership from scholars who bring intimate and often undervalued knowledge of issues facing their home countries and regions,” said Carson Christiano, CEGA’s Executive Director. “Policy challenges surrounding forced displacement are not going away any time soon, and decision makers urgently need inclusive and actionable evidence to address them.”

Since 2012, more than 80 scholars have completed a rigorous research fellowship with CEGA. When the fellows return to their home countries, they engage with their institutions and communities to strengthen rigorous evidence generation locally by facilitating curriculum development, mentorship, and trainings. The inaugural Hilton Scholars cohort will be CEGA’s first fellowship group comprised of researchers studying forced displacement who come from displaced contexts themselves.

CEGA will open a call for applications for the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 fellowship cycles this November, which will prioritize LMIC scholars studying early childhood development and youth livelihoods, in addition to a larger fellowship call. To learn more about applying for future rounds of the Fellowship, please contact CEGA Senior Associate Mansi Kalra. Be the first to hear about future opportunities by subscribing to the CEGA newsletter.

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About CEGA

The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) is a hub for research, training and innovation headquartered at the University of California, Berkeley. CEGA generates insights that leaders can use to improve policies, programs, and people’s lives. Its academic network includes more than 160 faculty, 65 scholars from low- and middle-income countries, and hundreds of graduate students — from diverse academic disciplines across the globe — that produce rigorous evidence about what works to expand education, health, and economic opportunities for people living in poverty.

About the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

International hotelier Conrad N. Hilton established the grantmaking foundation that bears his name in 1944 to help people living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage worldwide. Today, the work continues, concentrating on efforts to ensure healthy early childhood development and sustainable livelihoods for youth and refugee populations, support young people transitioning out of foster care, improve access to housing and support services for people experiencing homelessness, identify solutions to safe water access, and lift the work of Catholic sisters. Additionally, following selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to an organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. The Foundation is one of the world’s largest, with approximately $7 billion in assets. It has awarded grants to date totaling more than $3.2 billion worldwide, and $290 million in 2023. Please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org for more information.

Media Contacts

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Matthew Kertman
Director of Strategic Communications
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