CO-Hub launches to advance African Scholarship in Global Development Research

CEGA Global Fellows gather at UC Berkeley. | Photo credit: Diego Garcia-Serna

BERKELEY, CA (1 May, 2024) – The CIDR Opportunity Hub (CO-Hub), a new resource that advances inclusion in global development research by promoting opportunities for African scholars, launched today. Developed by the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA), CO-Hub is an open-access platform for African scholars that collects training, mentorship, networking, and funding opportunities.

The CO-Hub developers hosted a 45-minute webinar that demonstrated how to use the resource on May 13 at 3:00pm GMT. The webinar’s slides are here the recording is here.

“We hope that this one-stop-shop database will enable African scholars to enhance their potential, expand networks, and refine their approaches to tackling the continent’s development challenges,” said Dr. Amos Njuguna, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Transformational Teaching, Learning and Research at the United States International University-Africa and a founding member of NIERA. “It can also provide value to organizations invested in advancing inclusion in African scholarship.”

The CO-Hub is a product of the Collaboration for Inclusive Development Research (CIDR), established by CEGA and NIERA in 2022 to generate new insights on how to make the evidence ecosystem more inclusive of African scholars and advocate for promising strategies.

While training and career development opportunities for African scholars have expanded significantly in recent years, CO-Hub was created to better centralize these existing opportunities and increase accessibility for African scholars to engage with ongoing global inclusion efforts.

Maintained and continually updated by CIDR and the Graduate Applications International Network (GAIN), the CO-Hub is adaptable to many user’s needs. The more than 100 opportunities can be sorted by a variety of fields, including type, eligibility requirements, and application deadlines. Corresponding external links provide clear routes for more information about each opportunity. New opportunities can be submitted using this form: CO-Hub New Opportunity Submission Form.

“We are thrilled to contribute to the maintenance and longevity of this platform as we recognize the value it will provide to scholars,” said Gisela Martins da Fonseca, Program Manager at GAIN.

To learn more about ways to engage with the CIDR, please contact CEGA Project Manager Amy Shipow at amyshipow [at] berkeley [dot] edu.

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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. We generate insights that leaders can use to improve policies, programs, and people’s lives. Our academic network includes more than 160 faculty, 78 scholars from low- and middle-income countries, and hundreds of graduate students — from diverse academic disciplines around the world — that produce rigorous evidence about what works to expand education, health, and economic opportunities for people living in poverty.

About GAIN
The Graduate Applications International Network (GAIN) supports prospective graduate students from all countries across Africa applying for excellent programs (both Master and PhD) in economics and related fields (public policy, political science, etc.). African scholars are strongly under-represented in economics research globally. GAIN supports graduate applicants through information sharing, mentoring, peer-to-peer support, and reduction of financial barriers, with the goal of strengthening the pipeline for African students into the economics profession.

About NIERA
The Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in East Africa (NIERA) established in 2018, was founded by alumni of the East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) Collaborative. EASST is a multi-institutional research network managed by the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at the University of California, Berkeley. NIERA affiliates researchers, who complete the EASST fellowship to advance Decision-Focused Evaluations (DFE) of development programs. It accomplishes this through enhancing technical skills, producing evidence, and engaging in policy outreach.

 

Media Contacts

CEGA
Matthew Kertman
Director of Communications
kertman@berkeley.edu

GAIN
Gisela Martins da Fonseca
Program Manager
gisela.m99@gmail.com

NIERA
Jennifer Nyakinya
jnyakinya@usiu.ac.ke