The Skills Initiative for Africa (SIFA) Financing Cooperation (FC) is a pan-African initiative established in 2016 by the African Union Commission (AUC) and co-funded by the German Government and the European Union (EU), with support from national governments in eight SIFA partner countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo, and Tunisia. SIFA’s overarching goal is to improve the occupational opportunities of African youth. During its pilot period (2016-2025), the Programme sponsors skill development projects that are projected to contribute to the development of employment-oriented skills for young people in African nations.
SIFA is an African Union Commission (AUC) program backed by the German government to improve the employment chances of African youth. SIFA funds skill development programmes in a number of African countries. Projects should help young people build skills that will help them find work.
Thematic Areas
Digital Tools and Skills
Female Entrepreneurship and Employability
Training Innovation in Informal Sectors
Who is Eligible?
Responsiveness to COVID-19
Demonstrated Jobs
Demonstrating Value for Money
Proposals shall refer to the conceptualisation, development and commercialisation of products, services, or processes solving an identified problem/skills gap in the labour market
Demonstrated Viability and Sustainable Future Financing
How are Applicants Selected?
Professional TVET entities from the public and private sectors, academia, civil society, and organisations supporting entrepreneurship in the labour market
Grant details:
FW3 funding is targeted for the implementation of the proposed innovation, and hence it will not support the following: • projects that exclusively focus on research • projects that exclusively focus on market surveys • projects that exclusively focus on policy development • projects that exclusively focus on capacity building or training • projects that exclusively focus on building infrastructure
What is Value of Award?
Selected projects can receive a grant between EUR 0.2 to 3 million for sustainable and innovative initiatives.
The Flourish Africa Grant for Female Entrepreneurs is a One Billion Naira Fund created to support and promote African female-owned businesses over 5 years through training, mentoring, and funding.
The programme seeks to empower the entrepreneurial activities of at least 2,500 female business owners through funding and structured training over five years. Through the programme, a minimum of 500 female entrepreneurs would be trained in business and life skills each year, after which the top 100 achievers from the pool would be eligible for grants of up to 2 million naira each from a 200 million naira annual fund.
The Flourish Africa training curriculum has been designed to educate and prepare female entrepreneurs for their business journey and give them wings to fly. It also gives female entrepreneurs an enabling platform for practical skill development, mentoring, business capital, and access to the marketplace.
Where will Award Take Place?
Nigeria
Who is Eligible?
To qualify, you must meet the following criteria:
Applicants must be between the ages of 18yrs – 50yrs.
Applicants must be female. If co-owned with a man, applicants must have at least 51% ownership of the business, with proof.
Applicants must have access to internet-enabled devices for training and must be willing to commit to virtual training for a period of 4 months.
Applicants’ businesses must be in the Start-up phase.
Your business must be domiciled in Lagos, Abuja, or Port Harcourt.
The HICOOL Global Entrepreneur Summit and Entrepreneurship Competition are for Entrepreneurs.
It aims to build a multi-level, multi-dimensional, and diversified international entrepreneurial model, seeking high-quality startups worldwide, and facilitating entrepreneurs to grow and expand their businesses in Beijing.
The competition invites top investors, famous mentors, and leading entrepreneurs to provide all-around entrepreneurial guidance and acceleration, to continuously empower entrepreneurs in Beijing by providing a full range of “Beijing Services” such as talent settlement, children’s education, healthcare, designated apartments, etc.
Which Fields are Eligible?
The Competition is focused on 7 Tech Areas:
1. AI/VR/FinTech: AI Foundation Layer, AI Technical Layer, AI Scenario Application, FinTech, General Technology, VR, Others
2. Medicine & Healthcare: Modern Medicine, Medical Devices, Medical Services, Drug R&D and Manufacturing, Biotechnology, and Others
3. New Generation Information Technology: Communication Networks, Industrial Internet, Network and Information Equipment, Emerging Software Development, Integrated Circuit, Network, and Information Security Services, Others
5. New Energy / New Materials / Energy Conservation & Environmental Protection: New Energy Products and Technology, Power battery, New Material, Carbon Neutrality, Energy Conservation, Environment Protection, Resource Recovery, and Comprehensive Utilization, Others
6. Cultural Creativity: Online Education, Cultural Entertainment (Movie, Game , Trendy Toys and etc.), New Retail, Industrial Design, Others
7. AgriTech/FoodTech: New AgriTech, FoodTech and Product Safety Traceability, New Logistics and Supply Chain, Others
Who is Eligible?
> You are a tech-based startup founder who wishes to do business in China through landing in Beijing.
> You have not registered any company in Beijing yet or with companies registered in Beijing after Jan 1st, 2023 (Jan 1st, 2023 included).
> If you have already registered any company in Beijing during last 10 years, please reach out to Carol Chen PKU separately without participating here.
How are Applicants Selected?
The HICOOL 2023 Global Entrepreneur Summit and Entrepreneurship Competition is mainly divided into four stages:
Online Assessment
Preliminary Round
Semifinal, and;
Final
The agenda of the Competition is arranged as follows:
> Registration Stage: Jan 2023
> Online Assessment: May 2023
> Preliminary Round: June to July 2023
> Semi-final Stage: August 2023
> Final Stage: August to September 2023
Stages for Startups
Bootstrapped
Pre-Seed
Seed
Angel
Pre-A
Series A
Series B
How many Awards?
140
What is Value of Award?
USD 10 Million Prize Pool
There are 140 prize winners in the competition, including 7 first prizes, 21 second prizes, 42 third prizes, and 70 winner prizes.
The awards are distributed in the proportion of 5:2 among overseas and domestic groups.
First Prize: 7 * CNY 2 million (≈USD 291,000) / startup
Second Prize: 21 * CNY 1 million (≈USD 146,000) / startup
Third Prize: 42 * CNY 500,000 (≈USD 73,000) / startup
Foreign winners, their spouses, and minor children can apply for residence permits valid for two to five years by winning first, second, and third prizes of the overseas group. With the recommendation, the winner can directly apply for a permanent residence permit for foreigners.
2. Brand Exposure in China:
Entry of scientific research articles (First, second and third prize winner of the overseas group). A small amount of scientific research and teaching materials imported by the winners can be exempted from import tax.
3. Children’s Education Support:
It will be given to the winner’s children in the municipal public schools first. Children of foreign winners can attend international classes in international schools or public schools.
4. Social Insurance Support:
For first, second, and third prize winners of the overseas group. The foreign unemployed spouses and children under the age of 16 of the winners can participate in the basic medical insurance for urban residents in Beijing.
Application Deadline: 6th February 2023 (23:59 UK time).
Eligible Countries: African/Developing Countries
To be taken at (country): University of Oxford
About the Award: The fully-funded Fellowships are aimed at practising journalists from all over the world, to enable them to research a topic of their choice, related to their work and the broader media industry, before returning to newsrooms. The Fellowships offer an opportunity to network with a global group of journalists, spend time away from the daily pressure of deadlines, and examine the key issues facing the industry, with input from leading experts and practitioners.
You do not need to specify which particular source of funding you are applying for – we will allocate the one most suitable for you based on your country of origin and research proposal.
Thomson Reuters Foundation Fellowships
Anglo American Journalist Fellowship
Google Digital News Journalist Fellowship
Mona Megalli Fellowship
Wincott Business Journalist Fellowship
David Levy Fellowship for International Dialogue
Type: Fellowship (Professional)
Eligibility:
To be considered for a Fellowship you must have a minimum of five years’ journalistic experience, or in rare cases demonstrate the equivalent level of expertise.
You will be able to write at a publishable level of English, allowing you to participate in the fellowship and produce papers when necessary. If English is not your first language, please present suitable evidence (this is an original certificate no more than two years old and issued by the relevant body) that you are at a suitable standard. More information on the university’s English language requirements is in the Programme Webpage Link below.
Number of Awards: 30
Value of Award: Most Journalist Fellowships are fully-funded and cover living costs and accommodation. There are some opportunities for self-funded candidates. Some Fellowships are open only to candidates who are employees of the sponsoring organisation.
Duration of Programme: Fellowships last one, two or three terms.
How to Apply: Applications for the 2023/2024 fellowship cohorts (starting in October 2023, January 2024 and April 2024) are now open. Find out how to apply. The application deadline is 6 February.
For Government ministries, Central Banks, regulatory authorities, bank and non-bank financial institutions, mobile money operators and payment switch companies.
The African Development Bank launched ADFI in 2019 in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Ministry of Finance, Government of Luxembourg, joined by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, France and the Women’s Enterprise Finance Initiative in 2020 and 2022 respectively.
Call for Proposals
In line with its 2023 work program, ADFI is launching a Call for Proposals(link is external) to select viable and scalable digital financial solution (DFS) initiatives aimed at fostering access, quality, and usage of financial services as drivers of sustainable financial inclusion, especially among the most vulnerable, including women, youth and small businesses.
The Facility is an innovative financing vehicle designed to catalyse digital financial inclusion across Africa.
Areas Of Interventions
The Call for Proposals is aligned with ADFI’s pillars of intervention and has the following two components:
Lot 1 targeting the following countries: Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Guinea, Morocco, Nigeria and Tanzania
Lot 2 targeting regional initiatives
Categories
> Pillar 1: Digital Financial Infrastructure
Country level – Technical assistance on interoperability of payment systems, agent networks and merchant acceptance networks; digital registries and alternative credit scoring, increased mobile network coverage, affordable data and digital devices.
Regional level – Technical assistance on interoperability of payment systems, interoperable payment distribution networks, and e-commerce platforms.
> Pillar 2: Digital Financial Policy & Regulation
Country level – Sandboxing/Fintech innovations of policies or testing new digital products and business models; Interoperability regulatory frameworks; and consumer protection, e.g., data privacy, recourse mechanisms, cybersecurity.
Regional level – DFS policies and regulations for cross-border remittances; consumer protection, e.g., data privacy, recourse mechanisms, cybersecurity; Sandbox policies and testing of new products and business models and e-KYC.
> Pillar 3: Digital Financial Products & innovation
Country level – Digitization of government payments and social transfers; and digitization of agriculture value chains and MSMEs.
Regional level – DFS products that have the potential for scale in more than one country, address the needs of the base of the pyramid and touch key sectors such as MSME and agriculture.
Who is Eligible?
> Country level – Government ministries, Central Banks, regulatory authorities, bank and non-bank financial institutions, mobile money operators and payment switch companies.
> Regional level – Regional economic communities, regional coordination bodies, regional private sector institutions, international agencies with operations in Africa, inter-governmental organizations, and private sector organizations such as bank and non-bank digital financial service providers with regional coverage.
How are Applicants Selected?
> Project viability
Applicant’s expertise and track record in relation to the proposed project
Ability to scale
Potential impact of the project
What is Value of Award?
Maximum size of grant funding under Lot 1 (country level): USD 1 million
Maximum for blended finance of grant and loan under Lot 1: USD 1.5 million
Maximum size of grant under Lot 2 (regional level): USD 1.5 million
Minimum size of loan under Lot 1 and Lot 2: USD 1 million
Project Duration
> Country-level projects: two to three years
> Regional-level projects: three to four years
How to Apply?
Applications should be submitted to the following email address: ADFI_CallforProposals2023@AFDB.ORG (link sends e-mail) by 31/03/2023 12.00 midnight Abidjan time. The email subject should read: Call for Proposals-ADFI 2023
Cultural practitioners from Switzerland may apply for residencies in Southern, East, West or Central Africa, while cultural practitioners from Southern, East, West and Central Africa can apply for residencies in Switzerland. Below you will find more information about the countries in question.
We have strong existing partner networks in DRC, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and Madagascar that can host visiting Swiss arts professionals, and developing networks in East, West and Central Africa. In countries outside of these existing networks, applicants would need to give some consideration in their proposals to potential host partners and local arrangements for their residency.
What Type of Scholarship is this?
Short course
Who can apply for Pro Helvetia Residencies?
The residencies programme is open to artists and cultural practitioners working in the fields of visual arts, design and interactive media, music, literature and performing arts, as well as arts practitioners with a transdisciplinary focus.
How are Applicants Selected?
Convincing track record: professional activity with a national / transregional reach
Context-related motivation
Sufficient knowledge of English
Concrete exchange project with a lasting impact
Which Countries are Eligible?
Southern Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Switzerland, West Africa
Where will Award be Taken?
Southern Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Switzerland, West Africa
How Many will be Given?
Pro Helvetia supports three residencies per person at most.
What is the Benefit of Pro Helvetia Residencies?
Residencies serve to gain inspiration, to establish networks and to work on projects. Pro Helvetia offers accommodation, travel costs, a daily allowance, professional supervision, a workplace (on request) and a contribution to production/material costs (on request).
How to Apply for Pro Helvetia Residencies:
Application must be submitted in English, via the online portal myprohelvetia.
Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. The longer the war continues, the less likely they are to return, with dire consequences for Ukraine.
Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has created the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. While millions of Ukrainian refugees have since returned home, almost 2.9 million moved to Russia, according to October 2022 figures, and roughly 7.9 million were registered across Europe between February and December 27, 2022. Besides Russia, Poland (1.5 million), Germany (1 million), and the Czech Republic (474,731) have welcomed the largest numbers of Ukrainian refugees, while Italy, Spain, France, Romania, and the UK have also accepted more than 100,000 each.
There is little reason to suggest many Ukrainian refugees will return home soon. A June survey by polling group Rating, for example, found that 24 percent of Ukrainian refugees wanted to return but were waiting for a certain time, 48 percent said they would return after the end of the war, and 8 percent said they would not go back to Ukraine. A German government-backed survey from December 2022, meanwhile, found that around 37 percent of Ukrainian refugees wanted to settle in the country permanently or at least for the next few years.
The incentive for Ukrainian foreign workers and refugees to return home has been significantly reduced following the widespread destruction across the country since the war began in February 2022. Much of the country’s population has been suffering from limited and sporadic access to electricity, heat, and water, and Ukraine’s economy “shrank by 30 percent in 2022.” Ukraine is now Europe’s poorest country, and its entry into the EU will likely take years. Instability in the country’s Donbas region since 2014 coupled with almost a year of open conflict with Russia means that peace will likely continue to elude Ukraine.
While some Ukrainian refugees have returned, “‘unliveable’ conditions” during winters and the crumbling basic infrastructure will drive more Ukrainians to seek refuge in Europe, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. Additionally, it is estimated that 90 percent of Ukrainian refugees are women and children, as conscription prevented most Ukrainian men from leaving the country. The men that remained in Ukraine may try to reunite with their families abroad, while those men that managed to leave may face the risk of being recruited into military service or being punished for evading it if they do return to Ukraine.
Other countries that have suffered from conflicts in recent decades demonstrate that the longer violence continues, the less likely refugees are to return home. “In the Kosovo war of 1999, when NATO bombed Yugoslavia to prevent the brutalization of ethnic Albanians who make up Kosovo’s majority, hundreds of thousands fled, or were forcibly moved, to neighboring Albania and Macedonia.” These refugees eventually returned to Kosovo since the war lasted only 78 days, explained an article in the Economist. During the war in nearby Bosnia, which took place from 1992 to 1995, however, many Bosnians left “and far fewer returned.”
More recently, the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, resulted in 6.8 million Syrian refugees fleeing mostly to neighboring states as well as to Europe until 2021. The conflict, soon to enter its 12th year, has reinforced the perception that both the desire of refugees to return, as well as the ability of host countries to deport them, is limited as long as violence is ongoing.
Between 2016 and 2022, for instance, just 336,496 Syrians returned to the country from neighboring host countries according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And a UNHCR poll from June 2022 showed that more than 92.8 percent of Syrian refugees in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq do not plan to return to their country within the next year. As a new generation of Syrian children born outside the country emerges, the likelihood of Syrian families returning will continue to decline.
But the failed efforts by Turkey to return Syrian refugees suggest that European countries will struggle to do the same with Ukrainian refugees who refuse to turn home. Additionally, Ukrainian refugees have received a relatively warm welcome across Europe. While poorer EU countries bordering Ukraine, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, may seek to curtail future refugee intake, Ukrainian refugees may instead head further west into the continent.
While other Eastern European countries, as well as Russia, have faced similar predicaments, Ukraine’s population decline has been far more acute. Due to low wages and high unemployment, Ukraine has been unable to attract immigrants, while the possible accession of Ukraine into the EU risks further emigration in the future. Furthermore, the large number of casualties of prime-aged men because of the conflict will also undermine Ukraine’s demographic position for decades.
French philosopher Auguste Comte is attributed with stating “Demography is destiny,” noting a link between a country’s future and the youthfulness of its population. A UN report from 2022 predicts that Ukraine’s population will likely never recover from the ongoing conflict and will continue to experience a significant population decline this century. A less populated Ukraine may be part of the Kremlin’s strategy of weakening the country, ominously hinted at by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2022, who declared “If they continue to do what they are doing, they are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood.”
Russia has of course played an active part in depopulating Ukraine. In addition to launching its destabilizing military operations, since 2014 it has facilitated the migration of Ukrainian refugees into Russia, policies that seem to have continued with additional Ukrainian refugees making their way to Russia since the invasion in February 2022. And in May 2022, Putin signed a decree easing constraints on Russians seeking to adopt Ukrainian children in war-torn regions, while making it harder for relatives of these children in Ukraine to have them returned.
Many Ukrainians in Europe may never come back, including those who traveled to Russia. Thus, without enough Ukrainians to repopulate the country, the ability of the Ukrainian government to reestablish a strong state and national identity in some regions risks becoming increasingly limited as the war drags on.
University students face an unprecedented housing crisis, with more than three students for every bed available in purpose-built student accommodation. The shortage and soaring rents have forced students into poor-quality accommodation, couch-surfing, or commuting to university from parents’ homes and nearby cities.
Last September, hundreds of first-year students across Britain were denied any accommodation on campus due to lack of space. This includes 127 students at the University of West England (UWE) in Bristol, told they had to find accommodation in Newport, Wales, over an hour away from their university. For the immense cost in travel expenses, lost time, and isolation from their peers, the UWE only offered a refund of a £70 rail card.
In the months since, hordes of students have been seen queueing outside estate agents, with some in Durham waiting overnight, for the release of rental homes for the next academic year.
Student news web site The Tab reported last August that “one in seven students are scared of being homeless.” Their concerns are justified. A survey by the National Union of Students (NUS) found that 12 percent have actually experienced homelessness since starting their studies.
Universities have responded pathetically, offering “support” which in reality amounts to nothing more than keeping libraries open and offering free tea and coffee to help students stay warm this winter. Student union services, including advice about money and accommodation, are overburdened and for the most part only handing out automated replies.
The crisis has been building for years, caused by universities farming students as cash cows without providing adequate infrastructure, private owners slowing down the building of new residences, and the worsening cost-of-living crisis.
While the rate of admissions to higher education has reached record highs, increasing by nearly two thirds since 2000, provision of accommodation and all other services has not kept pace. A process of marketising higher education that began with the Labour government introducing tuition fees in 1998 has produced a system of competition for student numbers, while cutting the resources available to staff and students, to make up for government funding shortfalls and to fund exorbitant executive salaries.
Encapsulating both the financial pressures on universities and the greed of university vice chancellors, who view their student bodies with contempt, the Times reported last year that “University bosses are calling for tuition fees to be raised closer to the £24,000 a year average that foreign students pay,” nearly treble the current £9,250 rate.
Vice chancellor of the University of Sunderland Sir David Bell, with a salary of £260,000, described the “financial imperative” to “recruit” foreign students, adding, “If you want to keep running universities even at the level we have now, you have to increase the tuition fee at some point.”
Higher education providers have increasingly washed their hands of any responsibility to maintain accommodation, outsourcing university residences to private companies. Out of the 700,000 student beds available nationally, more than half were built by other providers like Unite. Their profits are reaching new heights, with Unite predicting growth of 5 percent in 2023. The number of beds in university-built student halls decreased by 5 percent from 2018 to 2021.
Unite Students student accommodation (left) in Selly Oak, England [Photo by Elliott Brown / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0]
The supply of accommodation is therefore increasingly at the whim of the market and has been falling in recent years. According to industry magazine The PIE News, “Analysts predict that growth will continue to stagnate given rising inflation, escalating building costs and land availability, among other factors.” Even the inadequate existing stock is being reduced, with 11,000 student spaces converted to more profitable uses in the past year.
Prices, however, have continued to increase—by 61 percent in the last decade according to the National Union of Students (NUS).
Older students renting in the open private market are at the mercy of exploitative landlords. Renters describe being locked into tenancy agreements, paying extortionate prices for uninhabitable living conditions. It is common to live in cold, cramped, and damp-ridden houses.
Structural and fire hazards are rife. Just two months ago, the ceiling fell through into the living room of seven students in Cardiff, after them having voiced their concerns about the cracks in the ceiling. One of the students explained that the letting agent, CPS homes, took no notice since “this was a big job which would have cost a lot of money.”
Real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield estimates that student private rents have nonetheless increased 19.3 percent since 2016-17.
Students have to pay these rates with maintenance loans of up to a maximum £9,706 a year, well below annual living costs. The loan, which is meant to cover rent, bills and food, has rapidly declined in real value, with the government granting a 2.3 percent increase as inflation topped 14 percent last year. As a result, students have had to make do with a shortage of £439 a month on average according to Save the Student, up from £340 in 2021.
The NUS found that 96 percent are restricting spending, including on basics like food, heating and sanitary products. But even these cutbacks are sometimes not enough, with more than one student in every 10, relying on food banks.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the mental health and wellbeing of nearly half of all students has worsened since the start of the academic year. A quarter are taking on additional debts and three in 10 are skipping lessons to save money. Many are working close to full-time hours to pay their way.
More than 100 students have reportedly signed up to a rent strike at the University of Manchester in protest against these conditions.
Neither the Conservative government nor opposition Labour Party will address this crisis. One of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s first major policy moves was to lower the salary threshold at which students begin repaying their loans, saving the Treasury £35 billion in the next 5 years and costing poorer students between £10-28,000 over their lifetimes.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has put the party’s pledge to abolish tuition fees under review, saying last week, “I have to be honest about it, the damage that has been done to our economy means that… we will cost everything as we go into that election and we will do that with discipline.”
Both parties have worked seamlessly together in and out of government to commodify and marketise higher education, turning it into a playground for private investors.
The trade union bureaucracy has helped pave the way, with the University and College Union (UCU) sabotaging years of struggles by tens of thousands of staff against cuts to pay and pensions and allowing insecure work to spread throughout the sector. The NUS long ago abandoned the fight against tuition fees. In its latest cost-of-living campaign, it offers a worthless petition.
