Bursary information

The Organising Committee has applied for funding to support bursary applications. A minimum amount of bursaries will be awarded.

The sponsorship will cover either one or all of the following:

• Registration fees waived
• Economy class flight ticket from your country
• Hotel accommodation
• Ground transport

Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship

A year of professional enrichment in the United States for experienced professionals from designated countries undergoing development or political transition.

Leaders for a Global Society
The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program provides ten months of non-degree academic study and related professional experiences in the United States. Humphrey Fellows are selected based on their potential for leadership and their commitment to public service in either the public or the private sector. The Humphrey Program fosters a mutual exchange of knowledge and understanding about issues of common concern in the United States and the Fellows’ home countries. The Program offers Fellows valuable opportunities for leadership development and professional engagement with Americans and their counterparts from many nations. More than 3,700 men and women have been honored as Humphrey Fellows since the program began in 1978. Approximately 160 Fellowships are awarded annually. Fifteen major universities in the United States host Humphrey Fellows. These host universities are chosen for their excellence in the fields listed below and for the resources and support they offer Humphrey Fellows.

Humphrey Fellowships are awarded competitively to candidates who are mid-career professionals in many fields. To read more about the professional fields, please go to the "Program Fields“section. 

Applicants are required to have an undergraduate degree, a minimum of five years of substantial professional experience, limited or no prior experience in the United States, demonstrated leadership qualities, a record of public service in the community, and strong English skills.

The Humphrey Program is a Fulbright exchange activity.

Requirements (important)
Applicants must adhere to the following requirements:

• SA citizen (or permanent resident with SA passport)
• at least an undergraduate (four year university) degree
• a minimum of five years of full-time professional experience
• limited or no prior experience in the United States
• demonstrated leadership qualities
• a record of public service in the community
• English language ability

Program Fields
Candidates are being recruited in the following fields:

• Agricultural and Rural Development
• Communications/Journalism
• Economic Development
• Educational Administration, Planning and Policy
• Finance and Banking
• Higher Education Administration
• HIV/AIDS Policy and Prevention
• Human Resource Management
• Law and Human Rights
• Natural Resources, Environmental Policy, and Climate Change
• Public Health Policy and Management
• Public Policy Analysis and Public Administration
• Substance Abuse Education, Treatment and Prevention
• Teaching of English as a Foreign Language
• Technology Policy and Management
• Trafficking in Persons Policy and Prevention
• Urban and Regional Planning

Agricultural and Rural Development
Suitable candidates include individuals from the public sector, non-governmental organizations, and business focused on agricultural and food system development and/or rural development. The field includes, but is not limited to, the following areas of specialization: food security, sustainable farming systems, agricultural research, extension management, agricultural marketing and value-chain management, post-harvest technology and food safety, trade and food policy, and rural livelihood enhancement.

Communications/Journalism
Appropriate candidates include those using electronic, mass media, and telecommunications to facilitate national development in the areas of agriculture, health, family planning, nutrition, and education. These individuals might manage the aforementioned media strategies for non-governmental organizations or for state-run media. Journalists engaged in public affairs reporting, magazine and feature writing, and interpretive writing on social issues and international affairs also are suitable.

Economic Development
This field may be interpreted very broadly. Suitable candidates include policy makers and administrative managers focusing on contemporary development issues including population growth, agriculture and industrial development, poverty and income distribution, labor markets, and foreign trade. Individuals who are working in the fields of sustainable development and micro-finance in the public or private sector are also appropriate.

Educational Administration, Planning and Policy
Individuals who are contributing to national or regional education planning, policy development and implementation make good candidates. University professors with an exclusively academic focus are not suitable. However, university professors in administrative or policy-making positions are eligible. Candidate profiles also include those focused in the more technical areas of education: curriculum development, instruction and learning assessment techniques, program design and adult learning, teacher training, and the use of technology in higher education. These individuals may be teachers if they also have additional responsibilities in the areas above. 

Finance and Banking
Suitable candidates include individuals who are involved in the management of financial institutions, the regulation of depository institutions and securities, transnational lending and trade financing, or public-private partnerships. Corporate financial managers and analysts are appropriate if they are interested in and able to convey how their work will impact the development of the country. Individuals in this field are not suitable for the Humphrey Fellowship Program if they are primarily concerned with expanding a corporate entity's market share.

Higher Education Administration
This field of study is intended for individuals who devote a significant portion of their professional life to policy formation, strategic decision-making, planning and management in higher education. Individuals holding administrative or policy-making positions at institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations or government ministries are eligible. Suitable candidates also include those focused on functional areas of higher education, such as curriculum design, techniques for instruction and learning assessment, vocational and life-long learning programs, and areas of higher education administration such as financial management, student affairs, academic affairs, business affairs, recruitment and admissions, development and alumni relations, and the use of technology in higher education. These individuals can be faculty at institutions of higher education if they also have significant additional responsibilities in the areas listed above.  

HIV/AIDS Policy and Prevention
Physicians, health educators, communication specialists, and policy analysts who are interested in HIV/AIDS policy, treatment and prevention are appropriate candidates for this field. Candidates with a primary focus on clinical treatment are not appropriate.

Human Resource Management
The most suitable candidates in this field are those individuals dealing with institutional change and setting personnel policies and procedures. These might be human resource managers or individuals from various fields who have been charged with re-organizing a department or ministry, for example.

Law and Human Rights
Attorneys, judges, and human rights activists are the most suitable candidates in this field.  The range of law specializations is far reaching; some of the more common include: constitutional, criminal, business, civil rights, family/child, alternative dispute resolution, international humanitarian, international trade, international business, intellectual property, and telecommunications law. Individuals engaged in legal and judicial reform and the administration of justice also are appropriate candidates.

Natural Resources, Environmental Policy, and Climate Change
Natural resource and environmental managers are appropriate candidates for this field. Policy-makers working on the protection of natural resources, water quality, pollution control, land use, conservation, and environmental impact assessment also are suitable. Climate change is a critical emerging field open to professionals working in a range of disciplines, including policy development, clean technologies, carbon management, and response planning or adaptation to new climate patterns.

Public Health Policy and Management
Physicians, clinicians with management responsibilities, health educators, and other practitioners with policy-making responsibilities in this field are suitable candidates. Past Fellows' interests have included: management of public health care organizations, health care delivery through community-based organizations, reproductive, adolescent and child health, and epidemiology in public health practice. Candidates who are primarily practitioners in their field are not appropriate. For example, dentists whose program goals are to be more effective dentists in a clinical setting are not appropriate candidates for the program. Instead, dentists or other practitioners who are interested in acquiring skills and knowledge to become better administrators of public health programs, which might, for example, promote health education in their community or country, would be a better fit for the program. 

Public Policy Analysis and Public Administration
This field may be interpreted very broadly. Policy issues that past Fellows addressed have included: regional economic and workforce development planning; public management and leadership; financial management in public and non-profit organizations; poverty and inequality; gender; public finance and revenue administration; domestic and foreign development policies; political transition to market-based democracy; planning and the global knowledge economy; and private sector development.

Substance Abuse Education, Treatment and Prevention
Each year the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), one of 27 research institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, along with ECA, funds several Humphrey Fellows in the field of drug abuse prevention and treatment. These grants provide mid-career professionals with exposure to scientific methodologies and research advances and will help to establish research links that will lead to on-going international collaborations with NIDA in the field of drug abuse prevention and treatment.

Candidates for Humphrey Fellowships that will be co-funded with NIDA must meet all the regular selection criteria, including demonstrated potential for leadership and commitment to public service. Although candidates who hold a doctoral degree in medicine, health, biomedical, behavioral or social science will be preferred, candidates holding a master's degree and who have substantial professional experience and/or background in research will also be considered. Policy makers without a research background will be considered if they demonstrate an interest in learning how to understand and apply research about drug abuse. Appropriate candidates for these Fellowships include mid-level researchers, research managers and policy makers in universities, drug abuse prevention or treatment programs, nongovernmental organizations, government ministries, healthcare professions, or other drug abuse-related occupations.

Law enforcement candidates are not eligible unless they are qualified to participate in a program based in a school of public health and propose programs of study focused on drug abuse research, education, treatment and prevention, or demand reduction, as opposed to interdiction policies. 

All candidates applying for Fellowships in the field of drug abuse should fill out the special form for candidates in this field regardless of degree held, the number of their publications, or their research experience. We no longer count candidates in the field of drug abuse in addition to country quotas. Instead, you should recruit and rank applicants in this field together with candidates in other fields.

Teaching of English as a Foreign Language
Appropriate candidates include teacher trainers and master teachers in the field of Teaching of English as a Foreign Language if they are interested in teacher training, curriculum development, and methodology.

Technology Policy and Management
Network administrators, engineers, and urban planners involved in formulating technology policy and planning and managing technological change and systems are suitable candidates in this field.  Ministry of education officials and educators who teach technology and science in higher education institutions and can demonstrate leadership in curriculum development or administration in this field are also appropriate candidates.

Trafficking in Persons Policy and Prevention
Candidates include foreign government officials, NGO activists, and media specialists who are focused on anti-trafficking issues. Humphrey Fellows can focus in areas of public administration, NGO administration, law and human rights, social work, communications and journalism, and public health as applied to anti-trafficking program management and policy-making.

Urban and Regional Planning
Appropriate candidates for this field include architects, engineers, planners, urban designers, urban economists and sociologists, and historic preservation specialists. The field of Urban and Regional Planning should be broadly interpreted to include the following: urban infrastructure, transportation policy and planning, water and sanitation, town and rural planning, land use and urban design, housing and real estate development, international and comparative planning, environmental protection and planning, ecological land development, public policy, social policy, urban redevelopment policy, economic development and planning, regional economic integration, economic conversion, urban finance management, and urban spatial analysis using geographic information systems.

How to apply
To start your application, please click on the link below (or copy and paste it into your browser):

http://apply.embark.com/student/humphrey/fellowship/

This will allow you to create an account to start your application. You can log in multiple times and complete the process over time.  You should, however, keep your login information and password safe for future use.  Please finalize your application before August 16th 2010.

More information
Please visit the Hubert H. Humphrey website:

http://humphreyfellowship.org/

Or contact:

Jacques Wiese
Academic Exchange Program Coordinator
U.S. Consulate General – Johannesburg
Tel: +27 (0)11 290 3081 Fax : +27 (0)11 884 0534
Cell: 082 338 7644
Email: WieseJ@state.gov