Adamseged Kassahun Abebe was a World Bank Africa Fellow in 2024. We caught up with him to check in on the fellowship experience.
Get more information on the program and application process for 2025!
What drove you to apply for the Africa Fellowship Program?
I applied for two reasons. First, I have always been interested in development and have studied it – from public health in undergrad and a masters in non-profit leadership to a PhD in education and conflict. The World Bank is one of the most unique places, one can be exposed to development work and work towards building a government’s long-term capacity rather than short-term one-off projects. I applied to the Africa Fellowship Program because it is one of the few ways in which one can get involved in World Bank operational work at a young age.
Second, after spending a while in academia, I understood that I did not want to be in a purely academic space, where the discussions and theories can often be distant from the real-world challenges and government policy-oriented settings. But I also wanted to be in a space where I could continue to discuss intellectual ideas and debate global issues. The World Bank is a unique place where academia and the practical world meet on an everyday basis. I can attend lectures and seminars to debate about education reform policies while also directly working on countries’ curriculum designs or learning assessments. This desire to be at the nexus of academia and practice is what motivated me to apply for the Fellowship.
What was your experience as a fellow? Any standout success moments or challenges?
I have had an amazing and insightful experience as a fellow. My manager has been a big advocate of the Africa Fellowship Program and deliberately tasked me to support various projects ranging from the FCV context in Somalia to high-performing projects in Kenya. I had a unique first few weeks at the Bank where I got the opportunity to travel to Florida and assess the role of emerging 3D construction printing technologies to address school shortage challenges in Africa. After that, I worked in Kenya on preparation for a new Program-for-Results project and participated in discussions with the government on program design.
With the Somalia team, I supported an implementation support mission and knowledge exchange study visit between the Government of Rwanda and the Government of Somalia. Amongst my experiences, a standout success moment and a challenge has been becoming a co-climate focal point for the Eastern and Southern Africa Education Unit and supporting projects on how best to integrate climate adaptation and mitigation efforts into our education projects.
How do you make yourself stand out during the application and selection process? Can you provide any tips for others based on your experience?
I would focus on two things. First, present yourself as who you are. There is a misperception that everyone must be an economist or must have one-type of skill set. The Bank works in so many sectoral and geographical contexts and its work depends on the uniqueness of its human resources to meet the complex global challenges. It’s better to articulate how a candidate’s technical expertise can fit into the Bank’s operation rather than to try to imitate others. And if you need to understand how the Bank operates, please reach out to your network and ask them to give you a good understanding.
Second, it would be useful to highlight how you independently operate in an unstructured setting. As a Fellow, you are coming into an already existing team where you would be expected to integrate yourself without much prior experience. This requires you to proactively ask for tasks and find yourself a role within various teams. It helps to show your flexibility and agility when navigating new working teams and corporate work settings.
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