The Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF) program is a component of the Young
African Leadership Initiative (YALI). It was launched in 2014 while the YALI exercise
itself started in 2010 as an effort of President Obama’s administration to offer training
opportunities to young african leaders.
While the other YALI fellows are trained in West Africa (Ghana and Senegal) with
WARC being one of the implementers in the Senegalese capital, all Mandela
Washington fellows have a 6-week training agenda with US universities, businesses
and other institutions on american territory.
The tenth cohort’s orientation session was opened on Thursday May 2 nd and wrapped
up the following day at the West African Research Center (WARC) in Dakar. The
ceremony was presided over by the Political Affairs Officer of the US Embassy, Ruth
Ann Klitz and Ousmane Sene, the Director of WARC. The cohort includes 26
Senegalese and 3 Bissau Guinean recipients.
To date, the Mandela Washington Fellowship program has trained 241 Senegalese
and 26 fellows from Guinea Bissau.

Photo 1: Prof Sene and Ruth Anne Stevens-Klitz during the opening ceremony

Photo 2: A group photograph of the Mandela Washington fellows