The WanaData Fellowships are now open, offering young data enthusiasts, storytellers, and changemakers across Africa a chance to sharpen their skills and amplify youth voices through data. This fellowship helps participants build practical data skills, advance civic engagement, and contribute to better evidence-based decision making. If you’re passionate about using data to address social challenges, influence policy, or strengthen accountability, this programme gives you the tools and network to grow.
What the WanaData Fellowship Offers (Benefits)
✔ Advanced Data Training
Participants receive hands-on learning in data skills that matter from data collection and analysis to visualisation and storytelling.
✔ Practical Project Work
You’ll work on real problems, creating data-driven stories, dashboards, or tools that spotlight youth issues in your community or country.
✔ Mentorship & Expert Guidance
Fellows are paired with mentors from data journalism, analysis, and digital rights domains to refine their work and build professional confidence.
✔ Networking & Collaboration
You’ll join a vibrant community of young data practitioners, researchers, and civic tech advocates spread across Africa.
✔ Visibility & Impact
Selected projects and outcomes may be shared across partner platforms — helping your work reach media, policy actors, and wider civil society audiences.
This fellowship is especially useful for early-career professionals, students, or young graduates exploring careers in data science, research, journalism, or public policy.
Who Should Apply (Eligibility)
The WanaData Fellowship is designed for young Africans who:
Are aged 18–35
Reside in an African country
Have a passion for data, civic engagement, or digital storytelling
Want to use data to illuminate youth issues, inequality, governance, service delivery, or other social challenges
Can commit to the fellowship’s learning and project schedule
No advanced academic degree is required, applicants with curiosity, creativity, and commitment to social impact often thrive in this programme.
Why This Matters
Data is central to understanding and solving complex societal problems — from youth unemployment and education gaps to climate risk and governance.
Africa’s youth make up a large share of the population, yet their perspectives are under-represented in data, research, and policy processes.
The fellowship empowers young people to collect, analyse, visualise, and communicate data responsibly, filling gaps in evidence and helping shape solutions that matter to their peers and communities.
As public institutions and civil society increasingly rely on data for planning and accountability, skills gained through this fellowship become valuable in careers across government, media, NGOs, tech, and entrepreneurship.
Read the full fellowship brief for details on objectives, eligibility and deliverables.
Prepare your application materials:
Basic personal information
A short statement on why you want to join and what youth issue you’d like to explore with data
Any prior examples of your work related to data, research, journalism, or community engagement (if available)
Submit the application online by the given deadline.
Wait for notification — successful candidates will be contacted with next steps.
Applicants should ensure their submissions are clear about the youth-related challenge they plan to explore and how data can support tangible insights or solutions.
