The program, offered through the International Institute of Education, targets African-born scholars working in the United States and Canada, allowing them to work on collaborative research projects, graduate student teaching and mentoring, and on curriculum co-development with universities in select largely English-speaking African countries.

The annual program awards scholarships that enable fellows to carry out projects for periods of up to three months. It matches host African universities with the scholars as individuals or groups, covering living expenses as they implement their projects.

This is after the fellows submit applications and project proposals which are evaluated by a review committee and before a final decision is made an CADFP advisory council made up of “prominent” Africa academics.

So far some 203 higher learning institutions, both public and private in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda have been participating in the program, meant to improve international collaborations, and build collaborations between members of the African academic diaspora and their home universities.

The latest group of 56 fellowships awarded to individuals and institutions to take part in the joint academic projects with African universities was announced in June. In 2015, 17 professors joined the program.

The latest group includes 15 in Kenya, 13 each in Nigeria and Ghana, six in South Africa, three in Tanzania and two each in Uganda and Ethiopia.

The CADP is part of the larger Higher Education and Research in Africa initiative of the philanthropist organisation, which aims to strengthen Africa’s higher education sector by “improving the training, retention, and research productivity of academics”.

Between 2010 to 2019, the corporation says it invested US$134.43 million in different higher education initiatives in Africa, in what it describes as efforts to “help the continent develop and retain the next generation of African academics”, and facilitate higher education policy and research.