The Canada Africa Innovation Fellowship (CAIF Fellowship) is an international social change & entrepreneurial program at the intersection of innovation and sustainable development, serving to activate and empower recent graduates from engineering and non-engineering backgrounds from Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa to solve local and global challenges. 

 

At EWB, we know that change doesn’t happen in one place - it happens when we come together. The Canada-Africa Innovation Fellowship program therefore allows us to connect talent cross-continentally,  incubating bold ideas in order to address complex global challenges with scalable and sustainable solutions. CAIF provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate students in Canada and sub-Saharan Africa to work together with three goals in mind: foster strong leadership and entrepreneurial skills, create solutions to global challenges, and provide opportunities to scale their impact. This is coupled with a unique platform for the individual fellow to develop soft skills and connect with mentors and peers from across the world, preparing the next generation of System change leaders.

 

This is a 4 month, in-person international exchange fellowship program, where our Fellows undergo extensive entrepreneurial training, learning what it takes to design, implement, and scale a viable business. The fellows are grouped into smaller cohorts of four students, two from Canada and two from SSA, and spend the first three months of the program designing a collaborative social venture that aims to solve  a climate-based issue.  During the last month of the program, cohorts are matched with mentors who are experts in the area the Fellows have focused their innovation on, helping them to fine-tune their plan into a viable solution. At the end of the program, Fellows have the opportunity to pitch their venture to a panel of EWB staff, community members, donors, corporate partners and advisors - in hopes of gaining an avenue to further pursue and scale  their innovation.