The Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP) promote capacity building within organisations in 51 countries by providing training and education through fellowships for professionals. The NFP is initiated and fully funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the budget for development cooperation.
The aim of the NFP
The NFP aims to help increase both the number and the competencies of skilled staff at a wide range of government and non-government organisations.
Each embassy has its own focus area to support the development goals of the Netherlands in each NFP country. The overall objective is to spend 35% of the budget on grants and study programmes in food security and private sector development.
The fellowships are further prioritised as follows:
- 50% of the budget is for applications from Sub Saharan Africa.
- 50% of fellowships has to be awarded to female applicants.
The target group
The NFP target group consists of professionals who are nationals of and work and live in an NFP country. The chances of obtaining an NFP fellowship increase if you live and work in Sub-Saharan Africa and/or if you are a woman.
Eligibility Criteria
Target group
The NFP target group consists of professionals who are nationals of and work and live in an NFP country.
NFP fellowships are awarded in a very competitive selection to highly motivated professionals with at least three years work experience. You can only become a candidate if you are nominated by your employer. After completing your training as an NFP fellow, you return to your original workplace to ensure the training is embedded within your employing organisation.
Priorities
Your chances of obtaining an NFP scholarship go up if you:
- live and work in Sub-Saharan Africa;
- are a woman;
- belong to a priority groups and/or are from a marginalised region as defined by the Dutch embassy in your country.
You can find these priorities on the embassy's website.
Criteria
- must be a national of, and working and living in one of the countries on the NFP country list;
- must have an employer’s statement that complies with the format Nuffic has provided. All information must be provided and all commitments that are included in the format must be endorsed in the statement;
- must not be employed by an organisation that has its own means of staff-development. Organisations that are considered to have their own means for staff development are for example:
-multinational corporations (e.g. Shell, Unilever, Microsoft),
-large national and/or a large commercial organisations,
-bilateral donor organisations (e.g. USAID, DFID, Danida, Sida, Dutch ministry of Foreign affairs, FinAid, AusAid, ADC, SwissAid),
-multilateral donor organisations, (e.g. a UN organization, the World Bank, the IMF, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, IADB),
-international NGO’s (e.g. Oxfam, Plan, Care);
- must have an official and valid passport;
- must not receive more than one fellowship for courses that take place at the same time;
- must have a government statement that meets the requirements of the country in which the employer is established (if applicable).
Offered Benefits
An NFP fellowship is intended to supplement the salary that the fellow should continue to receive during the study period. The allowance is a contribution towards the costs of living, the costs of tuition fees, visas, travel, insurance and thesis research. If applicable, the fellowship holder is expected to cover the difference between the actual costs and the amount of the personal NFP allowances.
The fellowships are awarded in a very competitive selection to highly motivated professionals who are in a position to introduce the newly-acquired skills and knowledge into their employing organisation.
