​The Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management at Stellenbosch University was selected by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) to host an African Diaspora scholar from Canada, Prof Prof Josephine Etowa, to work on a project to advance HIV/AIDS research.

The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, now in its fourth year, is designed to reverse Africa's brain drain, strengthen capacity at the host institutions, and develop long-term, mutually beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa and the United States and Canada.

The SU project is one of 12 projects that will pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions and collaborators in Africa to work together on curriculum co-development, collaborative research, graduate training and mentoring activities in the coming months.

The focus of the Stellenbosch project will be on developing the capacity of academic staff for qualitative research methods, research publication and grant writing skills; strengthening the qualitative research methods curriculum for postgraduate students through enhancing the existing curriculum in qualitative research methodology; mentoring early career researchers in writing publishable papers; and improving the academic staff's postgraduate supervision skills by conducting workshops.

Director of the Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management, Ms Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola, will lead the project, together with Prof Etowa, a fellow from the University of Ottawa, Canada.

Ms Dubula-Majola said, “We believe that our existing footprint in the African Continent is mainly through our student-focused research. However, we aim to broaden it towards more social impact research capabilities through this North-South collaboration initiative offered by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship programme.

“Our growth plan includes preparing postgraduate students and early career researchers to possess excellent qualitative research skill sets needed for the world of work."

The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with the United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) in Nairobi, Kenya, which coordinates the activities of the Advisory Council.

A total of 397 African Diaspora Fellowships have been awarded for scholars to travel to Africa since the programme's inception in 2013. Fellowships match host universities with African-born scholars and cover the expenses for project visits of between 21 and 90 days, including transportation, a daily stipend, and the cost of obtaining visas and health insurance.

• To see the full list of projects, hosts and scholars, click here.