Robert S. McNamara Fellowships Program

The Robert S. McNamara Fellowships Program was established in 1982 to honor the former President of the World Bank. The Program annually awards Fellowships to support innovative and imaginative post-graduate research in areas of socioeconomic development-specifically focusing on issues critical to improving the lives of the most vulnerable in society. To date, 205 Fellowships have been awarded, spanning issues related to health and population, education of girls, environmental conservation, agricultural and infrastructure development, conflict resolution, the role of NGOs in development, trade and tax reforms, and poverty reduction.

Fellowships are open to applicants who are nationals of, and residents in, countries which are currently eligible to borrow from the World Bank. The research must be carried out in the applicant's own country, or country of residence at the time of application. This Program does not provide financial support for an advanced degree (this includes field work for a Ph.D. degree).

Length of Fellowship

Fellowships are awarded for a period of 12 months and must be commenced within three months of the award being made. The fellowships cannot be extended or deferred.

Amount of Award

The amount of the award is US$7,500. This is a standard amount, intended to cover the cost of the research and its dissemination, and is not negotiable. No other costs will be considered.

Research Theme for the 2001 Fellowships Cycle: Sustainable Development

Sustainable development poses important questions as to how economic growth is conceived and managed through incentives and regulation. Increasing the production of goods and services is mperative to meet our poverty alleviation objectives and the desire of populations everywhere to improve their standards of living. But current growth patterns have already placed a heavy strain on the environment that threatens the medium and longer term sustainability of these production systems (e.g., water stress, land degradation, harmful air and water pollution). Nearly all of the expected increase in the world's population of 2 billion in the next 25 years will occur in developing countries. If we succeed in our growth objectives, total production in these countries will more than triple and per capita consumption more than double. The stresses on the environment and on the fabrics of our economies and societies will greatly increase. The challenge is how to make sure that this development is sustainable: economically, socially, and environmentally.

The Program invites research proposals (3-4 pages in length) that address one of the following aspects of this challenge:

1. Sustainable Technologies

Recent revolutions in communications and information systems and strategic decisions by environmentally concerned companies (primarily in developed countries) offer exciting opportunities to increase output, jobs, and welfare while placing less stress on the environment and consuming fewer inputs. By adopting such technologies, developing countries have the opportunity to leapfrog over some of the more costly stages of development and move directly to higher quality and more sustainable development paths.

In your country; what are the most promising opportunities to absorb sustainably oriented technological progress, what is needed to create the incentives and structure to encourage rapid adoption of these technologies, and how could such a program be put in place?

2. Urbanization

Populations of developing country cities will increase by about 2 billion in the next 25 years, and they will host the bulk of economic development. Most of these urban areas already face serious problems of congestion, lack of basic services, and pollution, which seriously impact the poorest. The expected increase in population and activity will require massive investments in infrastructure-roads, housing, and utilities-and provision of critical services-health, education, water and sanitation. These investments will, in turn, shape the activity and quality of life in those cities for a long time. It is possible to make the cities more livable through effective planning and community action (e.g., Curitiba, Brazil), and improved urban life is essential to both poverty alleviation and sustainability. In your country or city, identify and carefully analyze two or three cases where well-designed plans or programs are significantly improving the quality of urban life (particularly for the poor). What have been the requirements to design and build popular support for these programs, and how have they been implemented? Also identify how those successful experiences can be efficiently disseminated to other communities for replication and scaling-up.

3. Community-based Natural Resource Management

The use of natural resources requires that such resources be managed sustainably and effectively. Experience has shown that a sustainable and effective management of the natural resources cannot be attained without the participation of the communities where the resources are located. In your country, identify and carefully analyze two to three cases where initiatives on Community-based Natural Resource Management, that had been implemented in accordance with the country's overall policy framework, have proven to be beneficial to the community, especially in terms of economic- ally, socially and environmentally sustainable development. Also identify how those successful experiences can be efficiently disseminated to other communities for replication and scaling-up.

Output

Fellows are expected to issue two progress reports, a research abstract during the fellowship year and a final report containing the results of the research at the end of the fellowship year. The final reports are reviewed by World Bank staff. The World Bank has first rights on publication of these materials.

Note: The final research product will be considered for publication in the Policy Research Working Paper Series and will be used as background material for World Development Report 2002/3.

Seminar Participation

A seminar is organized for the Fellows during the Fellowship year in Washington, DC.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following general criteria to be eligible for a fellowship award:

• Be a national and resident of a World Bank member country which is currently eligible to borrow;
• Normally, candidates should be 35 years old or younger. However, the Program has interpreted this requirement with flexibility in the past and will consider exceptional candidates up to age 40;
• Must have completed and been awarded at least a Master's degree, or equivalent, at the time of application.

Application Procedures

All applications must be submitted with the required documentation on the correct application forms. Forms for the 2001 cycle are available from all World Bank Resident Missions and from the McNamara Fellowships Program office at World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC. All requests for application forms should quote our reference: RSM/01/1.(Failure to do so may result in delays in receiving the forms).

To be considered for the 2001 cycle, all completed application forms must be received in Washington, DC, by August 15, 2000. Late applications will not be considered. The awards will be announced in November 2000.

Applications and correspondence may be sent to:

Robert S. McNamara Fellowships Program
The World Bank
1818 H Street NW
Washington DC, 20433, USA

The Program Office can also be contacted at:

E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: (202) 522-4036

Last updated:    May 2000

CCSI Home	Announcements	Eurasia	Opinion/Analysis	Bookstore	Site Map	Search
	Center for Civil Society International Ideas and information for civic action worldwide