Are you a citizen of a developing country with relevant professional experience and a history of supporting your country’s development efforts? Do you want to pursue a master’s degree in a development-related topic and contribute to your country’s social and economic development? If yes, then the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP) is for you.
The program is designed to provide financial support to outstanding students who are interested in pursuing a master’s degree in a development-related field. JJWBGSP offers scholarships to 45 Participating Master’s Programs in 27 prestigious universities across the U.S., Europe, Africa, Oceania, and Japan. The program is available to students who are interested in various key areas of development, including economic policy management, tax policy, and infrastructure management.
Eligibility Criteria for JJ/WBGSP Scholarship
To be eligible for the JJ/WBGSP scholarship, you must fulfill the following criteria:
- Be a national of a World Bank member developing country
- Not hold dual citizenship of any developed country
- Hold a Bachelor’s degree earned at least 3 years prior to the Application Deadline date
- Have 3 or more years of recent development-related work experience after earning a Bachelor’s degree
- Be employed in development-related work in a paid full-time position at the time of submitting the scholarship application
- Be admitted unconditionally (except for funding) for the upcoming academic year to at least one of the JJ/WBGSP participating master’s programs located outside of the applicant’s country of citizenship and country of residence listed at the time the call for scholarship applications opens
- Not be an Executive Director, his/her alternate, and/or staff of any type of appointment of the World Bank Group or a close relative of the aforementioned by blood or adoption
- JJ/WBGSP Scholarship Application Process
Application Process for JJ/WBGSP Scholarship
The application process for the JJ/WBGSP scholarship is organized in two rounds to accommodate the academic calendar of JJ/WBGSP Participating Programs:
- Application Window#1: From January 16 to February 28, 2023 at noon Washington time
- Application Window #2: From March 27 to May 26, 2023 at noon Washington time
Please note that if you are not admitted to one of the 45 Participating Master’s Programs, you are not eligible to apply for a JJ/WBGSP Scholarship in 2023. Also, special application procedures will need to be followed for 3 Participating Programs in 2023.
To apply for the JJ/WBGSP scholarship, you need to follow these steps:
Check if you fulfill the eligibility criteria mentioned above
- Find a Participating Master’s Program that aligns with your development-related career aspirations
- Apply for admission to the Participating Master’s Program(s)
- Once you are admitted unconditionally (except for funding) to a Participating Master’s Program, you will receive the link to the online JJ/WBGSP Application Form from the Participating program you are targeting
- Complete the online JJ/WBGSP Application Form and submit it to the Participating Program
Benefits of JJ/WBGSP Scholarship
The JJ/WBGSP scholarship provides the following benefits to the selected scholars:
- Tuition at the graduate level
- Monthly stipend for living expenses
- Round-trip airfare to and from the student’s home country and the host university
- Health insurance
- Travel allowance
JJWBGSP scholarship recipients are also eligible for a six-month internship at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C., during their studies or immediately after they complete their studies
Selection Process
The JJ/WBGSP uses the following process to review eligible scholarship applications from developing country nationals, with the aim of identifying the candidates with the highest potential, after completion of their graduate studies, to impact the development of their countries.
Two qualified assessors independently review each eligible application and score the application on a scale of 1 to 10, taking into account four main factors and the degree of cohesion among them:
- Quality of Professional Experience (30% weight)
- Quality of Professional Recommendations (30% weight)
- Quality of Commitment to your Home Country (30% weight)
- Quality of Education Background (10% weight)
The JJ/WBGSP Secretariat uses the average score of the two assessors and the following criteria to select the finalists:
- Maintaining a reasonably wide geographical distribution of awards
- Maintaining a reasonable distribution of awards across gender
- Unusual circumstances/hardships, when assessing the employment experience and other aspects of an application
- Giving scholarships to those applicants who, other things being equal, appear to have a strong academic background and are likely to succeed in advanced studies in their proposed fields of study
The JJ/WBGSP Secretariat presents the finalists for the preferred scholarship program to the World Bank for approval. The World Bank approves the finalists for the JJ/WBGSP scholarship.
JJ/WBGSP scholarship does not cover
The JJ/WBGSP scholarship does not cover visa application costs, expenses for supporting family members, extracurricular courses or training, language training that is not provided by the graduate program, additional travel expenses during the study program, research expenses, supplementary educational materials, field trips, participation in workshops/seminars, or internships, educational equipment such as computers, and resident permit fees. It’s important for scholarship applicants to carefully review the eligibility criteria and terms of the scholarship to understand what is covered and what is not covered.
Is Nepal on the list of Eligible countries for the JJ/WBGSP scholarship?
Yes, Nepalese students are eligible for the scholarship.
These are the countries eligible for the JJ/WBGSP scholarship: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Dem. Rep., Congo, Rep., Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Dominica, Egypt, Arab Rep., El Salvador, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, The, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Islamic Rep., Iraq, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Micronesia, Fed. Sts., Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, St Lucia, St Vincent, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, West Bank and Gaza, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
