The Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP) 2023

The Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP) is open to citizens of certain developing countries with relevant professional experience and a history of supporting their countries’ development efforts who are applying to a master degree program in a development-related topic. Subject to available funding, JJWBGSP offers scholarships for 45 Participating Master’s Programs in 27 universities in U.S., Europe, Africa, Oceania and Japan in key areas of development, including economic policy management, tax policy, and infrastructure management.

Eligibility:

• Applicant must be a national of a World Bank member developing country.
• Must not hold dual citizenship of any developed country.
• Be in good health.
• Candidate should hold a Bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree earned at least 3 years prior to the Application Deadline date.
• Should have 3 years or more of recent development-related work experience after earning a Bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree.
• Candidate must be employed in development-related work in a paid full- time position at the time of submitting the scholarship application. Have at least 3 years of paid development-related employment since earning a Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent university degree) and acquired within the past 6 years from the date of the Application Deadline.
• On or before the Scholarship Application Deadline date, 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.

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, have limited access to financial resources for graduate studies abroad.