Launch of the GPI Sustainable Growth Fellowship — Cohort 2
We are delighted to open applications for the GPI’s Sustainable Growth Fellowship. Following a successful inaugural cohort in 2024, the fellowship continues to place capable professionals inside high-impact Tanzanian businesses where they can build practical solutions and drive measurable growth.
This unique fellowship offers successful candidates a 12 to 24 month paid position working in dynamic businesses across Tanzania. Designed for recent graduates, young professionals, or those seeking to expand their horizons and maximise their impact, the GPI Sustainable Growth Fellowship is a rare opportunity to gain real world experience in driving broad based sustainable economic growth.
Opportunity Highlights
As a Fellow you will spend 12 to 24 months working full-time in a high impact private enterprise in Tanzania. The GPI works with a range of Tanzanian small businesses. These include Upendo Honey, Dark Earth Carbon, Tanganyika Blue, Kokoa Kamili amongst others. The fellow(s) will be placed within one of these organisations in a role with significant decision-making authority. Their job will be to do whatever it takes to increase impact, deliver programs, and solve challenges. This could be spearheading the design and project managing the construction of a new cocoa processing facility, mainstreaming development impact reporting metrics, building a field team to test a new method of smallholder engagement, or working out how to influence government policy to conserve the amazing biodiversity of Lake Tanganyika but not trade away livelihoods. Ultimately the north star of all these companies is to help people sustainably lift themselves out of poverty. That will be your north star too.
The fellowship package includes:
A living wage, paid monthly.
Housing allowance and work/residence permits.
Health emergency evacuation insurance.
The chance to pitch, write, and edit articles for thegpi.org as desired.
Who Are We Looking For?
We welcome recent graduates, early-career professionals, those seeking a new challenge or anyone looking for a more impactful role. People from any and all disciplines and backgrounds are encouraged to apply. But you must:
Show clear interest in firm-level drivers of economic development.
Thrive in fast-moving, sometimes ambiguous environments.
Be able translate data into action, explain results in plain language, and build systems that stick.
Jump at the opportunity to live and work in Tanzania for up to two years.
Why Are We Doing This?
A couple of charts recently stopped us in our tracks. First the good news; many people around the world now have electricity.
But those who do not basically all live in sub-Saharan Africa.
And that’s because sub-Saharan Africa, with East and Southern lagging behind Western and Central, is the last region of the world where poverty remains the norm.
In 2025, 52.8% of the 700 million people living in East and Southern Africa live on less than $3 per day PPP (the World Bank’s current chosen poverty line). In 2010, the percentage was 52% and the population was “only” 410 million people. In both proportional and absolute numbers, poverty in East and Southern Africa has increased over the last 15 years.
The way out of poverty – be that energy, food, shelter, or even digital poverty – is broad based sustainable economic growth. That is why the GPI exists.
International development can be a hard field to get into. This fellowship seeks to connect those who have the skills and desire to have a positive impact with companies that need mission driven people.
Key Fellowship Dates
Applications open: Today!
Applications close: 15th July 2025
Interviews and Selection process: Late July
Fellows in-country: Early September (or by arrangement)
How to Apply
Interested candidates are encouraged to apply by submitting their resume and a cover letter that outlines their interest in the fellowship and what you hope to achieve. Please send your applications to alex@thegpi.org by 15th of July 2025 and feel free to contact him with any questions.
About the GPI
The Global Prosperity Institute (GPI) is a think tank committed to promoting prosperity and combatting poverty by stimulating economic growth in LMICs. We advance the debate with new research, building the evidence base on what works for economic growth in a range of contexts.
For more information, visit our website:
I hope you get many great applicants! I'll also share this opportunity in my networks. For those considering it, I did a shorter internship in Kigoma for Dark Earth Carbon (one of the companies listed) and learned a great deal from it.