AWARDS CRITERIA

Fellowships are available to currently registered students who have advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. in the social sciences, physical sciences, technical fields and the professions as related to grassroots development issues. Applications for clinical research in the health field will NOT be considered.

Awards are based on both development and scholarly criteria. Proposals should offer a practical orientation to field-based information. Only in exceptional cases will the IAF support proposals reflecting a primary interest in macro questions of politics and economics as they relate to the environment of the poor. Because the Fellowship Program complements IAF's support for grassroots development in Latin America and the Caribbean, preference is given to those applicants whose careers or research projects are related to topics of greatest interest to the IAF. Current priority topics include the following:

●     Organizations promoting grassroots development among poor and disadvantaged

        peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean;

●     the financial sustainability and independence of development organizations;

●     trends affecting historically excluded groups, such as African descendants,

        indigenous people, women, people with disabilities and young people;

●     transnational development;

●     the role of corporate social responsibility in grassroots development;

●     the impact of globalization on grassroots development;

●     the impact on the quality of life of the poor of grassroots development activities in

       such areas as sustainable agriculture and natural resource management; housing;

       primary health care; education; urban development; training and technical

       assistance; technology transfer; jobs creation; and marketing and small-enterprise

       development.