Emerging leaders from around the world join network of leaders tackling global drivers of inequality

NEW YORK – The Ford Foundation announced today the 2024 cohort of the Ford Global Fellowship, a program which aims to connect and support the next generation of leaders from around the world who are advancing innovative solutions to end inequality. The 26 leaders announced today join an existing network of 72 fellows working across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East.

Launched in 2020 with an investment of $50 million over 10 years, the foundation’s flagship fellowship program provides emerging leaders with the tools, networks, and solidarity they need to effectively advance social justice. The Ford Global Fellowship focuses on shared learning across issue areas, building and strengthening connections across borders, and developing a supportive, interconnected cohort from across a wide variety of sectors and regions. It aims to build a powerful network of 240 fellows over the course of the program and serve as a catalyst for the fellows to accelerate the impact of their work, individually and collectively. 

“We are thrilled to welcome these 26 inspiring individuals into the Ford Global Fellowship community,” said Hilary Pennington, executive vice president of programs for the Ford Foundation. “The Ford Global Fellowship is a hallmark of our commitment to invest in the ideas, individuals, and institutions creating lasting, systemic change. The newest Fellows are courageous leaders in their own right who are both imagining and actively building a more just future. Their lived experiences and insights will be a powerful addition to our global community.” 

Central to the Ford Global Fellows initiative is its “community of practice.” Based on principles of co-learning and co-design, the fellows not only learn from each other as peers but also invite the foundation’s grantmakers, grantees, and other networks of leaders from the broader social justice field to learn alongside them. Experiential, place-based learning trips and sessions are organized by fellows from the 11 regions in which Ford operates. The community works to shed light on their interdependent histories and shared challenges in service of creating space for innovation. Each new fellow receives a no-strings-attached $25,000 stipend, alongside individualized coaching, to help grow leadership skills and reach new audiences.

“The community of Ford Global Fellows have expanded each others’ worldviews, challenged their own and our thinking, and posed inquiries that have sharpened our approaches to creating a more just society and fairer systems,” said Adria Goodson, director of the Ford Global Fellowship. “These 26 new Fellows enter a dynamic learning community and will bring their own wisdom and perspectives, contributing to a more complete picture of the work that lies ahead. Together, Fellows will examine their thorniest questions about disrupting inequality and build towards insights, innovations, and actions that will shape a better future.”

The network of Ford Global Fellows represent a broad range of backgrounds, fields, and approaches to addressing inequality, with areas of focus that include promoting equal rights and opportunities for women and girls, securing rights for Indigenous and traditional communities, increasing political and economic power of people with disabilities, and more. Many are from directly impacted communities and emerged as leaders by drawing from their own lived experiences with the challenges of inequality.

The 2024 fellows cohort are:

To learn more about the Ford Global Fellows please visit: https://fordf.org/FordGlobalFellows.