President's Young Professionals Program

Founded in 2009, the President’s Young Professionals Program (PYPP) is a robust independently run public service fellowship program that recruits high-achieving young Liberian graduates through a competitive, rigorous, and transparent selection process; provides training and mentorship; and offers ongoing support and career development. As these young professionals (PYPs) increasingly fill more senior executive roles in Liberia’s civil service, they will accelerate a government-level shift towards the values of strong leadership, transparency, and meritocracy.

PYPP serves as a sister organization to Emerging Public Leaders and is led by Ciata Stevens d’Almeida, Executive Director and member of the inaugural cohort of PYP Fellows (2009-2011). Recognizing the importance of investing in the human capital within the civil service from the bottom-up, Ciata is passionate towards the building the Liberian government’s capacity and accelerate efficient service delivery. She provides critical leadership support, and is responsible for the and is responsible for the management and implementation of program-related activities and curricula in Liberia. You can read more about PYPP working to rebuild Liberia here.

Office of the Head of the Civil Service

EPL is pleased to work with the Office of the Head of Civil Service (OHCS) to foster knowledge transfer of the program’s best practices for recruitment and talent management of high-performing young professionals. In August 2019, EPL formalized a Memorandum of Understanding with the OHCS, which guarantees the absorption of the first three cohorts of EPL Ghana Fellows (60 in total( into the civil service. OHCS plays a critical role in being the main interface with the EPL program and the ministries, and has a front row seat to understanding the methodologies and best practices that EPL uses.

National Service Scheme

In Ghana, EPL Ghana benefits from an established partnership with from the National Service Scheme (NSS), a one-year mandatory public service program for all university graduates. The mandate of NSS to provide opportunities for newly qualified Ghanaian graduates to have work experience in the public and private sectors complements that of EPL. EPL Ghana places high-performing Ghanaian university graduates in the Government of Ghana, the first year of which satisfies Fellows’ NSS requirements.

Civil Service Training Centre

EPL Ghana benefits from a partnership with Ghana’s Civil Service Training Centre (CSTC), the training institution responsible for training lower and middle level civil service personnel in Ghana. EPL’s main training partner, CSTC, delivers leading edge training to improve the functional effectiveness and efficiency of civil and public servants through adult learning approaches and activities in a well-equipped facility. In collaboration with EPL, CSTC is responsible for designing and delivering the 2-year monthly responsive training curriculum to EPL Fellows.

Emerging Leaders Foundation-Africa

The Public Service Emerging Leaders Fellowship (PSELF) program is a program led jointly by the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Kenya, Emerging Leaders Foundation – Africa and Emerging Public Leaders.

The PSELF program is an intergenerational effort to re-engage Kenya’s youth in public service and administration, by driving the recruitment of young, ethical talent into public service, to enhance government service delivery, citizen outcomes and influence long-term social policy and change.

Fellows will receive a year of responsive training focused on public-sector specific leadership development, ethics cultivation and citizen-centered government delivery, hands-on mentorship, community service engagement and continuous career development support, including networking opportunities among pan-African alumni. The Public Service Fellows will experience a specially designed curriculum, which incorporates learning, good practices, and knowledge from Kenya and around the world. Designed in collaboration with the Chandler Institute of Governance, an international non-profit organization based in Singapore, the curriculum will be defined by its strong practitioner orientation.