Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to Support Projects in Africa
Dr. Donatus Mutasingwa was awarded a fellowship to travel to Tanzania to develop a family medicine curriculum with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Health Sciences
Toronto, January 11, 2025 – Dr. Donatus Mutasingwa from the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), University of Toronto was awarded a fellowship by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to travel to Tanzania to work with Professor Enica Richard Massawe from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Health Sciences (MUHAS) on a project titled “Co-Development of the first Family Medicine Residency Curriculum at MUHAS.”
Over the past three years, MUHAS, in collaboration with Dr. Mutasingwa and other international and local stakeholders, has developed a draft Family Medicine curriculum. Dr. Mutasingwa will collaborate with Professor Massawe and local stakeholders to further refine the curriculum, facilitate workshops, and engage stakeholders. He will also contribute to developing foundational courses in Family Medicine.
This initiative marks a milestone in establishing MUHAS's first publicly funded Family Medicine Residency Program in Tanzania. Family doctors, as trained generalists, will enhance the primary care quality and strengthen the referral systems. Embedded within communities, they will provide preventive, curative, and coordinated care while ensuring continuity of care for the population of Tanzania.
This effort will also deepen collaboration with the University of Toronto's Department of Family and Community Medicine, leveraging its status a the WHO Collaborating Centre on Family medicine and Primary Care. This initiative will set the foundation for joint research, evaluation, and capacity-building initiatives to advance Family Medicine in Tanzania and beyond.
The MUHAS project is one of 43 newly projects that pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions and collaborators in Africa to work together on curriculum co-development, collaborative research, graduate training and mentoring activities in 2025.
The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, now in its eleventh year, is designed to strengthen capacity at the host institutions and develop long-term, mutually-beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa and the United States and Canada. It is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration the Association of African Universities (AAU). Nearly 750 African Diaspora Fellowships have now been awarded for scholars to travel to Africa since the program’s inception in 2013.
Fellowships match host universities with African-born scholars and cover the expenses for project visits of between 14 and 90 days, including transportation, a daily stipend, and the cost of obtaining visas and health insurance.
Please direct all questions related to the application process to AfricanDiaspora@iie.org.