About the The Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program

The World Bank’s Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC) provides scholarships to students and young researchers, contributing to the World Bank’s mission of forging new dynamic approaches to capacity development and knowledge sharing in the developing world. Since 1982, the DEC’s scholarship programs have helped to form a pool of over 6,000 well-trained and experienced development professionals and scholars, transforming their countries and positively impacting future generations.

The Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP) is open to citizens of certain developing countries with relevant professional experience and a history of supporting their countries’ development efforts who are applying to a master degree program in a development-related topic. Subject to available funding, JJWBGSP offers scholarships for 48 Participating Programs at universities in U.S., Europe, Africa, Oceania and Japan in key areas of development, including economic policy management, tax policy, and infrastructure management.

A JJWBGSP scholarship provides tuition, a monthly living stipend, round-trip airfare, health insurance, and travel allowance. View a detailed list of benefits.

Eligibility Criteria

• Be a national of a World Bank member developing country on this list; 
• Not hold dual citizenship of any developed country;
• Be in good health;
• Hold a Bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree earned at least 3 years prior to the Application Deadline date;
• Have 3 years or more of recent development-related work experience after earning a Bachelor’s (or equivalent) degree;
• Be employed in development-related work in a paid full- time position at the time of submitting the scholarship application. Have at least 3 years of paid development-related employment since earning a Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent university degree) and acquired within the past 6 years from the date of the Application Deadline. Please see FAQs on how to count qualified part time employment toward this 3-year requirement. Please see Annex 2 of the Application Guidelines for a suggested list of development-related topics. The only exception to this criterion is for developing country nationals from a country that is on the list of Fragile and Conflict States featured in Annex 3 of the Application Guidelines. In these exceptional cases, we do take into consideration the limited employment opportunities in those countries listed in Annex 3.
• On or before the Scholarship Application Deadline date, be admitted unconditionally (except for funding) for the upcoming academic year to at least one of the JJ/WBGSP participating master’s programs located outside of the applicant’s country of citizenship and country of residence listed at the time the call for scholarship applications opens. The letter of admission must be uploaded before submitting your application. For details, see “How to Apply”.
• Not be an Executive Director, his/her alternate, and/or staff of any type of appointment of the World Bank Group or a close relative of the aforementioned by blood or adoption with the term "close relative" defined as: Mother, Father, Sister, Half-sister, Brother, Half-brother, Son, Daughter, Aunt, Uncle, Niece, or Nephew.

Applications opened on 22nd March 2021 and close on 21st May 2021. Read the full application guidelines here