The Emerging Leaders of Pakistan Fellowship Program seeks to empower the next generation of Pakistan’s leaders. The program identifies, cultivates, and supports young people in Pakistan who have the potential of becoming future leaders by providing resources to strengthen their engagement within civil society. Each year, fifteen young leaders from Pakistan visit the United States to meet with policymakers, community leaders, diaspora communities, entrepreneurs, and regional experts, among others.  An online forum facilitates continued idea exchange among participants and with the broader community in Pakistan, the region, and the world.

The program aims to:

• Build a network of young Pakistani leaders to facilitate idea exchange and forge long-term collaborative relationships.
• Develop Fellows’ leadership and practical skills through meetings with policymakers, civil society leaders, entrepreneurs, and others, and learn best practices to adapt to their own context in Pakistan.
• Share experiences, knowledge, and recommendations with stakeholders on the future of Pakistan and key issues affecting young people in the country.
• Strengthen ties between the United States and Pakistan by addressing misperceptions on both sides of the bilateral relationship

About the Fellows

Each year, they select fifteen dynamic civil society leaders through a highly competitive application process. The fifteen embody Pakistan’s ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity.  They are social entrepreneurs, artists, educators, storytellers, minority rights activists, interfaith interlocutors, aspiring politicians, and tech innovators who are working to solve some of Pakistan’s most pressing challenges. They are committed to their communities and country, and represent a broad cross-section of Pakistani society.  Fellows must be between the ages of 18-30 with no previous travel to the West (North America or Europe).

The ELP Fellowship is a long-term engagement with the ELP cohort and the Atlantic Council, which launches with a 3-week study visit to the United States and continues with collaboration between fellows and annual events in Pakistan. The Fellowship blends opportunities for personal development while providing young Pakistani leaders the chance to build collaborative relationships with each other and the individuals they meet while in the United States. ELP Fellows also receive long-term mentoring and support from the Atlantic Council and partner organizations based in Pakistan.

During the US visit, Fellowship classes visit four parts of the country: New York City, Washington DC, the San Francisco Bay Area, and one city in the Midwest region.