IFP is a global program whose goal is to offer exceptional individuals from groups or communities that have been excluded from higher education, opportunities to build their knowledge, strengthen their leadership, and deepen their social commitment by pursuing graduate studies anywhere in the world, including their home country.

IFP promotes greater access and equity in higher education by sponsoring graduate study for talented and committed individuals who would otherwise lack this opportunity.

The IFP supports new generations of outstanding leaders who have direct knowledge of their societies' worst problems and inequities, and have a sense of moral urgency about them. Ford fellowship recipients have become leaders in institutions around the world and have helped build global knowledge in fields ranging across the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities and arts. IFP underscores the Foundation's belief that education enables people to improve their own lives as well as to assist others in the common pursuit of more equitable and just societies.

IFP is a program of the New York City-based International Fellowships Fund. The Fund (IFF) is an independently incorporated supporting organization of the Institute of International Education (IIE). The IFP Secretariat is housed at IIE headquarters in New York, which disburses Fellows' funds, and provides university placement for many IFP Fellows. IFP also works closely with Ford Foundation offices around the world, which have played a key role in the program's development. The Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP) was launched in the year 2000.

IFP provides opportunities for advanced study to exceptional individuals who will use this education to become leaders in their respective fields, furthering development in their own countries and greater economic and social justice worldwide. To ensure that Fellows are drawn from diverse backgrounds, IFP actively seeks candidates from social groups and communities that lack systematic access to higher education.

Ford fellowship recipients have become leaders in institutions around the world and have helped build global knowledge in fields ranging across the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities and arts. IFP draws on this tradition and underscores the Foundation's belief that education enables people to improve their own lives as well as to assist others in the common pursuit of more equitable and just societies.

The Association for the advancement of Higher Education and Development (AHEAD) is the International Partner for Uganda.