Deadline: 31-Jul-2020
In partnership with several stakeholders, PACJA initiated an innovative fellowship as a capacity building programme for ACCER Awards finalists to ensure continuous, enhanced, in-depth reporting and media coverage of environmental and climate change issues with a key focus on Africa.
The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) pioneered the African Climate Change and Environmental Reporting (ACCER) Awards, a biennual reward scheme that has built an enviable mass of journalists across Africa, thus elevating the subject of climate change in the continent’s news platforms.
Through The ACCER Awards Finalists Academy (TAAFA), continuous training is offered to journalists to enable them understand the efficacies and developing geographies of climate change, and such evolving issues as adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer, capacity building, climate finance, transparency and Nationally Determined Contributions of the Paris Agreement.
Objectives
- To ensure Africa’s climate story is told as it is, highlighting the areas unseen by the rest of the world, and which determines how intervention is reached
- To motivate journalists and media houses in Africa to effectively cover and report on Climate Change and Environment
- To illuminate innovative best-practice approaches in Policy and Practice towards response strategies and programmes
- To enhance proactive media participation in African Climate Change discourses with a view of perspectives and narratives
- To sustain and boost coverage of Climate Change issues by journalists in the mainstream media and media networks
- To promote and create awareness about opportunities existing in green investment both in public and private realm.
Award Categories
Potential awardees will present direct entries with brief citations demonstrating how their journalism may have practically enhanced access to information delivery in a specified area. An independent panel of judges will review the entries and make a decision on the winners and runners-up for each Award category. The judges will have the final word on who is awarded for each category outlined below:
- ACCER Investigative Journalism: Print or broadcast journalist who has highlighted and profiled a sensitive environmental problem
- ACCER News Feature: A Radio program and journalist who has created a programme that has increased understanding of environmental issues, and made it easier for the masses to understand issues on Climate Justice, Climate Change, Sustainable Development or New Technology.
- ACCER Photograph of the Year Award: A photo that speaks a thousand words on a matter that touches environment
- ACCER Blogger Award: A multimedia journalist who made great use of online facilities to break a story, follow-up or bring attention to environmental issues
- ACCER Emerging Young Journalist: A journalist aged between 19 and 25 and with a passion on environment or climate issues in a tangible way
- Citizen Journalist Award: A citizen of Africa who does not belong to any media house, nor is trained as a journalist, but who demonstrates great skill in following up on matters of climate or environment through a medium accessible by public. Such a person can be nominated by a different party.
- Consistency and Niche Award: a). Best Female b). Best Male. A journalist may submit links to work done consistently for the last two years, showing passion in addressing the climate crisis. They must be at least 5 features, commentaries or news features.
- Do Something Humanitarian Award: The Applicant will show exactly what s/he has done (e.g improving food security by enforcing smart farming, ending soil erosion, ending climate related conflict)
- Embrace Disability Award: This is an award for anyone living with disability but whose work to combat climate crisis has been felt widely. They may be journalists or not, but will have to illustrate what they have done in a note. The Award will be split between best female and best male PLWD.
Identification Criteria
Identification of recipient of the awards will be conducted through an online call for application, shared out with media networks all over Africa. This will be done through:
- A link in the PACJA Website set for ACCER Awards 2020
- Social Media activations
- Reaching out to universities and colleges with strong journalism and environmental programmes
- Emailing media houses
It will be an interactively participatory process. An independent panel of eminent professionals from diverse backgrounds will be assembled to lead the process.
Eligibility Criteria
- The competition is open to all journalists from Africa and who are from established media houses, private or public-sector media. Freelance journalists and bloggers are also eligible.
- Submission Format
- Entries must be original pieces written in English or French
- Articles must have been published between August 2018 and June 2020
- Each candidate will submit only one print (in word doc or docx format), audio piece (in mp3 format) or video clip. Entries are to be submitted by email at the address given on the website.
- Print word limit: Maximum 1,200 words. Font: Garamond, 12 point; 1.5 line spacing.
- Audio pieces: Maximum five minutes.
- TV pieces: Maximum five minutes
- All applicants must submit a cover page containing the article title and author’s name, along with a short biographical note including name and full contact details, including email address, telephone number(s), postal address, town, country, and a scanned photocopy of the author’s identification card or passport sent as a JPEG.
Judging Criteria
- Applicant identifies a climate related problem and shows effort(s) to find ways to deal with it. This will mean not just highlighting an existing issue but also going a step further to ask responsible authorities tough questions, including why things are the way they are and when the affected should expect change
- Applicant shows consistency and passion in addressing matters of climate change and environment. Award winners MUST have made a significant long-term commitment to improving the lives of others through their stories.
- The applicant demonstrates extensive and tangible acts that have saved large communities from the effects of climate change or reduced the risk of the same in a visibly big way.
For more information, visit https://www.pacja.org/our-projects/sida-projects/accer-awards/accer-awards-2020-concept-note