Deadline extended till 25 November 2018
The Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is seeking proposals for its Asia-Pacific and Bay of Bengal Media Grants 2018 to provide an opportunity for media organizations, civil society organizations and academic institutions throughout Asia and the Pacific to think critically and creatively about how to build local capacity for reporting and information exchange around climate change, natural resource management and the environment.
EJN aims to strengthen the capacity of local and regional organizations to produce more high-quality stories that cover climate change, the environment and natural resource-management issues.
Outcomes
Proposed activities should be designed to contribute towards at least one of the following outcomes:
- Improved access among policymakers, communities and individuals to quality socio-environmental news and information;
- Improved organizational capacity to report on socio-environment issues in an accurate and compelling way;
- Improved organizational capacity to produce greater quantity and quality of socio-environmental news and information;
- Reduced exclusion of marginalized groups (defined as women, youth, ethnic minority groups, indigenous people and people with disabilities) in socio-environmental information;
- Peer and multi-stakeholder engagement around socio-environmental issues.
Grant Information
The grants will be given out in two lots.
- Lot 1 For groups that implement actions on any environmental topic in the Asia-Pacific region. The typical grant will be for up to US$20,000 and support a one-year project. EJN are also open to multi-year proposals for a bigger grant amount, but not for longer than two years. Around 10 such grants would be provided in this round. Priority will be given to groups that are locally registered and actions that will be implemented in one or more developing countries.
- Lot 2 For groups working in the Bay of Bengal region, specifically coastal Bangladesh and eastern India (the coastal areas in the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) and focusing specifically on climate resilience and adaptation. These grants will average around US$15,000, although EJN may accept one for a slightly larger amount. While the average size of these grants is less than for Lot 1, they expect fewer applications for them, and thus chances of being selected are greater. EJN aim to award at least 3 grants in this Lot.
Types of Activities
For this round of media grants, EJN are particularly interested in activities that cover one or more of the following focus areas:
- Use of innovative approaches and platforms to create and disseminate news and information. Example of activities: Training and mentoring of local journalists to produce data-centered stories; development of online tools that allow local communities to monitor and report on environmental impacts.
- Capacity and knowledge building among local journalists and other information providers to cover the environment more effectively. Example of activities: Training workshops for journalists on specific environmental or topics such as coal-fired electricity plants and renewable energy, wildlife tracking, special economic zones or technical skills such as data journalism and investigative journalism; development of safety tools for strengthening the safety of journalists working on environmental issues; workshops and tools to support gender-inclusive reporting.
- Institutional capacity building of organizations that support environmental journalism. Example of activities: Seed grant for establishing a new environmental journalist network; training on financial reporting, inclusive practices and fundraising for staff of organizations.
- Partnerships among peers or with other environmental stakeholders for environmental reporting. Example of activities: Cross-border investigative reporting projects by journalists from neighboring countries; story creation labs for journalists and researchers to jointly produce evidence-based stories.
Eligibility Criteria
- Regional, national and local media organizations, journalist networks, universities and journalism schools focusing on environmental reporting in the region are welcome to apply. The organizational grants can also be used to support the establishment of environmental journalism networks in places where they don’t exist. In such cases, applicants should note their affiliations with existing media organizations, if applicable, or provide detailed plans about how this project would facilitate the creation of a new organization.
- Non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and research institutes will also be considered but only those with strong media and communication programs that are dedicated to support fair and accurate reporting. Please note that EJN will not consider applications rooted in advocacy or political campaigning. Existing grantees are welcome to apply and the performance on their existing grant will be taken into consideration in the selection.
How to Apply
Applicants can apply online via given website.
For more information, please visit Media Grants 2018.