Deadline: 28-Aug-2023
The U.S. Embassy to Angola and Sao Tome e Principe in Luanda is pleased to announce the availability of an open competition funding opportunity to carry out a project seeking to support an open media environment and to diversify media voices in remote areas of Angola.
The project aims to respond to journalists requests to improve skills related to the scope and quality of investigative reporting on issues such as corruption, human rights, and social inclusion.
The project will build the capacity of journalists through training in technical areas such as investigative journalism, use of digital media, and strategies for reaching populations in remote parts of the country, which often only have access to state affiliated media sources. The project will also teach techniques to empower journalist advocacy toward government and regulatory bodies for a more open press environment.
Objectives
- Objective 1:
- Develop and implement a project providing specialized investigative training to journalists in the areas of anticorruption, human rights, social inclusion, and recognized norms for journalism and press freedom. Project activities should provide journalists with an understanding of the legal limits on media and press freedom and awareness of legal assistance available to journalists over free press issues. Project activities could include workshops and seminars on specialized areas of journalism training and areas of law including investigative journalism, technology in journalism, and the role of journalists in countering disinformation.
- Objective 2:
- Empower journalists to be advocates for free speech, engaging government and regulatory bodies as agents of change. Project proposals should have a strong component of advocacy for journalism and a free press environment in Angola. Proposed projects should seek to mobilize like-minded voices from civil society and business to lobby government and regulatory bodies to relax regulations that restrict free press. Potential activities include roundtable dialogues, public debates, and op-ed commentaries on press freedom, as well as encouraging engagement with key officials on free press issues.
- Objective 3:
- Provide journalists with strategies and methodologies for reaching populations in remote parts of the country. Projects could use a hybrid approach to accomplish this objective including training journalists in remote regions of Angola and teaching journalists in urban areas innovative methods for using nontraditional media strategies to penetrate underserved areas.
Funding Information
- Total Amount Available: $250,000
- Anticipated Number of Awards: 1 or 2
- Anticipated Program Start Date: October 1, 2023
- Notification of Approval and Award Signing: By September 30, 2023
- Program Performance Period: October 2023 – September 2024
Anticipated Outcomes
- The project should be designed so that participating journalists will acquire new skills and knowledge, leading to more in-depth investigations, clear understanding of press freedom legal limits, and better-quality reporting.
- By understanding their legal limits and engaging with other elements of society that support press freedoms, journalists will be empowered to improve reporting and bolster transparency in government and society.
- The project should also result in a deeper penetration of media into rural and underserved areas of Angola.
Eligibility Criteria
- Proposal applications are welcomed from U.S.-based and foreign-based non-profit organizations/nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and public international organizations; private, public, or state institutions of higher education; and forprofit organizations or businesses. Entities with prior experience working in Sao Tome e Principe and implementing projects of this nature are preferred, but not required.
- Preference is to work with non-profit entities; however, there may be some occasions when a for-profit entity is best suited.
- Applications submitted by for profit entities may be subject to additional review following the panel selection process.
- Additionally, the Department of State prohibits profit to for-profit or commercial organizations under its assistance awards.
For more information, visit U.S. Embassy to Angola.