Media Grants for East African Media Outlets to Investigate Environmental Crimes

• Eligibility Criteria:
  – Existing or former grantees are eligible to apply. However, they will prioritize new grantees and will take the performance of existing or previous grantees into consideration during the selection.
  – Award grants will go to applicants from target countries across the East African region.
• Type of funding: Programmatic
• Target countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan
• Application language: English

The Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is seeking applications for the Media Grants to award interested media houses in East Africa to expose, using financial tools, money laundering, fraud, bribery, corruption and illicit payments related to nature crimes from trafficking of wildlife and wildlife products such as ivory and rhino horn, hazardous waste disposal, illegal logging and overfishing of protected species, among others.

Grant amount and Logistics

• The grant amount of up to $15,000 will depend on the scope of the proposed activities. Generally speaking, applications with smaller budgets will be more competitive, but they will consider larger grant amounts for projects using innovative approaches that may be more resource-intensive and time-consuming.
• All applicants are required to provide a detailed budget with justification for the amount requested. They ask that the budgets be reasonable and account for costs necessary for project implementation. Applicants may use a small portion of the grant to purchase equipment but should clearly state how the equipment will contribute to the expected outcomes.
• Applicants are permitted and encouraged to raise co-financing for the proposed activities, but it is not required. If you have received any co-financing, please indicate the amount and the source in your application.
• They expect to notify successful applicants in October 2023. Projects should be completed by the end of April 2024. Applicants should consider this timeline when drafting their work plan.

Geography Focus

• East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan).

Project Deliverables

• The selected East African media houses will be expected to conceptualize, propose and lead the project in collaboration with a media outlet in Asia. The former will explore the supply side of the environmental crimes, while the latter will dig into the demand side, or the market for the illegal products.
• Both media houses will be expected to produce six, well-researched transboundary investigative stories by April 2024. They will select their best investigative journalists for this work, who will in turn benefit from EJN’s close mentorship and guidance.

See here to learn more and apply.

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