The African Story Challenge is a new $1m programme of reporting grants to spur in-depth, multimedia storytelling that engages citizens and aims to improve the health and prosperity of Africans.
The two-year, pan-African project challenges journalists to embrace a bold form of journalism that seeks solutions using digital and data-driven techniques. The project will encourage journalists to experiment with new content ideas and ways to engage audiences through mobile technology, social media and other innovative tools.
Background
The African Story Challenge is a new $1m programme of reporting grants to spur in-depth, multimedia storytelling that engages citizens and aims to improve the health and prosperity of Africans.
The two-year, pan-African project challenges journalists to embrace a bold form of journalism that seeks solutions using digital and data-driven techniques. The project will encourage journalists to experiment with new content ideas and ways to engage audiences through mobile technology, social media and other innovative tools.
The project also aims to hold leaders accountable and spur better policies on topics that matter to Africans, such as agricultural growth, good health, quality education and better jobs.
Over two years, the project will award approximately 100 reporting grants and provide mentoring to support the best ideas for stories on development issues. Journalists who produce the best stories published or broadcast in media that reach African audiences will win cash prizes or a major international reporting trip.
Themes
The competition has five themes with different deadlines:
- Agriculture and Food Security (14 June, 2013);
- Diseases: Prevention and Treatment;
- My Africa 2063;
- Maternal and Child Health;
- Business and Technology.
The Agriculture and Food Security theme covers:
- Agricultural finance, markets and food prices
- Land reform and ownership
- Nutrition
- Irrigation and tools for improved farming
- Biotechnology
- Livestock and fisheries
How to enter
To enter the competition, please fill in the entry form, which includes space for a mandatory 500 word proposal on one of the following five themes: Agriculture and Food Security; Diseases: Prevention and Treatment; My Africa 2063; Maternal and Child Health; and Business and Technology. Key subject areas are provided under each of the themes. Your proposal can either be based directly on one of these subject areas or you also have the option of sending your own original story idea, as long as it fits within the framework of the themes.
Detailed information about what kinds of project are supported, process of applying, eligibility, judging criteria and tips for entrants are found here.