Call for Proposals: Together for Conservation Project

The Together for Conservation project focuses on collaborating with indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC), private companies, media, networks of journalists, and other civil society organizations (CSOs) across regional and cross-border networks. The project aims at strengthening, expanding and replicating these networks across the Amazonian regions of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil.

Together for Conservation is implemented by a consortium of organizations, led by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and including Internews, Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental Amazônica (IPAM), Pronaturaleza, Rare and COIAB (Confederation of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon).

Objectives

• Strengthen the capacities of indigenous communicators and journalists and/or community leaders in storytelling and content generation to effectively communicate about environmental crimes and/or sustainable solutions in the Peruvian Amazon.
• Implement a capacity building process in content generation, narratives, techniques and/or tools for investigative and intercultural journalism for communicators, community media and/or indigenous organizations on the coverage of environmental crimes and/or sustainable solutions in the Peruvian Amazon.
• Generate publications/stories related to environmental crimes and/or sustainable solutions in the Peruvian Amazon.

Duration

• January to September 2025.

Expected Outcomes

• At least 50 communicators, journalists, storytellers and/or community and indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon (with emphasis on the geographies of Bajo Amazonas (Loreto), Nanay, Yavari, Bajo Ucayali) receive training in content creation and/or storytelling.
• At least ten stories on environmental crimes and/or sustainable solutions in the Peruvian Amazon are developed and published
• Design and application of Monitoring and Evaluation tools to track the knowledge acquired by participants and record the stories they have generated and published.

Expected Deliverables

• Deliverable 1: Detailed work plan and budget approved by the project team.
  • The selected organization will deliver a work plan, detailing the activities to be developed along with reporting deadlines, and a detailed budget for the same period. The budget must be consistent with the proposed work plan.
• Deliverable 2: Design of the training process:
  • Methodological proposal: The organization will develop a proposal for the structure of the course(s), detailing the topics to be covered in each cycle along with their learning objectives. The content will focus on strengthening content creation skills, storytelling and other innovative formats, and using investigative journalism tools and techniques, with an emphasis on environmental and intercultural journalism. In addition, learning evaluation forms co-constructed with Internews will be included for use at the beginning and end of the course(s).
  • Call: The organization will make open calls or directly invite organizations and their members to enroll in the course(s). The promotion of these calls will be done through social networks, websites, newsletters, or other media, following the Brand Strategy and Communication Plan of the Together for Conservation Project.
  • Selection of participants: The selection of participants should include diversity and inclusion criteria that consider gender, ethnicity, geographic location, thematic expertise, and membership in socially marginalized groups, to promote equal opportunities. The organization may include additional criteria for the selection of participants.
  • Digital security: Within the course(s), a specific slot of time will be dedicated to learning about digital security, which will be led by the Internews team.
• Deliverable 3: Evidence of at least 50 participants trained as a result of the training process.
  • The way the activities will be carried out and the final target number of people trained will be detailed in the technical proposal and work plan submitted by the proponent organization.
• Deliverable 4: Application, systematization and reporting of evaluation forms that record participants’ learning, as agreed upon with the project team.
  • The organization will prepare a document that systematizes and reports on the results of the pre and post learning evaluations from the course(s).
• Deliverable 5: At least ten stories produced in different formats:
  • With the aim of having students apply the tools and knowledge acquired, at least ten participants are expected to generate stories in different formats on the topic of environmental crimes or sustainable solutions in the Peruvian Amazon and have them published. The audience reach of the publications will be measured.

Eligible Activities

• Design and implement a methodological proposal for training cycles that combines and/or complements virtual and face-to-face formats. The following should be considered:
  • At least one virtual training cycle that includes workshops oriented to cover interaction between environmental crimes, innovative narrative techniques, storytelling, intercultural journalism, etc.
  • At least one face-to-face workshop that includes practical activities to improve participants’ storytelling techniques and content generation, as well as guidelines on how to cover stories with an intercultural approach. The workshops are to take place in the Peruvian Amazon.
• Creation of stories demonstrating the knowledge acquired by participants during the training sessions. These can be presented in different formats.

Target Audience

• Communicators, journalists, storytellers and/or community and indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon, particularly from the geographies prioritized by the Together for Conservation project: Bajo Amazonas region -Loreto-, Nanay, Yavari, Bajo Ucayali.

Eligibility Criteria

• They are looking for an organization with proven experience in capacity building processes in content creation and investigative journalism, with an emphasis on multicultural approaches.
• Experience working with community media, indigenous organizations, community or indigenous communicators or storytellers.
• The organization must have experience and knowledge of the context and reality of the Peruvian Amazon region and must be based in Peru.
• Within the technical and methodological proposal, the team must present examples and references of previous work done, methodologies and tools used in the last five years for capacity building in content generation, innovative journalism techniques and multicultural approaches on environmental issues.
• According to the characteristics of the training process, it is expected that the organization has within its team a professional or professionals with experience working in adult education, as well as experience in training journalists, communicators and/or indigenous media.

Evaluation Criteria

• The organization must comply with the formats and parameters for Monitoring and Evaluation required by the funder, including:
  • Submission of quarterly narrative and financial reports to be approved by the project’s technical team. These reports should include means of verification of course participants and stories generated.
  • Provision of disaggregated information on course participants according to gender, ethnic origin and age group.
• Inputs to be generated:
  • Input and output forms to evaluate and record learning. These will be constructed jointly with the Internews team, as well as a document for systematization of results.
  • Periodically coordinate with the project team for follow-up to report on progress, difficulties and other issues during the capacity building process. This periodic coordination will allow for timely corrective actions to be taken if necessary.

For more information, visit Internews.