Call for Participation “Talking about the Environment: Media and Civil Society Take Up Ecological Issues”

Deadline: 15 August 2023

The DW Akademie, Deutsche Welle’s center for international media development, journalistic training and knowledge transfer, offers a series of workshops for media professionals in Tunisia, Algeria and Mauritania.

These workshops are part of the project “Talking about the Environment: Media and Civil Society Taking on Ecological Issues”, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt). Its objective is to support media professionals in the production of high quality journalistic articles and productions on environmental issues (from the MENA region).

Series of tri-national workshops on environmental journalism with Tunisia, Mauritania and Algeria.

What do they offer?

The DW Akademie will offer a series of interactive training workshops (online and offline) in French and Arabic on environmental journalism, bringing together media professionals from Tunisia, Mauritania and Algeria. A maximum of ten media professionals from Tunisia / five media professionals from Mauritania / five media professionals from Algeria can participate.
The workshops will aim to empower participants to produce high-quality journalistic stories on an environmental issue. Participants who have successfully completed the training series and produced one or more journalistic products will receive a certificate.
At the end of the project, a multi-stakeholder conference will bring together media representatives, experts and activists from the Maghreb to discuss current media coverage and the role of journalism on environmental and climate issues facing the region.
high-quality journalism training with a focus on media production
several individual research and production grants for selected participants
They invite you to accompany your application with a thematic presentation on the environmental aspects that you wish to deal with in your media productions (1 page maximum, including an estimate of the production cost, of a maximum of 350€).

Research and Production Grants

In addition, the DW Akademie will offer research and production grants for selected proposals/pitches (individual grants).
They welcome ideas that focus on how local communities are coping with these changes in their environment. They will appreciate concepts that focus on potential solutions to ecological challenges.
The target group of the environmental journalism project will be young people and young adults.
Therefore, it will be welcome to create and reinforce media formats (integrating your story/topic) that will be particularly attractive for the mentioned target group (including for social media of all types, with video as a main or complementary element of your production, etc.).
Candidates who submit their research or history pitch with their request to participate will have the opportunity to receive support for the development of their pitch throughout the first training (“meet the expert”).
Candidates who have not yet submitted their research or history pitch with their application will have the opportunity to do so throughout the first training.
In total, up to 5 fellows will be selected in 2023 and up to 8 in 2024.

Eligibility Criteria

all media professionals (minimum 1-2 years of professional experience) from Tunisi/ Mauritania/Algeria , experienced or strongly motivated by the theme of environmental journalism and/or climate change
citizen journalists, bloggers and influencers with grassroots experience covering environmental issues.
They accept individual applications as well as team applications (maximum two people per team).
They plan to respect gender parity.
They encourage people from marginalized groups and people with disabilities to apply.
Written and oral fluency in French and Arabic is required.

Procedure and detailed eligibility

The series of workshops will begin with an in situ kick-off event with training, from October 02 to 05, 2023 in Tunisia. Then, 4 in-depth follow-up trainings will be held between November 2023 and September 2024. Each workshop will last approximately 3 days (8 hours per day of in situ training) and will be followed by coaching.
Participation in the kick-off event, workshops and final conference is mandatory.
The DW Akademie will bear the travel, accommodation and catering costs of the participants.
Access to a laptop or desktop PC with a stable internet connection is a prerequisite for participation in the training workshops (participation in the online training via smartphone/mobile phone will not be possible).
Candidates must complete their journalistic product within the given deadline, i.e. end of September 2024.
Media organizations that plan to send employees to participate in this project must grant them time off for training days (online and offline) as well as for the environmental journalism conference in Tunisia in October 2024.

Programme Details