Apply for Journalism Fellowship West Africa

The fellowship grants are aimed at supporting local journalists – in print and broadcast media – to cover the local dynamics of illicit economies, conflict and instability in the northern areas of the targeted countries. Fellows will be encouraged to use a range of audio-visual media to enhance the impact of their investigations and diversify their outputs.

The Fellowship is part of the GI-TOC’s flagship Resilience Fund, which provides grants and support to civil society individuals and organizations working to counter the impacts of criminal governance and violence across the world.

The Journalism Fellowship is part of a programme titled ‘Support to the Mitigation of Destabilizing Effects of Transnational Organised Crime (M-TOC)’, which combines traditional security responses with community-driven resilience measures, informed by cutting-edge research and investigative journalism on the intersection of illicit economies and instability. M-TOC is an ECOWAS project commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC), from 2024 to 2025.

Benefits

• They will select and support seven proposals in total to investigate different contexts of illicit economies and instability through the following mechanisms:
  • Grants: This fellowship aims to address lack of financial support by providing grants for each successful applicant of €8 000 to journalists who submit successful proposals that link organized crime to instability issues.
  • Capacity building: The grantees will have access to specially tailored capacity-building sessions. The Resilience Fund will provide each fellow with a mentor to support them in navigating their specific challenges and help them with opportunities to raise the profile of their work. The Resilience Fund’s liaisons will support the fellows by providing one-on-one project management technical assistance when needed.
  • Networking and collaboration: The fellows will have opportunities to meet virtually at workshops, trainings and dialogues facilitated by the Resilience Fund, the GITOC West African Observatory of Illicit Economies and the partners. They will be invited to join the Resilience Fund Community Platform, which will give them access to funding opportunities, global dialogues and multilateral engagement after the Fellowship ends. There may be opportunities for in-person engagement.

Eligibility Criteria

• This fellowship is designed for journalists from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Applicants must therefore be based in, and a national of, one of these countries. Preference may be given to those based in or reporting on the northern areas of these countries.
• Proposals should demonstrate a clear understanding of illicit economies within a conflict ecosystem, and show knowledge of local socio-political landscapes. Applicants must also exhibit awareness of security risks associated with reporting on these topics.
• The Resilience Fund invites applications from all ethnic backgrounds, ages, religions or other defining characteristics.
• Applicants must have full or professional working proficiency in English or French.

Selection Criteria

• Applicants will be shortlisted for interviews based on the following four criteria:
  • Contextual relevance
  • Narrative development
  • Solution feasibility
  • Capacity to build community resilience

For more information, visit Resilience Fund.