Journalists who report on water and sanitation issues in Nigeria and five other African countries can win fully-funded study trips to major newsrooms in the United States as part of a new contest launched by impactAFRICA on Thursday, March 24.
According to a press statement by the organisers of the contest, any reportage on water or sanitation issues in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania or Zambia is eligible. Stories can be on any platform and in any format, as long as they are published or broadcast in the target countries during the period March 30 to June 30, 2016.
Deadline for submission of entries is June 30.
Haji Mohamed Dawjee, programme manager for impactAFRICA said the media project is keen to showcase journalism that shines a light on the extent of water challenges, including under-reported or hidden water crises, as well as reportage on pragmatic solutions to the problems.
An independent international jury will select the best report in each of three categories as winners. The categories are: best community impact; best audience engagement; and best use of data.
impactAFRICA will sponsor the three winners to spend 10 days visiting and learning from some of the world’s top media outlets from three cities in the U.S.A.
“The winners will get to spend time with newsrooms who are helping reshape the way that media report on these kinds of complex issues in ways that empower ordinary people. But, we don’t just want better reportage. Winners will also learn new techniques for giving their audiences actionable information, and digital tools, so that they can do something with the knowledge they get from the media,” says Dawjee
The water/sanitation contest is the second of four impactAFRICA competitions. The first contest, which closes on April 15 2016, focuses on in-depth investigative reportage into hidden or neglected health and development issues.
impactAFRICA is the continent’s largest fund for data-driven storytelling and is offering $500,000 in support through a series of contests this year to help boost digital journalism across the continent.
