Open to: Kenya-based civil society organisations
Closing Date: Friday, 6th September 2024, 5.00pm Nairobi time
About the Call
This call is part of Africa Uncensored and IWPR’s Voices for Change (V4C) project.
V4C supports media and civil society to provide essential reporting and campaign work in in the area of human rights.
To date, the V4C project has provided support to dozens of journalists and civil society organisations (CSOs) in East and West Africa. Participants in V4C have produced important reporting and campaign work on serious human rights abuses related to issues such as gender-based violence (GBV), police brutality, and high-level corruption, amongst many other issues.
More specifically, V4C brings together journalists, media houses and civil society organisations, encouraging collaboration and information sharing on critical work related to serious human rights abuses.
Application Details
As of August 2024, V4C is seeking a new round of participants in Kenya (up to 8 CSOs and 8 journalists) to benefit from grant, mentoring and training support.
Interested civil society organisations who wish to apply will be invited to participate primarily on the basis of an advocacy campaign idea in relation to serious human rights abuses in Kenya.
The theme for supported grants is serious human rights abuses, with a focus on marginalised communities, women, and youth. All campaign ideas to be considered must fit within these parameters and be relevant to the ongoing work of participating civil society organisations.
Participants will have up to 2 months to produce and run their advocacy campaign. They will participate in associated training and mentoring opportunities designed to improve the efficacy of their chosen focused campaign. This will include an Africa Uncensored-led training event, ongoing mentoring, and several participatory roundtables with journalists pursuing stories on similar themes.
Campaigns may take a variety of formats including social media campaigns, multi-media/advertising focused campaigns, and in-person events, or a combination of formats. Formats utilised may depend on the intended target audience of any campaign and what is deemed most effective to achieve the aims of the campaign.
All campaigns must have a clear issue identified to be targeted, and clear measurable objectives, particularly in terms of audience.
We encourage interested civil society organisations to consider campaigns that could be amplified with effective media collaboration and that would benefit from journalist collaboration.
Please note: All applicants who receive financial support to pursue campaigns will be expected to participate in V4C’s associated training and mentoring programme.
Requirements
Applications are open to invited civil society organisations only. However, participation is competitive, and only 10 CSOs will be selected for final inclusion in the project.
Priority will be given to applications that will pursue relevant campaigns to the V4C project’s core aims and demonstrate a clear purpose and intended impact.
Interested applicants should take note of the following minimum requirements:
- CSOs should have demonstrable experience in human rights campaigning work of relevance;
- CSOs should have a plan for achieving effective outreach for their campaign;
- CSOs should be committed to international best practices in all of their work, including commitments to factual reporting on any issues raised in their campaign, adhering to the ‘Do No Harm’ principle in their work, and upholding strong ethics in all outputs;
- CSOs must demonstrate willing to work and adapt their campaign ideas in line with guidance from assigned Trainers and Mentors from Africa Uncensored.
Funding Amount and Duration
The funding amount for supported grants is up to USD 300.
This is proposed to include personal fees, and any related expenses, such as travel, accommodation and other costs directly related to the delivery of the advocacy campaign (such as graphic design, social media promotion costs, or similar). The grant does not cover costs for the purchase of equipment and overheads.
Deliverables
The applicant should deliver their campaign idea in full (including all campaign work) to receive the full grant amount. Africa Uncensored and IWPR reserve the right to withhold grant amounts for those who fail to adhere to their agreed grant proposals and workplans.
Campaign work should take place between 1st September and 31st October 2024. It is understood that some campaigns may take place over a shorter duration, but all campaign work must take place during this period.
Adequate time should be factored into any multimedia campaign outputs allowing for mentoring and support inputs from Africa Uncensored’s assigned Mentors.
Evaluation Criteria
Applications will be evaluated by Africa Uncensored and IWPR based on the set criteria described in the table below:
| # | Criteria | Max Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Value of the proposed investigation The proposed subject explores an issue of the public interest related to the themes identified (20 points) The proposed project is relevant for the proposed focus country/countries of the report (20 points) | 40 |
| 2. | Profile of the journalist and suitability to participate in the programme The CSO has demonstratable experience in human rights with relevant examples to the proposed campaign (15 points) The CSO has adequate capacity including relevant staff members for participation (15 points) | 30 |
| 3. | Adequate planning/budgeting of investigative report The proposed campaign and timeline is realistic (15 points) The campaign budget is realistic and demonstrates adequate value for money (15 points) | 30 |
| 100 |
Interested applicants should submit the filled-in application form (including budget), and send their personal CV to the email opportunities@africauncensored.net on or before 6th September, 2024, before close of business.
About Africa Uncensored / IWPR
Africa Uncensored is a Kenya-based media outlet known mostly for its investigative journalism. Its work includes documentary and feature production, fact-checking, podcasting, training, and more. The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) is an independent, international non-governmental organisation with head offices in London and Washington, DC. IWPR empowers local voices to drive change globally.