Deadline: March 18, 2024
Are you a media outlet or CSO based in Southeast Asia interested in boosting media coverage on infrastructure development? Apply now for the EJN Media Grants 2024 to Strengthen Infrastructure Reporting in Southeast Asia.
Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is offering four organizational grants averaging $20,000 per grant to support media and journalism activities to strengthen reporting on infrastructure development and public engagement on infrastructure debates.
Overview
Strengthening Transparency in Infrastructure Development Through Environmental Reporting in Southeast Asia (STRIDES) is a two-year project supported by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor that supports environmental reporting on infrastructure development and its impacts. The organizational grants are part of STRIDES’ efforts to strengthen infrastructure media reporting and public awareness, and improve the sustainability and accountability of infrastructure projects.
Southeast Asia (SEA) is set to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030. To sustain economic growth, the Asian Development Bank estimates that the region needs to invest $60 billion per year upgrading its infrastructure and many SEA countries plan to rapidly expand investments.
This push for infrastructure development has led to and exacerbated environmental issues such as unchecked urban sprawl and severe environmental degradation. Further, this rush to expand infrastructure puts the rights of marginalized groups (including women, children/youth, Indigenous populations, migrants, rural populations, etc.) at high risk as they often depend on natural resources for their livelihoods and/or are more vulnerable to the pollution that may result from these projects.
Inadequate regulation, enforcement, and transparency from governments and developers alike means that these most affected groups are often not even aware of infrastructure projects until they have broken ground, nor do they have a voice in mitigating the impacts on their environments, health, and/or livelihoods.
Grant
- They anticipate supporting four organizations with an average funding amount of $20,000 each. In general, proposals with smaller budgets will be more competitive. Larger grant amounts will be considered for projects that use innovative approaches and may be more resource- and time-consuming.
Eligibility
Media outlets and CSOs from Southeast Asia (Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) are welcome to apply. Applicants from Timor-Leste, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Brunei will be prioritized.
Applicants must:
- Be a registered media or civil society organization based in any Southeast Asia country and eligible to receive international funding. Organizations based in Timor-Leste, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Brunei will be prioritized;
- Have previous experience conducting capacity building activities for journalists;
- Understand and be able to communicate in English;
- Permit republication by Internews’ EJN of any output as a result of participation in the workshop.
Judging Criteria
All applications they receive are reviewed and discussed by a panel of international judges, comprising Internews staff and experts in environmental journalism.
Applications will be evaluated using the following assessment criteria:
- The overall quality of the proposal;
- The relevance of the proposed project to the objectives and priorities of this grant program and the STRIDES project goals;
- The emphasis in the proposal on infrastructure development’s environmental impact in the country or region;
- The potential impact of the proposed project, including the quality and effectiveness of the project design;
- The innovative characteristics of the proposed activities;
- The financial viability and cost-effectiveness of the proposed project;
- The ability of the applicant to carry it out;
- The geographical spread of the grantees.
Application
For more information, visit EJN Media Grants.
