Deadline: June 4, 2026
Applications are open for the Isu Elihle Awards 2026. The awards seek to contribute to a change in attitudes and behaviors of opinion and decision-makers and citizens across the country and continent from the premise that the media frames debates in society and carries enormous influence and, therefore, ability to drive positive change. This year marks six years since these Awards were launched.
These Awards aim to encourage journalist to highlight issues that are faced by children in the continent. Journalist from more than twenty countries have applied in the previous years and diverse issues about children have been raised. This shows that these awards have gained a lot of traction within the continent. They encourage journalist to submit their unique story ideas within the started time frame.
Prizes
- Overall winner: R30,000
- First runner up: R20,000
- Second runner up: R15,000
- Mandy Rossouw Category: Between R10,000 and R20,000
Eligibility
- Open to professional journalists, whether directly employed or freelancers, working in the continent of Africa.
- The Competition is held in English. Therefore all entries and story ideas must be in English.
- Employees and the immediate families of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and the adjudicators are not eligible to participate in the competition.
- Each Applicant is strictly limited to a maximum of one entry; however, each media house can have as many applicants as it wishes.
Stages of the Competition
First Stage: Submission of the story idea (4 May – 04 June 2026)
- Journalists submit their story ideas before or on the deadline (04 June 2026 at 23:59PM CAT). These ideas will go through an adjudication process, undertaken by a panel of judges made up of children, child rights experts and independent media practitioners. Following the adjudication process, the top six finalists will be announced online and across social media platforms and where possible on mainstream media.
Second Stage: Producing and publishing the full story
- The top six journalists will be given financial support of up to R10 000 each to research and develop their concepts into publishable news items, which will then be published or broadcast, by a mainstream news media house of their choosing. Note that individual journalists must take sole responsibility to approach a mainstream media house and secure an agreement to publish/broadcast with the media house in question should their story idea be selected as part of the top six.
- The top six stories will undergo adjudication and only the top three are guaranteed to win a cash prize. There is a fourth cash prize, that is “The Isu Elihle Mandy Rossouw Accountability Category” (MRC). This fourth prize is conditional, it will only be awarded if there is a story (in the top six) that meets the criteria for the category. The amount of money to be awarded for the Mandy Rossouw prize will be determined by the quality of the story published.
Application
For more information, visit Isu Elihle Awards.
