We are looking for innovative project ideas from media outlets, journalism institutions and other organizations that work directly with media or content creators in the Asia-Pacific region.
Preview
In 2024, countries in the Asia-Pacific region experienced heat waves and droughts and faced monsoon rains that caused catastrophic floods and landslides.
According to the Asian Development Bank, climate impacts alone could cause a 17% decline in GDP in Asia and the Pacific by 2070 under a high-carbon scenario, which could reach 41% of GDP – by the end of the century.
And as the climate crisis accelerates, it is exacerbating challenges across the region: it is taking lives, threatening children’s livelihoods and education, deepening the burden of poverty, food insecurity and disease, and also destabilizing ecosystems and biodiversity.
These interconnected global crises pose a major threat to vulnerable nations, and existing funding commitments do little to address the needs for adaptation, mitigation, and resilience.
To raise awareness of these issues – and the urgent need for cross-cutting solutions – the Earth Journalism Network is pleased to announce a new round of media grants as part of its Phase 2 Asia-Pacific project, which aims to increase the quantity and quality of environmental coverage in the region and strengthen the prospects of communities at risk. This project has received generous financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Eligibility
This round of grants will focus on supporting media outlets, journalism institutions and other organisations that work directly with media or content creators in the Asia-Pacific region. Applicant organisations must be legally authorised to receive grants from foreign organisations.
Civil society organisations, community groups and research institutions will not be eligible for this round.
For the purposes of this call, we are only accepting applications from low- and middle-income countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept applications from Pakistan and countries in Central Asia or the Middle East. EJN reserves the right to disqualify candidates if they are found to have engaged in unethical or inappropriate professional conduct, including, but not limited to, plagiarism and submission of AI-generated content.
Objectives
The proposed activities should aim to:
Strengthen the capacity of journalists and the media to produce quality, fact-based and engaging environmental reporting on the consequences of human impacts on the environment and feasible solutions to mitigate and respond to these impacts.
Improve the quality and quantity of media content and/or coverage of key environmental issues to focus public attention on the interdependence of the health and well-being of people and their environment.
Draw public attention to the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation on women, the poor, youth, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups, and increase access of these groups to quality and publicly accessible environmental information.
Contribute to positive changes in environmental governance, political action, environmental standards in the private sector or consumption habits for a more sustainable lifestyle.
Project Topics
For this round, we are particularly interested in proposals that focus on one or more of the following themes:
Underlying environmental issues and their links to health, organized crime, migration, conflict and other issues
The interdependence of the health and well-being of humans, animals and their environment
Environmental governance and natural resource management
Energy transition and climate finance
Environmentally sustainable solutions for community resilience in the face of interconnected environmental crises
We welcome proposals aimed at:
Integrating the ethical use of AI as a tool to assist journalists in their reporting on environmental issues.
Working with social media content creators or incorporating social media outreach to reach a diverse and large online audience
Working with marginalized groups, such as women, youth, indigenous peoples, ethnic minority groups. people with disabilities or poor families
Examples of activities or outputs that may be supported include, but are not limited to:
Training seminars for journalists and/or content creators to increase the quality and quantity of climate and environmental information in media and/or social media
Grants and mentoring for journalists and/or content creators
Development of resources for journalists and/or online learning tools for the benefit of environmental journalists and their audiences
Development of innovative mapping, data visualization and/or fact-checking tools to support the reporting and/or dissemination of environmental stories
Cross-border, collaborative, investigative and/or data-driven reporting projects that facilitate peer learning and content sharing between media based in different regions or countries
Creation of new storytelling platforms
Partnerships and networking activities such as the formation of a network of environmental journalists or a reporting collective investigative
Cross-sectoral collaborations and knowledge sharing between journalists, information providers, researchers and policymakers.
Grant Amount and Logistics
We plan to notify successful applicants in February or March 2025. Projects must be completed within 12 months. No extensions beyond this deadline will be authorized. Applicants should take this time frame into account when developing their work plan.
This grant fund has $100,000 available for awards this year, which will ideally be distributed among 5-6 projects. The grant amount may vary between USD 15,000 and USD 20,000, depending on the scope of the proposed activity.
All applicants must provide a detailed budget with justification for the amount requested. We require that budgets are reasonable and take into account the costs necessary to implement the project. Applicants may use part of the grant to purchase equipment, but must clearly demonstrate how the equipment will contribute to the expected results and should not represent more than 10% of the total budget.
Applicants are permitted and encouraged to raise funds for the proposed activities, but this is not required. If you have received co-financing, please indicate the amount and source in your application.
As part of EJN support to beneficiaries, selected organisations will undertake a participatory assessment of their organisational capacities. Based on the results of the assessment, they may receive additional support to strengthen their organisational capacities (i.e. to acquire skills and knowledge on topics such as financial reporting, monitoring and evaluation, gender mainstreaming, etc.).
A representative from each selected organisation will be invited to attend a virtual or in-person EJN Asia Pacific Forum, where they will have the opportunity to acquire relevant knowledge and skills and network with each other and EJN staff. As part of this activity, beneficiaries will also participate in awareness-raising and sensitisation training on gender and the needs of marginalised groups. For projects involving the publication of stories or other materials, please note that Internews, EJN, its partners and the funder have the right to freely edit, publish, transmit and distribute such materials.
