Chibuike Alagboso is a public health communication and advocacy specialist with nearly ten years’ experience, driven by a commitment to using strategic communication, data and storytelling to influence public health policy. His interests span social enterprise, health communication, technology and journalism, and he has earned notable fellowships such as the Mandela Washington Fellowship, the LEDE Fellowship and a Journalist-in-Residence role at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium. He writes, trains and mentors journalists globally on solutions journalism, has served as a jury member for the European Journalism Centre’s Global Health Security Grant Awards, and currently mentors for its Solutions Journalism Accelerator. As Senior Programme Manager at Nigeria Health Watch, he leads the Nigeria component of the Solutions Journalism Africa Initiative, which since 2021 has supported 30 newsrooms and trained over 100 journalists to produce more than 200 solutions-focused stories.
The most challenging aspect was assessing a pool of exceptionally strong submissions and knowing that, because of limited funding, not every deserving project could be supported. That tension between potential and finite resources is never easy. However, Journalismfund’s rigorous and collaborative process made the task balanced and fair. Decisions were never left to one person; instead, the system ensured that jury members collectively evaluated alignment and merit before an application was accepted or declined. – Chibuike Alagboso