2015-12-02
BRUSSELS - Journalists who team up with at least one Flemish and one Sub-Sahara African journalist are eligible to apply for Flanders Connects Continents, a new, €120,000 grant programme by our Flemish Fonds Pascal Decroos project.
The new grant programme will allocate a total of €120,000 in grant money to teams of investigative journalists over a period of six months. In order to be eligible to apply for a grant, a team has to consist of at least one Flemish and at least one Sub-Sahara African investigative journalist. Additional international team members are free to join.
3 deadlines
There are three application rounds, each for roughly €40,000, to be spent on several projects. The deadlines are 24th December 2015, 1st April 2016 and 1st June 2016. After each deadline, a jury of two Flemish and two African jurors knowledgeable in North-South investigative journalism, assess and decide on the applications.
Submitted story proposals need to fall into the general scope of the UN's 17 sustainable development goals:
- End poverty in all its forms everywhere;
- End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture;
- Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages;
- Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all;
- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls;
- Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all;
- Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all;
- Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all;
- Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation;
- Reduce inequality within and among countries;
- Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable;
- Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns;
- Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts;
- Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development;
- Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss;
- Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levers;
- Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
press conference
The news of the new grant programme was made public during a press conference in Brussels on 1st December that the Pascal Decroos Fonds voor Bijzondere Journalistiek, our Flemish grant-giving project. It was Mr Mark Andries who made the announcement. Andries is the chief of staff of Geert Bourgeois, Minister-President of the Flemish Government, which provides the money for the grants and for the support (€168,000 in total). It was inspired by our recent Connecting Continents grant programme.
Applications need to be submitted through the project website www.flandersconntinents.org (online soon). More information can be requested with project co-ordinator Marjorie Blomme (marjorie.blomme [at] journalismfund.eu (marjorie[dot]blomme[at]journalismfund[dot]eu)).
Photo © Kevin Faingnaert
