Posted on November 28, 2008

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Gates Foundation Awards $2 Million to International Center for Journalists

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has announced a $2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a fellowship program that will work to improve news coverage of critical development issues in sub-Saharan Africa such as agriculture, microfinance, sanitation, and employment.

The African Development Journalism Fellowships program will place media professionals from ICFJ's Knight International Journalism Fellowships program into key African countries with the goal of increasing local media coverage of regional development issues. The program will also work to create networks of professional and citizen journalists in rural areas, using mobile technology to connect them to media in large cities, and will help establish training programs on development reporting at local journalism associations.

Building on the success of ICFJ's Knight Health Journalism Fellowships program, also partially funded by the Gates Foundation, the new program addresses the need for more information about critical issues in rural regions, which are disproportionately affected by policy decisions made in capital cities. Many news organizations in sub-Saharan Africa lack the resources and training to adequately cover rural issues that can determine whether their countries' poorest citizens prosper or remain trapped in poverty.

"Our Knight Health Fellows are mentoring African journalists to produce hard-hitting stories that are forcing governments to invest more in health care," said ICFJ president Joyce Barnathan. "We believe these new fellows, using the latest mobile technology, will have similar impact in reducing poverty."

“International Center for Journalists Receives Funding to Improve News Coverage of Poverty and Development Issues in Africa.” International Center for Journalists Press Release 11/13/08.

Primary Subject: Journalism/Media
Secondary Subject(s): International Affairs/Development
Location(s): sub-Saharan Africa

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