Purpose
- Investigative journalism
- Fact finding and -checking
- Improving equitable access to effective public services
Why we embarked on the project
The lack of oversight frameworks have continuosly marred the effective delivery of institutional projects at community levels. The resultant effects include abandoned projects, diverted project funds and resources into pockets of politicians and their cronies, strained amenities due to insufficiency of existing ones. and racketeering of resources meant for citizens which stifles access.
Community journalism holds the key to bridging the wide gap between Nigeria’s urban and rural areas with reportage these issues. Since most of these issues are under-reported by the mainstream media, community journalists often turns the spotlight on them, assisting in holding those responsible to account.
Our strategy and process
Our key focus was on actors, advocates, and independent media or journalists at grassroots level who are already reporting or want to report on issues affecting their communities. We proceeded with a call for proposals, prioritizing issues on transparency and accountability, health and gender, justice and equitable economic recovery.
The selection was in two stages, and we ensured that different geopolical zones were represented. Fellows underwent a two-day skill and capacity development boot-camp, with three renown media professionals as their trainers and mentors. Post-training, fellows will embark on their investigative projects with reporting grants provided.
Outcomes and learnings
Our call for applications returned about 105 submissions. We discovered a recurring theme which we had not included from the beginning. 20% of the submissions were project ideas on ‘Equitable Justice’. These projects seek to investigate and report on issues of misuse of power and defiance of the rule of law by government-backed private companies extracting natural resources from communities, leaving no benefits and health crisis behind. This program supported a total of 27 fellows who will delivered up to 60 special reports by February 2023.
Project partners
This is under the Africa Data Hub Project with partners, Open Cities Lab, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.