Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship

Application Deadline: July 25, 2023.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) invites applications for the 3^RD edition of its Next Generation Investigative Journalism (NGIJ) fellowship programme. The Fellowship is an initiative to promote public interest, accountability journalism in West Africa through mentorship and training of young promising journalism graduates as well as bolster quality journalism that advances transparency and accountability in governance, and the promotion of human rights.

Under the programme, selected fellows will be hosted in Ghana for a three-month comprehensive mentorship with Fact-Check Ghana and The Fourth Estate, both being MFWA’s public interest and accountability journalism projects made up of seasoned journalists. Fellows will receive intensive practical training to be able to conduct critical, high-quality, fact-based in-depth and enterprise reporting towards improving lives and promoting good governance through journalism excellence.

Fellows will also be supported to produce compelling investigative and/or fact-checking reports and expected to deliver at least one significant report each by end of the programme. Fellows will receive a Certificate of Honour upon successful completion of the programme.

This year’s fellowship will be 3-months. It will cover the period September to November 2023. Aside from trainings on fact-checking and investigative reporting, there will also be specific trainings focused on issues of progressive taxation, domestic resource mobilisation and illicit financial flows.

Eligibility criteria:

An Applicant should be a young journalist or freshly graduated journalist between the ages of 21 to 30 years who has just completed national service or is an entry level journalist in a Ghanaian newsroom, whose schedules are flexible enough to allow for full participation in the fellowship in Accra, Ghana.
Journalists based in other regions other than Accra are encouraged to apply.
Applicants must be available to fully participate in the three-month fellowship; attend all in-person and virtual training sessions and carry out all assignments throughout the duration of the Fellow.

Application Procedure

Interested journalists should submit a letter of motivation stating why they want to participate in the fellowship, a CV including two referees, and a copy of any national identification not later than July 25, 2023. The documents should be sent to the email: [email protected].

Note: This call is open to Journalists based in Ghana. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

For further clarification, kindly contact Deborah Bempah on +233557341728.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship 2023

Application Deadline: June 15, 2022

Are you a young journalist who aspires to specialise in investigations? Do you want to be equipped with the skills to undertake fact-based, in-depth, and enterprise reporting?

Then the MFWA Next Generation Investigative Journalism (NGIJ) fellowship is an excellent opportunity for you.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) invites applications for the second edition of the NGIJ fellowship. The NGIJ fellowship affords young journalists the opportunity to learn from experienced facilitators in investigative journalism in West Africa in a five-month intensive programme. It is meant to groom young journalists to pursue quality, critical, and accountability journalism and raise the next generation of critical investigative journalists in West Africa.

The first edition of the NGIJ fellowship admitted ten budding journalists selected from various journalism training institutions in Ghana. Having been equipped with the capacity for investigative reporting after the five-month in-depth and practical training, the journalists produced a number of high-quality, accountability-focused stories (View the profile of the first cohort of the NGIJ fellows here, and read their stories here and here)

The second edition of the NGIJ fellowship will admit twelve journalists from three countries in West Africa namely Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

Successful applicants will be taken through the investigative processes of developing a story idea, reporting, and presenting the findings in a complete and coherent manner for maximum impact.

The fellows will also be given practical field assignments.

Eligibility criteria:

An Applicant should be a young journalist between the ages of 20 to 30 years from Ghana, Sierra Leone, or Liberia who has just completed national service or a student journalist currently in a Journalism or Mass Communication School, whose schedules are flexible enough to allow for full participation in the fellowship in Accra, Ghana.
For Ghana, journalists who come from the regions outside Accra and those who are in Accra but will be willing to work from their home regions after the training are encouraged to apply.
For Liberia and Sierra Leone, the applicant must be willing to travel and reside in Accra, Ghana for at least five months, the period for the fellowship.

Applicants must be available to attend training and assignments from July to November 2022.

Application Deadline:

Interested journalists should submit a letter of motivation stating why they want to participate in the fellowship, a CV including two referees, and a copy of any national identification not later than Wednesday, June 15, 2022. The documents should be sent to the email: [email protected]

Note: Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship 2022

Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship

Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship 2023 for young West African Journalists

Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship 2022 for young West African Journalists