U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam Grant: Supporting Investigative Journalism Fund in Tanzania

The U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania announces an open call for a $250,000 24-month grant to a well-established Tanzanian media organization to establish and manage an investigative journalism support fund that will empower local journalists to report on public interest issues through capacity building and financial support.

The U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam advocates for the establishment of a vibrant, independent, responsible, and diverse media sector in Tanzania that serves the public interest. Supporting investigative journalism is a crucial part of achieving this objective. Investigative reporting can draw attention to and sustain public interest in issues of national importance. Unfortunately, the economic challenges facing the media business in Tanzania means that reporters are rarely given the time or resources to conduct in-depth investigations. As a result, members of the public are deprived of information on issues that impact their lives, such as corruption, labor abuses, financial mismanagement, harmful environmental practices, and more.

This project will address the problem described above by creating a media support fund that will empower local journalists to report on public interest issues through capacity building and financial support. The grantee will be in charge of managing and administering this fund and will issue small sub-grants to individual reporters who successfully pitch investigative stories falling within a defined set of sectors and topics.

Successful proposals will clearly explain:

• How the grantee will structure and administer the fund

• Which themes and topics will be prioritized by the fund

• How the fund will be promoted and advertised to the media sector

• The number How the beneficiaries of the fund will be selected and on what basis “pitches” will be scored

• Who will comprise the selection panel and on what basis the panel members will be chosen

• How the fund will maintain impartiality and independence to guard against appearances of bias or favoritism in the distribution of funds

• How distributed funds will be accounted for

• How the fund will measure and evaluate success