Donate Now
Land grabs, land disputes, hidden land deals, phony C of O’s, flawed and opaque land registries— all pose a threat to the growth and development of Nigeria, one of Africa’s leading economic engines.
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a grant-giving non-profit organization that supports independent global journalism is seeking applications from Nigerian journalists who want to participate in a collaborative reporting project to investigate land and property rights in their home country. The reporting will be published in Nigerian and international news outlets.
The call for this special grant opportunity is now open. Journalists are encouraged to submit their application on why they should be selected for the reporting project. The deadline is March 15, 2016.
Eligibility: This special grant opportunity is open to all Nigerian journalists, writers, photographers, radio producers or filmmakers, staff journalists, as well as freelancers and media professionals who are seeking to report from their home country.
Selection: The grant recipient will be selected by the Pulitzer Center, in consultation with our African-based partner organizations: Sahara Reporters, Africa Check, Code for Nigeria, and BudgIT.
The grant recipient will be paired with mentors from the Pulitzer Center’s partner journalism organizations, who will help the grantee more fully develop the investigative story on land issues.
Selection will be based on the following criteria:
- The story must take an investigative angle and focus on an under-reported aspect of land and property issues in Nigeria.
- The proposal must include a data collection/data journalism approach. For example, data mining government documents, digitizing documents related to “off the books” land deals, creating datasets that reveal trends in land deals or tenure insecurity, or using data collected during reporting to create easy and simple to understand infographics.
- The proposal needs to include a timeline and distribution plan for the story in the Nigerian media.
- The strength of the proposed topic and the strength of the applicant's work as demonstrated in their work samples.
- We are looking for projects that explore systemic issues related to land and property rights, and that provide an overarching thesis, rather than individual spot-reports from the field.
Deadline: March 15, 2016
How to apply for the Property Rights Reporting Grant
Applications include the following:
- A description of the proposed project, including distribution plan, in no more than 250 words
- A preliminary budget estimate, including a basic breakdown of costs. Travel grants cover hard costs associated with the reporting; please do not include stipends for the applicants. Fixer/translator/driver fees are acceptable.
- Three samples of published work, either print or broadcast.
- Three professional references. These can be either contact information, or letters of recommendation. The latter is encouraged when letters from interested producers or editors are available.
- A copy of your curriculum vitae.
Applications may also include a more detailed description of project but this will be considered as optional supplement only. The most important part of the submission is the 250-word summary.