Africa Outreach Initiative: Webinar and Digital Contest

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Call for Partnerships
Africa Outreach Initiative: Webinar and Digital Contest
Closing Date: October 3, 2025

Applications for the 2025 call for partnerships have been closed.

1. Background

The Pulitzer Center is seeking partners to amplify the voices of young professionals and foster civic engagement inspired by journalism reporting in Ghana, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso. 

This initiative aims to raise young professionals’ awareness of key issues that are part of the Pulitzer Center’s five focus areas: Climate and Environment, Global Health, Peace and Conflict, Human Rights, and Information and Artificial Intelligence. There is a special emphasis on projects that inspire informed action and policy dialogue, engage and motivate young professionals to become active participants in the information ecosystem, and extend reach to suburban communities via urban youth-led initiatives.

The Pulitzer Center outreach vision integrates journalism with audience-focused strategies that extend the reach of stories beyond traditional channels, particularly among young professionals. Through this Call for Partnerships, we seek to foster dialogue, inspire outreach engagement, and promote informed responses to the issues reported on.

The Call for Partnerships is necessary because the scale and diversity of the issues require collaborations with local actors who have deep knowledge of their communities and proven capacity to engage with them effectively. By partnering with media outlets, think tanks, civil society organizations, youth movements, women’s groups, and grassroots movements on the ground, the Pulitzer Center ensures that outreach activities are contextually relevant, locally led, and sustainable. Partnerships will also help amplify journalism in innovative formats, bridge urban and rural audiences, and guarantee that the initiative reaches the right people with the right messages.

2. Objectives 

The Call for Partnerships seeks to identify and support local organizations in Ghana, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso to implement outreach activities that will:

• Use and amplify Pulitzer Center-supported journalism to spark dialogues on key issues.
• Raise awareness among young professionals and the broader community.
• Motivate youth to participate in the information ecosystem by creating, engaging with, and sharing trusted information.

3. Description of activities

Partner organizations are expected to design and implement two related activities that will be based on the stories listed below in section nine. These activities can include:

• Online or in-person discussion workshops: Engaging about 50 young professionals in dialogue around the above-mentioned critical issues, where the topic will be inspired by one of the stories below, depending on the country covered.

  If proposing an in-person workshop, all associated costs must be covered within the allocated budget. 

• Digital contest: Leveraging creativity and digital tools to promote awareness and youth engagement. Webinar or in-person discussion workshop participants will be invited to submit their ideas for raising awareness of a topic discussed during the workshop. The proposals will be evaluated, and the top three winners will receive support for the implementation and promotion of their ideas. Those awareness-raising proposals may include, but are not limited to, organizing a live event on social media, participating in a media program, or writing an open letter or a poem. 

   

4.  Partnership’s expected deliverables

• Implementation of selected activities (online or in-person workshop and digital contest)
• Project documentation (ToR, budget, reports, photos, videos, survey, etc.) 

5. Partnership amount

Selected partners will receive up to USD $5,000 to support activity implementation and coordination costs.

• Eligible expenses: All costs related to the activity
• Ineligible expenses: Political activities, personal expenses, salary, materials payment, or any costs related to the organization’s operations
• Payment terms: Successful applicants will receive an advance payment of 85% of the amount after the signature on the partnership agreement, and the remaining 15% after submission and approval of deliverables.
• Mode of payment: Wire transfer

6. Submission guidelines

Eligible organizations are invited to submit their proposals by completing the form in this link.   

Applicants are required to attach supporting documents, including a letter of recommendation from a former or current project partner and information about the organization’s bank account (wire transfer details).

7. Selection criteria and evaluation 

A. Eligibility criteria 

This Call for Partnerships is open to the following types of registered organizations in Ghana, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, and Zambia:

• Media outlets
• Think tanks
• Civil society organizations
• Youth movements and youth-led organizations
• Women’s groups
• Grassroots movements
• Demonstrated experience in youth engagement and community engagement

B. Evaluation criteria

• Relevance
  • How well does the proposed activity address program themes and target audiences?
  • Specify the target audience (urban/suburban/rural youth). Indicate how the activity will integrate Pulitzer Center-supported stories into its content.
  • Explain outreach, if applicable. How will the activity engage the audience?
• Impact potential
  • Will the activity reach a significant number of young people and promote meaningful engagement?
  • Describe your outreach plan (media, networks, partnerships) to ensure high participation.
  • Explain how the activity will promote meaningful engagement (dialogues, actions).
• Creativity and innovation
  • Does the proposal offer fresh and engaging approaches?
  • Highlight interactive or participatory elements that make the initiative stand out.
• Feasibility
  • Is the proposal realistic given time, resources, and budget?
  • Include a preliminary budget aligned with eligible costs.
• Organizational capacity
  • Does the applicant have experience and capacity to deliver?
  • Provide examples of past successful activities, including challenges faced and how they were overcome.
  • Demonstrate that the activity can be delivered within November 2025 and reported by December 15, 2025.
  • Describe your team’s skills, partners, and resources to ensure timely and quality delivery.

8. Timeline 

9. List of stories to inspire outreach activities

Ghana

• “From Merino Blend to Microplastic Monsoon: Hidden Health Hazards in Leftover Clothing”
• “Knot Trash”
• “What Fast Fashion Costs the World”

Ethiopia 

• “Hydropower”

Burkina Faso 

• “Consumed by Terror: Insecurity, Other Factors Threaten Africa’s Ambitious Great Green Wall”

Zambia 

• “A Silent Struggle for Small Businesses Amidst Zambia’s Power Crisis”
• “Zambia’s Power Shortages Worsen As Drought Deepens” 
   

Contact information

For direct inquiries, reach out to [email protected] with the subject line “Africa Outreach — [Your organization’s name].”