Call for Applications! for Humanitarian Reporting Fellowship! Apply now!

Hours and contract length: Full-time (40 hours/wk), six-month duration
Stipend: USD 2,500 monthly plus travel and expenses
Start date: May 2024
Location: Remote, with availability during standard WAT/CET business hours 
Deadline for application: 23:59 WAT/CET on Sunday 31 March 2024

The Humanitarian Reporting Fellowship

Applications are now open for the May – November 2024 Humanitarian Reporting Fellowship, a six-month programme that offers a locally-focused journalist from the Global South the opportunity to gain skills in reporting, framing, and presenting local stories for global audiences as part of The New Humanitarian’s global newsroom. Fellows will experiment with multimedia reporting techniques and develop reporting formats that spring from and reflect their own communities.

Following the success of our first-ever fellowship, which uncovered incredible talent in Nigeria (see an article written by them here), we’re excited to further broaden our horizons. This cycle, we’re particularly interested in exploring the unique perspectives and narratives from the Middle East, alongside other regions of the Global South. Our goal is to continue amplifying diverse voices that bring rich, localised insights to our global audience. We are seeking one fellow, who will be engaged on a full-time basis. The successful candidate will be offered a competitive stipend.

For nearly three decades, The New Humanitarian has put quality, independent journalism at the service of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world. We report from the heart of conflicts and disasters to inform prevention and response.

The fellowship is part of TNH’s commitment to journalism that more faithfully and authentically represents the communities we serve while providing insight for policymakers, practitioners, government officials and others interested in improving the lives of people in the midst of crises.

What the successful candidate can expect:

• Full participation in TNH’s global reporting and presentation process, including contributing original short- and long-format work across platforms;
• Support for individual reporting, working alongside TNH newsroom journalists, including the opportunity to develop innovative formats and reporting approaches grounded in the fellow’s own experience and background;
• Travel and production resources to report on humanitarian issues in their local community that they would like to bring to the attention of a global audience.

The successful candidate will:

• Be a citizen of a country in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, or Africa;
• Be available to work the majority of business hours in West Africa Standard Time (Central European Time);
• Be a journalist based in their home country with 3-5 years of experience working there;
• Have demonstrated interest in humanitarian issues and coverage of them;
• Have reliable access to the internet and the ability to work in a diverse and distributed newsroom;
• Have an interest in innovative reporting techniques that put the human back into humanitarian reporting;
• Be able to communicate well in English;
• Be available to attend the full duration of the programme.
• The programme is open to both freelance and employed journalists. The latter must provide a letter from their employers granting them a leave of absence for the duration of the fellowship.

How a participant’s news organisation benefits if their employee is selected:

• Opportunity to enhance reporting, storytelling approaches, and presentation in your newsroom as the skills the fellow develops are integrated into their work upon their return;
• Free co-publication of any of the content produced by the fellow;
• A chance to build a mutually beneficial long-term partnership with TNH.

Please include the following as part of your application:

• A CV or detailed list of professional experience, including employment and education history;
• A personal statement/cover letter (maximum 500 words) explaining your motivation for applying – including your interest in and experience with humanitarian journalism — and how you plan to use the knowledge gained from the fellowship;
• For employed journalists: A note from your employer stating their willingness to afford you a leave of absence for the duration of the programme.

Please note – Our system only allows for two documents to be uploaded as part of your application (a CV and personal statement), so for those candidates that are currently employed and need to upload a note from their employer confirming a leave of absence if selected, please merge this with your personal statement and upload as one document.

For any questions or if you need any assistance throughout the application process, please don’t hesitate to contact us. You can reach us at [email protected]