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The Africa-China Reporting Project is calling for applications for reporting grants to support collaborations between reporters and/or researchers in Africa and Southeast Asia on shared developments relating to Chinese engagement in both regions.
The grant will support shared and collaborative reporting by reporters and/or researchers in African and Southeast Asian countries, with the aim of producing co-written and/or complimentary media outputs, to be published in publications in both regions at once. Overall, the Project is aimed at encouraging South-South knowledge sharing and conversations about China’s growing role across the developing world. Applicants are encouraged to investigate and uncover local and on-the-ground impacts of China’s South-South engagements.
For the purposes of reviewing submissions, all applications must be submitted in English. Final publications/ productions must be provided in English, and can also be provided in Arabic, French, Spanish, and Mandarin, but must include English translation/subtitles where another language is used for the primary reporting.
Successful collaborative investigations and publications stand to be featured in The China in Africa Podcast, by the China-Global South Project. Furthermore, successful reporters and authors stand to participate in the Annual ACRP Journalists Forum, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
ACRP is open to applications across a wide range of fields, but would especially encourage those focusing on:
Background
China’s growing relationship with the Global South is emerging as a trend reshaping the world. Not only are these relationships transforming how we understand development, infrastructure-provision and investment in positive and negative ways, it is also triggering attempts from traditional powers to reenergize their own relationships with these regions.
Two Global South regions have been at the forefront of these developments: Africa and Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia’s proximity with China made it a key region for China’s South-South engagement. The ASEAN group is now China’s largest trading region, and the intense engagement has triggered both massive growth and a series of challenges. Reporters from Southeast Asia have published several emerging trends and issues, from threats posed to the environment caused by the building of dams, to other concerns such as organized crime.
Africa has also long functioned as a key space for experimentation and investment for China, with much of what came to be known as the Belt and Road having been road-tested on the continent. While China transformed African development outcomes in the process, African journalists have also tracked the collateral damage, from illegal wildlife trade to spectral loan agreements.
The Africa-China Reporting Project (the Project) has long been a driving force in supporting and building the capacity of journalists to be able to investigate the complexities within Africa-China relations, and present balanced and nuanced reporting. Freedom House recently acknowledged the Project’s facilitation of knowledge exchange among reporters in different regions as a major bulwark against disinformation on the continent.
Up to now, these developments have largely been reported on in isolation. However, emerging comparative research and reporting on the environmental and social impacts of Chinese projects in the two regions[1] lays the groundwork for much-needed knowledge sharing and collaboration between researchers and reporters.
How to apply
Applications must be sent to ACRPapplications@gmail.com titled: Application to China’s South-South Engagements, by no later than Wednesday, 29 March 2023 and should contain the following (only documents in MS Word or PDF formats will be accepted):
Successful applicants will be notified after the closing date. Please send any queries to ACRPcontact@gmail.com
[1] See for example, https://saiia.org.za/tag/china-infrastructure-cooperation/
