Nigerian Female journalists (full-time or freelance) with a minimum of three years of experience may apply for the 2023 Report Women! Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) fellowship champion building edition, from Wednesday 15 to Friday 3 March 2023. This opportunity, a collaboration between the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is hosted as part of the News and Newsroom Engagement initiative that started in 2022.
The WSCIJ started the Report Women! Programme in 2014. The aim at the time was to beam the searchlight on the need to increase the quantity and quality of news reports about access and abuse as they affected girls and women in Nigeria. We expanded the idea in 2017 to include the Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) with a fellowship that now has 74 fellows and engagement with newsroom leadership that has helped us intentionally put women in leadership positions in news media organisations.
With the Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement project, we seek to strategically engage media stakeholders and executives on parity between men and women in the newsrooms, the news, and society and equip female reporters with knowledge and skills that prepare them for the c-suites of media organisations. The intervention will also provide access to a platform of female experts are sources of news across sectors for the use of reporters.
Successful applicants will be taught practical skills in investigative reporting, leadership, and skills to engage others and speak for the cause of women as leaders in the news and newsrooms. The champions building engagement will include three days of physical training and three to six months of mentorship to produce investigative stories and leadership projects that address the equity gaps in the news, newsrooms, and society.
Female journalists with disabilities and those who cover local issues are encouraged to apply.
