The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda through the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) have established a fund to promote accountability and access to information. The fund also aims at increasing the role of media in the national recovery process whereby the changing context due to COVID19 pandemic requires the media to play a pivotal role in timely and effectively informing people for increased resilience but also, to use the unique mandate of the media to promote accountability at all levels. The first phase of grants provided to 13 media houses under this fund were disbursed in September 2020. The grants allowed to the beneficiary media outlets to overcome the immediate impact of the confinement in terms of revenues, but also to contribute to the national efforts to fight the pandemic by publishing and broadcasting regular messages on the nature of the pandemic, as well as sensitizing the public on the importance of implementing the measures to fight it. An additional amount of funds totaling One Hundred Million Rwandan Francs (100,000,000 Frw) is to be disbursed through a competitive process.

It is in this framework that we are launching the second call for applications which aims at enhancing the contribution of the media in the national recovery process. Successful project proposals will be selected by an independent committee basing on set criteria. The selected projects shall be implemented in a period not exceeding 3 months (October-December 2021). All details and ToRs can be found HERE.