1. Introduction

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in collaboration with the Government of
Rwanda through the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) have established a fund conceived to support efforts of media houses to mitigate effects of Covid-19 on their operations. The fund aims at increasing the role of media in the ongoing efforts to contain further spread of COVID19. The fund has so far secured One Hundred Million Rwandan Francs (100,000,000 Frw).

The money will be used in the provision of 10-15 competitive grants to support the
implementation of project proposals that will be submitted by media houses.

It is in this framework that we are launching the call for applications for the “COVID-19
mitigation media grants”. Successful proposals will be selected by an independent committee based on set criteria. The selected proposed activities shall be implemented in a period not exceeding 3 months.

2. Eligibility criteria

You may also like:

Media houses which employ at least 3 staff and fulfilling all the following criteria are eligible
to apply for the grants.

 Registration: the applicant should be legally registered as a media house operating in Rwanda attested by a certificate provided by the competent authority;

 Experience: The applicant should have been operating for a minimum of three-year after the registration date;

 Location: The applicant should be physically located on the territory of Rwanda;

 Ethical journalism: The applicant should be practicing ethical journalism in their operations.

This will be attested by a recommendation letter from the Media Self-Regulatory Body
(Rwanda Media Commission);

 COVID-19 space/airtime: The applicant should be ready to air or publish generated COVID19 prevention content on their platforms;

Ineligible Media houses

 Media houses that receive government funding
 Media houses serving suspension handed to them by competent organs

3. Considerations in the application

Generally, all the applications should focus on the generation and dissemination of content
meant to prevention and fight the further spread of COVID-19.

The main considerations are:

 A media house that employs at least 3 people;
 How the fund will mitigate impact of COVID-19 on the applicant;
 Clear definition of what the funds will do for the media house;
 Clarity and consistency of the messages on the prevention measures of COVID-19.

4. Application process

Media Houses fulfilling the eligibility criteria stated in section 2 should submit their application fulfilling requirements in section 3 online through the following link:
https://forms.gle/PLxFXMcxWyxoif3G6

Application documents should include:

 Completed application form (see annex: Application Template)
 Budget of the activities (maximum 10,000,000 Frw)
 Copy of a valid registration certificate from competent authority
 An application form (available online on the above link)
 Recommendation letter from RMC
 Proof of contract of at least the 3 staff involved in the implementation of the project
 Proof of a bank account in the name of the media house
 Clearance certificate from the bank or proof that the media house does not have a nonperforming loan.

Note: All the documents should be in PDF.

Note: The deadline for submissions is September 11th, 2020 at 4PM Local Time.

Late, ineligible, and incomplete applications will not be reviewed.

5. Nature of funding

Funding will be provided to only one proposal per media house. In case of joint project proposals, a media house is not allowed to appear in more than one.

6. Grant Amount & Cost Share

The grants will cover 90% of the total cost of the activities and the media house will cover the remaining 10%. Media houses are encouraged to provide their own contributions to the
implementation of the proposed activities, which should be clearly reflected in the budget. Own contributions can be in-kind such as the airtime/space, camera, recorders, computers, vehicles, staff among others.

The amount of the grant to award a successful proposal will be determined by the selection
committee basing on the proposed cost of activities, employability potentials and estimated
reach/impact.

The grants will be disbursed in one installment and will be disbursed after the signing of the grant agreement. The reports of the activities implemented should be submitted within 30 days to RGB after the implementation.

Please Share to