Capacity Building Program for Leadership of Media Associations (Cameroon)

The U.S. Embassy Yaounde Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) is seeking proposals to design and implement a ten-day program for four to five leaders of trade unions of journalists or media associations. The program should combine field trips and meeting with relevant experts from the government, civil society, academia and the media.

Additionally, trade unions and journalist associations lack resources and ideas to sustain their efforts in defending press freedom of the press in Cameroon. Professional associations are neither very active nor very organized and rarely stand together to defend the profession.

Through this project, 4-5 executive members of trade unions or journalist associations would travel to the United States for a maximum of 10 days in Washington and New York, facilitating a greater immersive understanding how associations and trade unions operate in the United States and how they promote and defend press freedom, freedom of expression and protection of journalists.  The selected participants will meet with established associations of journalists, trade unions to gain exposure to their function, membership, and objectives. Other possible meetings would include Freedom House, ICJ, FPC, and a meeting at the State Department.

The expected outcome is that media associations and trade unions return with greater capacity to organize and generate resources, and to defend press freedom in Cameroon. The participants will consist of four to five Cameroonian leaders of trade unions of journalists and media associations.

Program Objectives

• Design a program in the United States for current/rising Cameroonian leaders of media associations or trade union of journalists to engage with American media associations and trade union of journalists.
• Participants acquire knowledge and skills on the operations and functioning of US media associations and trade unions of journalists.
• Acquire skills, tools on lobbying activities, funding, crowd-funding etc.
• Promote networking between Cameroon association of journalists and association of journalists or NGOs promoting free press and press freedom in the United States.
• Initiate possible collaboration, partnership and networking between U.S. media associations/trade unions and Cameroons journalists’ associations.

Funding Information

• Total available funding: $50,000.
• Award amounts: Awards may range from a minimum of $49,000 to a maximum of $50,000.
• Length of performance period: 06 to 12 months from the date of award.
• Number of awards anticipated: One award.

Eligibility Criteria

• PDS encourages applications from the United States:
  • Registered not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks, community associations, and civil society/non-governmental organizations with programming experience.
  • Alumni of U.S. government exchange programs.
  • Non-profit media organizations.
  • Professional trade organizations.
  • Non-profit or governmental educational institutions.
  • Private educational institutions.
• For-profit or commercial entities are not eligible to apply.
• Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding.
• In order to be eligible to receive an award, all organizations must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number.
• The following requirements must be met:
  • The proposal clearly addresses the goals and objectives of this funding opportunity.
  • All documents are in English.
  • All budgets are in U.S. dollars.
  • All pages are numbered.

For more information, visit U.S. Embassy in Cameroon.