Action in anticipation of crises: Hyperlocal preparedness

Why are we focusing on crisis preparedness?

Around the world, natural disasters, health emergencies, social and political unrest, and armed conflicts are impacting lives and livelihoods. In 2023 there was a record-setting number of state-based conflicts throughout the globe as compared to every year since the end of  World War II. In addition, 2023 represented a new high for climate and weather disasters, with 28 instances recorded in total.

These figures indicate that 2024 will be a crucial year for promoting crisis preparedness.

Communities are increasingly experiencing intersecting crises: 

• Social inequality and poverty are exacerbated by the climate crisis.
• Education is undermined by poor internet connectivity.
• Social cohesion and democratic processes are threatened by AI and disinformation. 

These issues, and others like them — which disproportionately impact individuals and communities in the Larger World — are further exacerbated by global challenges related to international trade, energy markets, and technology.

The call for proposals

Our call for proposals invites collectives and organizations to engage in creative and impactful work on hyperlocal preparedness to promote anticipation and action. Together, we aim to promote proactive and collaborative tactics in an effort to move beyond the limited impact of isolated and reactive strategies. 

The fund is now open!
Submit your proposal.
Deadline: July 25, 2024

This fund aims to support the work of organizations, coalitions, and collectives in the Larger World that do both of the following:

1. Develop programs and reporting or other published material on community preparedness in anticipation of crises.
2. Generate data or insights relevant to awareness, preparedness, and response strategies for addressing future crises. 

We will support initiatives that:

1. Operate through the lens of hyperlocal journalism to cover underrepresented issues.
2. Enhance communities’ access to high-quality information.
3. Improve access to critical information during crisis contexts.

We will prioritize programs that: 

• Identify, anticipate, and prioritize community needs before a crisis strikes.
• Provide insights on how to better leverage preexisting technologies, tools, datasets, and other innovations to prepare for crises.
• Strengthen opportunities for collective action when threats to information access, integrity, or equity arise.
• Engage with creative uses of technology to accomplish their goals.

The IMRF is designed to respond to the hyperlocal needs of media practitioners, independent media newsrooms, fact-checking groups, citizen journalism projects, human rights defenders, researchers, and technology and digital literacy advocates in North Africa and Western Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Asia-Pacific region.

In this call for proposals, we are making up to 10 awards available, each of which may amount to as much as $10,000.

We welcome proposals for podcasts, investigative content, audiovisual reports, written pieces, information hubs, campaigns, offline training, massive open online courses, projects centered on dataset creation and annotation, and toolkits.

Eligibility criteria

The fund prioritizes applications from groups and collectives, as opposed to those submitted by individuals. This allows the board to ensure accountability and enhances the likelihood of project delivery.

There are several criteria that will be used to assess applications:

• ‍Originality and significance: How is this work new? Does it build on existing work? And what novel contributions will it add? What challenges does the project propose to address? What is its geographic area and focus?‍
• Achievability: Will the applicant be able to deliver on the promises made in the application? Is the plan’s timeline realistic? Does the proposed fieldwork represent any ethical issues or health and safety concerns that need to be taken into account?
• ‍Impact and dissemination: Does the application identify a relevant audience? Does the work set out to transform our perceptions of specific issues? Is the application clear about why this work is important now? ‍
• Rigor: Will the work present balanced viewpoints? How solid is the investigative fieldwork plan? How will the applicant check if their sources are accurate? 
• Programmatic alignment: Is the Independent Media Response Fund the best funder to support this project? Are there any other partners to whom we might direct this application?

Funding process

1. By July 25, applicants must submit a brief set of initial answers about their project via our submission form.
2. Throughout July, select applicants will be invited to share further details about their project through a separate online form.
3. Within five weeks of the initial submission date, winning applicants will be notified of their status
4. On August 15, an official announcement will be made.

We expect a high level of interest in this call. As such, we will not be able to respond to applications that do not move forward.

The fund is now open!
Submit your proposal.
Deadline: July 25, 2024