Africa No Filter Voices for Climate Justice 2026: African Storytellers Can Receive Up to US$4,000 in Funding
Applications are now open for the Africa No Filter Voices for Climate Justice 2026 initiative, a major opportunity for African journalists, content creators, podcasters, vloggers, muralists, data visualizers and other storytellers who want to reshape public conversations about climate justice across the continent.
Delivered by Africa No Filter (ANF) in partnership with Comic Relief, Voices for Climate Justice is a 12-month storytelling initiative designed to support African creators to develop compelling, research-informed narratives that connect some of the continent’s most urgent challenges: climate change, climate finance, debt, gender inequality and fossil fuel extraction.
The program will select approximately 15 to 20 storytellers and provide them with training, mentorship, content amplification and grants of up to US$4,000 to produce stories capable of generating public discussion, improving understanding of climate justice and inspiring action.
Application Deadline: September 25, 2026, at 6:00 PM GMT
Applications are being considered on a rolling basis, meaning eligible applicants are encouraged to submit their applications well before the final deadline rather than waiting until the last day.
About the Africa No Filter Voices for Climate Justice Initiative
Climate change is not only an environmental problem. Across Africa, it is closely connected with economic inequality, public debt, access to natural resources, development financing, gender inequality and the long-term consequences of fossil fuel extraction.
Africa No Filter’s Voices for Climate Justice initiative seeks to make these complex relationships easier for ordinary people to understand through effective storytelling.
One of the central issues highlighted by the initiative is the way climate finance reaches African countries. Although Africa has historically contributed a relatively small share to the global climate crisis, many African countries continue to face severe climate impacts while receiving a significant proportion of climate-related financing through loans rather than grants.
According to the framing of the Voices for Climate Justice call, increased reliance on loans can deepen existing debt pressures on African governments. In some cases, countries already facing heavy debt obligations may subsequently depend on oil, gas and mineral resources as financial or economic assets, potentially encouraging further extraction.
The consequences can extend far beyond government finances. Fossil fuel extraction, drilling and associated development can affect communities that depend on land, agriculture, water and local ecosystems for their livelihoods.
The initiative particularly wants storytellers to explore how these issues affect women and girls, who may experience disproportionate consequences when communities lose access to agricultural land, water resources or livelihoods.
Voices for Climate Justice therefore aims to help African audiences understand that conversations about climate change cannot be separated from questions about debt, gender, development, justice, economic systems and fossil fuels.
What Does the Program Want Storytellers to Do?
Africa No Filter is seeking creators who can turn complicated climate justice issues into stories that are understandable, compelling and relevant to communities.
Applicants are encouraged to propose original storytelling ideas exploring the relationship between:
- Climate justice
- Climate finance
- Public and national debt
- Gender
- Fossil fuel extraction
- Community livelihoods
- Climate reparations
- Economic inequality
- Environmental justice
- African communities’ experiences of climate change
The proposed content should not simply describe environmental problems. Successful ideas are expected to help audiences understand how these different issues are connected and why those connections matter.
Storytelling can potentially take several formats, including:
- Journalism and written articles
- Digital content
- Video storytelling
- Podcasts
- Vlogs
- Murals and public art
- Data visualization
- Social media storytelling
- Other creative and accessible storytelling formats
Selected storytellers will create content that is relevant to their country or community while Africa No Filter helps amplify the resulting work to reach broader audiences.
What Will Selected Participants Receive?
The Voices for Climate Justice initiative provides considerably more than financial support.
1. Grants of Up to US$4,000
Successful participants may receive grants of up to US$4,000 to develop and produce their approved storytelling projects.
The funding is intended to help storytellers turn their proposed concepts into substantive content capable of contributing to the climate justice conversation.
2. Climate Justice Training
Selected storytellers will receive training designed to strengthen their understanding of climate justice.
This is important because the initiative addresses technically and politically complex issues involving climate finance, public debt, gender, natural resources and fossil fuels.
3. Data Storytelling Training
Participants will also learn how to use evidence and data effectively in storytelling.
Rather than producing content based solely on opinion, participants will be encouraged to translate research and evidence into stories that audiences can understand.
4. Narrative Framing Support
Africa No Filter places considerable emphasis on how Africa is represented.
Participants will therefore receive support in narrative framing, helping them develop stories that avoid simplistic or stereotypical descriptions of African communities.
5. Mentorship
The initiative will provide mentorship to participating storytellers throughout the program, helping them strengthen their ideas and storytelling approaches.
6. Collaboration With Researchers and Partners
Participants will work with researchers and relevant partners to create content that is accurate and informed by evidence.
This can be particularly valuable for storytellers addressing topics such as climate finance, debt or fossil fuel extraction, where technical accuracy is essential.
7. Content Amplification
Africa No Filter will support the amplification of participants’ stories, potentially allowing their work to reach audiences beyond their existing platforms or communities.
8. Participation in a 12-Month Initiative
Voices for Climate Justice runs for approximately 12 months, giving successful applicants an extended period to develop their knowledge, produce content and participate in the initiative.
Overall, between 15 and 20 storytellers are expected to receive support through the program.
Who Is Africa No Filter Looking For?
Africa No Filter is particularly interested in storytellers capable of combining creativity with public engagement.
Potential applicants include:
- Journalists
- Content creators
- Podcasters
- Vloggers
- Data visualizers
- Muralists
- Digital storytellers
- Creators using visual, written, audio or multimedia storytelling
Applicants should already have an established platform or demonstrated way of reaching an audience.
The program is therefore particularly suited to people who are already producing content and now want to use their skills and audience to explore climate justice issues in greater depth.
Detailed Eligibility Requirements
Applicants should carefully review the eligibility conditions before submitting an application.
Age Requirement
Applicants must be over 18 years old.
Individual Applicants Only
The initiative is designed for individual storytellers.
Organizations and agencies are not eligible to apply as applicants.
Geographic Requirement
Applicants must be based in one of the following countries:
- Mozambique
- Uganda
- Nigeria
- Angola
- Chad
- Republic of the Congo
- Tanzania
- South Sudan
- Malawi
- Zambia
The call specifically seeks African storytellers from these countries.
Platform and Audience Requirements
Applicants must have an active and engaged platform through which they can reach an audience.
Examples include:
- Podcast
- YouTube channel
- TikTok
- Publication or media outlet
- Data visualization portfolio
The platform should have been consistently active for more than one year.
Minimum Audience for Content Creators and Data Visualizers
Content creators and data visualizers should have a combined audience of at least 5,000 followers across platforms such as:
- TikTok
- Twitter/X
- Snapchat
Journalists may demonstrate their reach differently, such as through the circulation or audience reach of the publication for which they produce content.
Content Commitment
Applicants must be willing to produce sustained content rather than a single isolated post.
Successful applicants are expected to commit to sharing a minimum of four pieces of content addressing the program’s gender, debt and fossil fuel themes over a period of at least six months.
Applicants should therefore consider whether they have sufficient time, audience access and commitment to continue working on the subject after selection.
Requirement for Independent Content Creators
Content creators must be unsigned, meaning they should not be represented by an agent.
Journalists may be associated with a media organization or publication, provided that the work they submit and the relevant content rights remain their own.
This requirement is important because applicants need sufficient ownership and control over the content created through the initiative.
What Topics Should Proposed Ideas Address?
Proposed storytelling ideas must connect meaningfully with the initiative’s core thematic areas:
Climate Justice
The story should help audiences understand who is responsible for climate change, who experiences its consequences, and whether climate responses distribute costs and benefits fairly.
Debt
Applicants can examine how government borrowing, debt repayment and climate finance affect national development choices and communities.
Gender
Stories should consider how women, girls and different groups experience climate impacts differently, including questions surrounding livelihoods, land, water, unpaid care work and economic vulnerability.
Fossil Fuels
Applicants can explore the relationship between debt, economic pressure and the extraction of oil, gas or other resources.
The strongest proposals are likely to demonstrate how these subjects overlap rather than treating them as completely separate issues.
Africa No Filter’s Approach to Better Representation
A major component of the program is Africa No Filter’s wider mission to transform narratives about Africa.
The organization argues that damaging narratives are not changed simply by producing more content. Instead, the underlying stories and assumptions shaping perceptions of Africa must also change.
Africa No Filter describes its approach around the idea of both telling stories better and telling better stories.
Telling stories better involves producing nuanced, ethical and balanced narratives about African societies.
Telling better stories involves creating new narratives capable of expanding how Africa and Africans are represented rather than repeatedly relying on narrow stereotypes.
Participants in Voices for Climate Justice are therefore expected to approach storytelling ethically and avoid representations that present African communities merely as passive victims.
The initiative particularly emphasizes ethical and survivor-centered storytelling when discussing gender-related impacts.
What Makes a Strong Application?
Africa No Filter indicates that grantees will be assessed according to several important factors.
Originality
The proposed story should offer an original angle rather than repeating familiar climate narratives.
Relevance to Africa No Filter’s Mission
Applicants should demonstrate an understanding of Africa No Filter’s commitment to storytelling that challenges stereotypes and presents African people with complexity and agency.
Alignment With the Gender-Debt-Fossil Fuel Focus
Ideas must clearly connect to the program’s key themes rather than addressing climate change only in general terms.
Audience Reach or Community Standing
Applicants should demonstrate that they have an existing audience, platform or meaningful standing within the community they intend to reach.
Community Access
The proposed idea should involve communities to which the applicant has realistic access.
Applicants should therefore avoid proposing projects dependent on communities or locations they cannot practically reach.
Application Requirements
Applicants are expected to prepare a storytelling pitch describing their thinking around climate reparations and climate justice and explaining how their proposed story could influence the way debt, gender and climate justice are discussed and understood.
The official application portal also requires a short written explanation of no more than 300 words explaining why the applicant believes their proposed narrative should be selected for the Voices for Climate Justice campaign.
Applicants will also need to provide:
- An online application through the official portal
- Information about their proposed storytelling concept
- Links to their platforms
- Relevant social media, publication or community network details
- Information about the audience or community they intend to reach
- Evidence demonstrating platform reach or engagement
- A description of how the proposed story addresses the campaign themes
The official portal currently refers to a written pitch deck as part of the expression of interest. Applicants should follow the exact fields and format displayed on the live Africa No Filter submission portal when applying.
Language Requirements
Content produced under the initiative must be delivered in either:
- English
- French
Applicants should therefore be capable of developing the required content in at least one of these languages.
Application and Selection Timeline
The official timeline is as follows:
Applications Open
August 12, 2026
Applications are being accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis.
Final Application Deadline
September 25, 2026, at 6:00 PM GMT
Applicants should not assume that submitting close to the deadline provides any advantage because applications are already being reviewed as they arrive.
Shortlisting and Virtual Interviews
Following the application review, a selection committee will shortlist candidates.
Shortlisted candidates will then meet the jury through virtual interviews.
Notification
Only shortlisted candidates will receive notification regarding their application status, with this expected by the first week of October 2026.
How Applications Will Be Evaluated
Africa No Filter will review applications submitted through its official application portal.
The assessment is expected to consider:
- How well the idea addresses gender, debt and fossil fuels.
- The originality and creativity of the storytelling concept.
- Alignment with Africa No Filter’s mission.
- The applicant’s platform reach.
- Audience analytics or publication circulation.
- Community reach or influence where relevant.
- The applicant’s ability to communicate the proposed narrative effectively.
- Commitment to ethical storytelling.
- Access to communities relevant to the proposed story.
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Applications That Will Not Be Considered
Africa No Filter has identified several circumstances that can make a submission ineligible.
Applications may be rejected if they are:
- Incomplete
- Submitted through post instead of the official application system
- Submitted by email instead of the official portal
- Based on inappropriate or unethical material
- Vulgar, racist, sexist or homophobic
- Reinforcing harmful stereotypes about Africa or Africans
- Presenting African communities in ways that deny them agency
- Associated with accounts or posts where audience engagement has been artificially increased through paid boosting
Applicants should therefore make sure that both their application and existing platform activity are consistent with the values of the initiative.
Why the Voices for Climate Justice Initiative Matters
The Voices for Climate Justice program recognizes that public understanding of climate change depends significantly on the stories people encounter.
Technical discussions around climate finance, debt sustainability, fossil fuel extraction and gender inequality can be difficult for broad audiences to follow.
Storytellers can bridge this gap.
A journalist can investigate how climate debt affects government spending.
A data visualizer can transform complicated financing information into accessible graphics.
A podcaster can document the experiences of communities affected by extraction.
A muralist can translate climate justice into public art.
A digital creator can explain complex relationships between gender, debt and fossil fuels to thousands of people through social platforms.
By bringing different forms of storytelling together, Voices for Climate Justice aims to strengthen African voices within debates that directly affect the continent.
Important Advice for Applicants
Because applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, prospective applicants should consider applying before the final deadline.
Applicants should also avoid submitting a broad proposal that merely states that climate change is a serious problem.
A more competitive concept is likely to identify a specific community, specific problem, clear narrative angle and defined audience.
The application should show:
- What story you want to tell
- Why that story matters
- Who is affected
- How gender, debt and fossil fuels connect to the issue
- Who your audience is
- How you will reach that audience
- What storytelling format you will use
- Why your existing platform makes you well positioned to tell the story
- How your approach challenges stereotypes rather than reinforcing them
- What meaningful conversation or action you hope the story will generate
Where possible, applicants should also have verifiable audience statistics, publication circulation information or other evidence of community reach ready before beginning the application.
Deadline
The final deadline for the Africa No Filter Voices for Climate Justice 2026 opportunity is:
September 25, 2026, at 6:00 PM GMT
Applications opened on August 12, 2026 and are being assessed on a rolling basis. Applicants are therefore strongly encouraged to submit ahead of the deadline.
Conclusion
The Africa No Filter Voices for Climate Justice 2026 initiative offers an important opportunity for African storytellers who want to combine storytelling, research and climate advocacy.
With up to US$4,000 in grant support, professional training, mentorship, collaboration with researchers, narrative development assistance and content amplification, the 12-month program gives selected creators the resources to develop stories capable of reaching audiences and influencing conversations about climate justice.
For journalists, content creators, podcasters, vloggers, muralists and data visualizers based in the eligible African countries, this initiative provides an opportunity not simply to document climate change but to explain the deeper relationships between climate finance, debt, fossil fuels, gender and justice.
Applicants with an established audience, an original storytelling concept and a clear commitment to nuanced and ethical African narratives should consider preparing their submission as early as possible before the September 25, 2026 deadline.
For more global opportunities, click HERE.
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