CiFAR 2023 Investigative Journalism Programme for Journalists from East & Southern Africa and Europe 2023

CiFAR is a civil society organisation committed to fighting the flow of corrupt wealth by political leaders across borders and to secure the return of any stolen money to the victims of grand corruption. To do this we work closely with both civil society organisations and investigative journalists across the world to investigate, expose, and secure the return of dark money.

These flows of money affect both the Global South and the Global North. Illicitly acquired wealth is funnelled into Europe and North America, amongst other financial centres, by corrupt officials keen to hide their wealth outside of their home countries and beyond the reach of domestic law enforcement.

This money often originates from countries of the Global South, especially where political power is in the hands of the few and opposition is limited and is transferred through offshore havens to reach its destination. African countries alone lose up to $50 billion a year due to illicit financial flows, greatly exceeding the funds these countries receive in official development assistance.

Investigative Journalism plays an increasingly important role in exposing these schemes and pushing governments and prosecutors to act upon cases, both in asset originating and destination countries. CiFAR is committed to strengthening financial investigative journalism and collaborating with journalists across the globe to do exactly this.

Between 2017 and 2022, we organised four investigative journalism support programmes, training and mentoring over 100 journalists from North Africa, West Africa, Western Balkans, Madagascar and Europe. Each programme, supported by the GIZ Global Programme Combating Illicit Financial Flows, brought together a group of participants, building their knowledge on corruption, asset recovery and financial investigations, and supporting them to work in teams to develop, write, pitch and publish stories on financial crime. Read more about our Investigate Programme series here.

Starting in March 2023, we will hold the fifth instalment: Investigate – East & Southern Africa. Open to English speaking applicants from East & Southern Africa and Europe, we aim with this combination to support journalists from these two regions in developing stories that are more in-depth and more cross-regional than ever before.

You’ll spend five days in a comprehensive online training, learning and improving your skills in investigative journalism with a focus on financial crime by public officials.

Following this, we will convene an investigative journalism camp to continue training participants and facilitate planning of cross-border stories. Teams will be able to pitch for limited funding to develop their stories. Along with senior regional and international journalists, we’ll also support you to develop your stories and pitch them for publication in independent media.

About Civil Forum for Asset Recovery (CiFAR)

CiFAR was founded in 2015 by Agatino Camarda, Laila Martin Garcia and Jackson Oldfield and formally registered as a non-profit association in Germany in May 2016. All three founders had worked in the anti-corruption field for several years, including on the issue of asset recovery and in particular in relation to North Africa. They came together to found CiFAR after realising a gap existed in support for civil society – in a broad sense – to work on cases of cross-border corruption, both in terms of understanding how the process was supposed to operate and in making connections ...... read more

CiFAR Investigative Journalism Programme

Aim and Benefits of CiFAR Investigative Journalism Programme

What we offer

1. Five days of intensive online training programme with expert trainers throughout Spring 2023 covering:

• Financial crime and cross-border corruption
• Anti-corruption and asset recovery legal and policy frameworks
• Reading financial documents
• Asset recovery
• Investigative journalism 101
• Specificities of investigating financial crime by public figures
• Story-telling techniques
• Online databases and digital tools
• Safety and security in investigations

2. Participation in a four-day investigative journalism camp in Nairobi in May 2023

3. Remote Mentoring by CiFAR and international and local senior journalists to develop your story with your peers

4. Limited grants to conduct and publish your cross-border story with peer trainees and mentors

5. Support to conduct further investigations in the future and to attend international investigative journalism events relevant to your career development.

What’s covered

Accepted participants will have their costs covered for the entire programme. We will cover:

• All training costs
• Participation in the regional workshop in East Africa: return flight, visa fees, accommodation costs, local travel, meals and COVID-19-related costs
• Limited grants for team story development

Requirements for CiFAR Investigative Journalism Programme Qualification

• An early to mid-career journalist (3-10 years experience)
• Excited to move into or expand your experience in financial investigative work
• National or resident of Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Angola, Madagascar, DRC Congo; EU, the UK or Switzerland
• Committed to work on exposing grand corruption and illicit financial flows from your country, flows of corrupt wealth into your country and on the processes for recovering stolen wealth
• Interested in working as part of a cross-border team with others like you
• Able to commit to a 5 days online workshop in late April 2023, as well as a 4-days work camp in Nairobi in late May 2023
• Commitment to dedicate time and energy on a story with your peers after the training phase and to bring a joint story to publication by October 2023
• You speak and understand English to a working level

Application Deadline

How to Apply

For more details, visit CiFAR website.