Johannesburg: Entries have opened for the 2026 Climate Media Awards, the continent-wide awards celebrating journalists, community radio broadcasters and content creators who report on how Africa’s farmers and communities feed themselves in a changing climate.
Entries opened on Monday 2 November 2026 and close at 23:59 on Wednesday 9 December 2026, South African time. Entry is free, and winners will be announced on Friday 18 December 2026.
The 2026 award is focused on agriculture and food security reporting. Organisers say changing the way food is farmed is one of the best ways to address climate change, improve food security and protect the environment — and they want stories about people and communities finding better ways to grow, make and share food, even when weather and other challenges make it hard.
Open to every creator, in every African language
The awards are open to content published in any African language, by anyone based anywhere on the continent — trained journalists, freelancers, community media and independent creators alike. Entries can be written, audio or video, and the work must have been published, broadcast or posted in 2026.
Stories can follow food from farm to plate: a farmer, a co-operative, a market, a church, a school or a group of neighbours; local, healthy produce reaching towns and villages, grown in ways that look after the land. Entries must report on something already happening and already making a difference, and may end with a call for government to back what is working.
A panel of judges assesses every entry independently, on relevance, originality and potential impact, under ethical standards of accuracy, transparency, balance and respect for sources and communities. Fake or misleading stories, hate speech and climate denial are not accepted.
£4,000 in prizes for the stories that matter
One winner will receive the US dollar equivalent of £1,000 for the best original reporting on agriculture and food security, and six runners-up will receive the equivalent of £500 each — a total prize pool of £4,000.
The awards were launched in 2024 by Scrolla.Africa, with the founding statement that the climate crisis cannot remain an elite debate and that it is more urgent than ever for African countries to protect their people and secure food sovereignty. Community media reporting of climate change, said Scrolla.Africa’s Zukile Majova at the launch, is crucial to take what used to be an elite debate into an everyday discussion for ordinary people.
In 2025, the awards’ second year, organisers received more than 430 entries from 23 countries. Winners included Ethan Van Diemen of Daily Maverick for “Pinpointing Pollution”, Doreen Ajiambo for reporting on Maasai evictions and carbon markets, and Halligan Agade for “Turning Rice Waste into Organic Fertilizer”.
Why food and farming reporting matters now
According to the awards organisers, agriculture, food and land use make up 25 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the burning of fossil fuels. At the same time, soils are a reservoir of carbon, and better farming methods can draw carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in the land. With farming covering a third of the world’s habitable land, the organisers argue, farming has a critical role in reducing and reversing global warming.
The awards arrive at a difficult moment for climate journalism. A 2026 white paper from Covering Climate Now, “A Burning House, a Quiet Media, a Silenced Majority”, reported that climate coverage was down 14 per cent globally — a finding its executive director Mark Hertsgaard presented during the Society of Environmental Journalists annual meeting. Against that backdrop, awards that reward community-level climate reporting aim to keep the story in everyday public discussion.
Read more climate journalism coverage on the Watan News home page.
FAKTA: Climate Media Awards 2026 at a glance
- Entries open: Monday 2 November 2026; close 23:59, Wednesday 9 December 2026, South African time.
- Winners announced: Friday 18 December 2026.
- Focus: agriculture and food security reporting — how Africa grows, shares and sources food.
- Who can enter: any journalist, creator or community media maker in Africa; any African language; written, audio or video; work published in 2026.
- Prizes: £1,000 for the winner and £500 for each of six runners-up, paid as the US dollar equivalent; entry is free.
- 2025 scale: more than 430 entries from 23 countries.
