Introducing the first seven projects of the Official Development Assistance Germany Grants programme.

At the end of 2025, we launched the ODA Germany Grants Call to support explanatory and deep-dive journalism to improve the quality, visibility, and influence of journalism focused on Germany’s foreign development aid. The seven projects selected by an independent jury could contribute to a more informed public discourse and enable evidence-based policymaking in one of the world's top ODA contributors.

Grantees will have a six-month period to research, produce, edit, and publish their story.

Meet the awarded journalists and their ODA projects

Following the Blue Five: How German Development Aid Helps Protect the Ocean in a Shifting World Order

As global aid budgets shift and geopolitical power dynamics change, what role does Germany play in protecting shared global resources? This reporting project examines how development cooperation supports marine conservation and regional stability in Latin America — and why long-term international partnerships matter.

Debates about development aid are often abstract and polarised. I am interested in showing what development cooperation looks like in practice —  who it affects, how it works, and what is at stake if long-term support for global public goods disappears.

-Julia Jaroschewski

From Ruins to Resilience: How Kosovo’s Women Are Rebuilding Their Communities

In March 1999, Serbian forces stormed the village of Kruša e Madhe in western Kosovo and killed most of its men, leaving behind widows, fatherless children, and almost nothing to survive on. With no income and no support, the women began with what they had: backyard peppers, beehives, and their hands. From that loss, and with support from the international community, especially Germany, grew a cooperative that now employs women and exports internationally. Isabelle's stories will retrace that transformation by showing how rural women entrepreneurs today are reshaping their communities and redefining post-war Kosovo.

It was while driving through the hills of western Kosovo a year ago that I first heard about the widows of Kruša — a story of trauma and loss, but also of survival and quiet defiance. I knew immediately I had to come back. The question was how. Looking closer, I realized their story is part of something much larger: women in rural Kosovo rebuilding their communities through entrepreneurship, using what they have, often with the support of international and German partners. They are reshaping local economies and helping place this small but vital country more firmly on Europe’s map.  I am honored and deeply grateful for the ODA grant, which will make this reporting possible and allow me to document why sustained international support still matters.

-Isabelle de Pommereau

Keeping the Lights On: Germany’s Role in Supporting Ukraine’s Civil and Critical Energy Infrastructure

The project examines how German ODA is implemented in practice in supporting Ukraine’s civil and critical energy infrastructure under conditions of full-scale war. Based on the joint work of a German–Ukrainian journalistic team, the project combines institutional analysis of German energy assistance programmes with field research in Ukraine at the level of hospitals, municipal utilities, and water and heating systems in the most affected regions. The project assesses how well the assistance matches real needs, its practical effectiveness,  and its limitations under constant attacks and winter peak loads, and is aimed at a professional audience in the fields of energy policy and development.

Germany is one of Ukraine’s key partners in maintaining the functioning of the energy system during the war, yet the practical outcomes of this assistance are rarely analysed at the level of real implementation. We applied for this grant to examine how German energy assistance works on the ground and to provide a verified, practice-oriented analytical picture of its effectiveness under wartime conditions for a professional audience.

-Yulia Valova and Serhii Shturhetskyi

ODA in the context of the Ghanaian/German labour market

What role does official development assistance (ODA) play in the field of labor? 

For this story, the effectiveness of ODA in the German / Ghanaian labour market will be reviewed.

For us as freelancers, receiving the ODA grant means immense support. To work on this topic to this extent, on the ground in Ghana, would not be possible without funding. We are very grateful for this opportunity.

-Laila Sieber, Helena Manhartsberger and Olivia Samnick

Race for Power: German Development Aid and the Inequalities of the Tunisian Green Hydrogen Sector

As Europe accelerates its shift to renewable energy, Tunisia has become a priority partner in EU plans for green hydrogen exports. Strongly supported by Germany and closely accompanied by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Tunisia’s 2024 hydrogen strategy is presented as a blueprint for combining decarbonisation with development. This project looks beyond the clear-cut "win-win" narrative of this new industrial cooperation to examine the local impacts of export-oriented energy regimes and how the architecture of development aid is changing. As German ODA becomes more closely tied to foreign-economic and energy priorities, Tunisia provides a revealing case study of how advisory mandates, public finance, and industrial policy are increasingly intertwined. Set against a backdrop of water scarcity and economic pressure, the reporting also considers the distributional impacts of large-scale hydrogen production—asking whose needs are prioritised, how risks are allocated, and what this evolving model of climate cooperation means for fairness and accountability in North–South partnerships.

The EJC Grant provides us with the ability to research in-depth the structures behind the new push towards major hydrogen industrial development in Tunisia. Its focus on investigative reporting and a European and German angle made the grant a perfect fit for our project

-Jasper Humpert, Francesco Torri and Achref Chibani

Rewriting the future of rice: Vietnam’s sustainable farming breakthrough

This long-format video report project explores how Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, often called the country’s rice bowl, is battling a deepening crisis fuelled by climate change, land subsidence, and groundwater depletion. Through intimate farmer stories, scientific research, and a critical look at German-funded development aid, including its impact, accountability, and long-term effectiveness, the film investigates whether climate-smart agriculture can truly safeguard global rice supplies, or whether these efforts are already racing against time.

I applied for this grant because stories about climate adaptation and development funding deserve rigorous, independent scrutiny. As a journalist working at the intersection of narrative storytelling, lived experience, and the systems that shape people’s realities, I want to examine whether public money is truly building resilience for communities on the frontlines of climate change. This grant makes it possible to report deeply on the ground and amplify the voices of those most affected while holding institutions to account.

-Akanksha Saxena

When Peace Funding Ends: From Berlin’s Budget Lines to Colombia’s Fields

After the peace agreement in Colombia 2016, many former female FARC combatants traded their rifles for a chance at civilian life. As Germany tightens its international aid budget, funding for reintegration programmes is shrinking – and with it the prospects of former combatants. This project will explore how budget decisions made in Berlin shape everyday realities in Colombia.

Journalism on Official Development Assistance too often focuses on whether ‘something works’, or ‘doesn’t work’. We applied for this grant because we believe that a process as vital and complex as the Colombian peace process deserves reporting that goes beyond simplified success-or-failure narratives and captures the perspectives of those directly affected. At the same time, as freelance journalists, it is rarely possible to work in a team, especially abroad, as most newsrooms cannot adequately fund that. We are therefore very grateful for the opportunity to realise this project collaboratively and to carry out the reporting it deserves.

-Simone Kamhuber and Sara Meyer

For more details about the ODA Germany Grants programme you can visit this page. Stay tuned for the launch of the second application round by signing up to the EJC newsletter.

The Official Development Assistance Germany Grants programme is powered by Gates Foundation.