International Development Journalism Competition 2011

London, 3rd May 2011: Malaria Consortium is excited to be participating in the Guardian International Development Journalism Competition launching today.



The competition has been created by Marie Stopes International and The Guardian and is sponsored by Glaxo Smith Kline and Barclays. It aims to encourage amateur and professional journalists to explore crucial but often sidelined issues of international development and provide them with the opportunity to travel to Africa or Asia and conduct in-depth research into the topics they will be writing on.

This is the third year Malaria Consortium is taking part in the competition and it is a particularly crucial one for the development community as the Millenium Development Goals are fast approaching their end dates. This competition addresses wider questions concerning international development and health, and allows participating organisations to gain fresh perspective on issues which are more specific to their work.

Malaria Consortium is one of nine international organisations involved in the competition. This year’s supporting charities are Marie Stopes International, CARE International UK, The David Rattray Memorial Trust (UK), Direct Relief International, FHI, International Childcare Trust, Malaria Consortium, Plan UK, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

Last year’s entrants wrote about the complex role of community health workers in Mozambique and the challenges faced on the Thai-Cambodia border as a result of growing anti-malarial drug resistance. This year, Malaria Consortium is inviting entrants to consider writing about two themes on two key issues relating to our work:

Why are Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected?

What role should the private sector play in international health development?

The 16 successful journalists will travel with the participating organisations and will have their articles printed in special supplements of The Guardian, and featured on the newspaper’s website (www.guardian.co.uk).

For more information, you can also visit Malaria Consortium’s dedicated page to the competitionhere.

For details of the competition, including information on how to enter, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/journalismcompetition, the deadline for entries Monday 13th June 2011.

For further information please contact Diana Thomas [email protected]