The inaugural Haller Prize for Development Journalism was launched in June 2014 to promote and encourage excellent journalistic investigation of the charitable and entrepreneurial development sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. The continent is changing and as issues facing the developing world grow more complex, journalism has become a critical medium in which to throw light on them and chronicle real change.
The Haller Prize was awarded to a writer able to explore insightfully the challenges and opportunities of digital technology in the development sector. There were three winners each year (1st, 2nd and 3rd places).
The prize was open to all Sub-Saharan African nationals and our winners have gone on to write articles for the UN; have been shortlisted for Thomson Reuters awards; and been invited to attend African Development Bank conventions on climate change.
1st place: Tatenda Chitagu (Zimbabwe)
2nd place: Patrick Egwu Ejike (Nigeria)
3rd place: Tinashe Mushakavanhu (Zimbabwe)
We are most grateful to our sponsors Mako Financial Services who supported the prize for three years.
Haller has helped community members gain vocational skills, such as sewing. Community members went on to set up dressmaking businesses and an eco-sanitary making business. For many women this may be the first time they have earned an income.
We have run basic IT literacy programmes and business start up programmes with the help of The Digital Opportunity Trust at our IT centre, built with funding from British Airways. This has helped equip young adults to set up their own business and/or find future salaried employment. Often one salary earner supports a further ten family members and therefore, equipping them to enter the workforce has a multiplier effect.
