Impact

The Climate School initiative, in collaboration with Greenpeace, has launched the Climate School Award for Arab Climate Journalism. This is the first regional award in the Middle East and North Africa dedicated to climate journalism, which has a goal of recognizing journalism in the Arabic language that addresses climate change in the region. The award includes a category for “Best Climate Solutions Report,” and winners will be announced in May 2025. Co-founder Rahma Diaa says: “We ensured that the award included a dedicated category for solutions journalism to encourage journalists to produce more climate solutions reports. Audience surveys have confirmed the public’s preference for solutions journalism, particularly when discussing the climate crisis […] Solutions journalism plays an effective role in raising climate awareness in communities, helping the public understand climate solutions, assess their effectiveness, and inspire them to innovate more solutions to address the climate crisis.” Diaa is an accredited solutions journalism trainer who has presented on climate solutions journalism through the Climate Journalism Diploma, organized by the Climate School in collaboration with the International Journalists’ Network and Greenpeace.

Geetanjali Krishna, a 2023 SJN LEDE Fellow, has been named a contributing editor of Reasons to be Cheerful (RTBC), a solutions-based publication. Krishna began her work in solutions journalism during the pandemic and had “a lightbulb moment.” She explains: “By offering hard data, scientific evaluations of impact, evidence of replicability and deeper insights, SoJo stories tend to be more believable. For me, the possibility of engaging with audiences in this manner was, and still is, very exciting.” In 2022, Krishna started writing solutions stories for RTBC, and her reporting was further enriched by the LEDE Fellowship experience. Krishna received her promotion at RTBC in November 2024, and she is reporting regularly from New Delhi. Since then, she has also been co-running an internship program with UK-based universities and freelancer networks that includes a training in solutions journalism.

Amazônia Vox’s award-winning solutions series on infant mortality led to public action in Brazil. A member of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Pará (Alepa), Carlos Bordalo (Workers’ Party), introduced a bill to prioritize pregnant women from riverside communities in the state’s public health system. Bordalo also delivered a Vote of Applause for the series’ reporting. Alepa’s official website mentions the Amazônia Vox report, and Bordalo posted on social media that the report inspired the proposed legislation. The bill is awaiting a vote by Assembly members, and if approved, will proceed to the state government for sanctioning. At the federal level, an advisor for Alessandra Haber, a national legislator from Pará, contacted Amazônia Vox, as Haber plans a public legislative hearing in Brasília, in early 2025, to discuss solutions for improving health care for pregnant women in riverside communities. The report is also mentioned in Haber's proposal. In the Federal Senate, Senator Zequinha Marinho (Podemos) issued a motion of commendation from the legislative house for the report and its Roche Health Journalism Award from the Gabo Foundation.

As a social justice journalist with over 25 years in the news industry, Liza Ramrayka was an early adopter of solutions journalism (at The Guardian UK) and has built a career focused on applying this reporting approach. As part of her reporting as an SJN 2023-24 HEAL Fellow, she organized a town hall meeting on teen mental health that was hosted by KALW, a Bay Area-based public radio station. She recently produced a solutions-based series on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander seniors and mental health in the Bay Area for KALW, supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. Liza has delivered solutions journalism training based on her experience to a wide range of organizations, including San Francisco State University, Bay Area high schools and KALW. Liza said: “My social justice reporting has always been about what is working and how these solutions can be scaled up or replicated for greater impact, whether that’s across a state, a nation or globally. As news outlets and media consumption evolve, evidence-based solutions stories represent empowering and hopeful journalism that we desperately need right now.”