The Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) is an annual awards scheme established to reward outstanding performance in the mass media. It encourages a spirit of healthy competition among media professionals, which has been acknowledged as leading to a continuous improvement in media practice. Established in 1992 as a non-profit organization to stimulate and celebrate excellence, talent, and enterprise within the media, DAME has become a credible media awards scheme in Nigeria, holding 31 uninterrupted editions. DAME has the reputation of a dignified and respected institution whose judgment has been rancor-free.
PIND’s Partnership.
The Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in Niger Delta (PIND) has positioned itself at this vital intersection, partnering with DAME to open up new possibilities in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. The 31st edition, held on December 11, 2022, was the first time DAME expanded its frontiers to cover Niger-Delta Development Reporting. This feat was largely successful, thanks to the graceful contribution of the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND).
The partnership between DAME and PIND is strategic for several reasons, but notably, it gives traction to DAME’s sustained graduation from traditional journalism to development-oriented journalism. At the same time, it goes a mile to prove PIND’s intentionality and commitment to the growth of solution journalism in Nigeria. It also increasingly draws public consciousness to the efforts that are in place to address deep-rooted socio-economic problems in the Niger Delta.
Award Entries and Selection
The award category for this year’s award is the PIND Prize for Niger-Delta Development Reporting
There is a formal call for entries in the media through a mixture of advertisements, news reports, features, and direct marketing. The shortlisted entries are passed from the Secretariat to the Awards Panel, which shares the work with the different groups established to assess the entries. The groups arrange their meetings and present their assessments, which undergo peer review, after which the eventual winners emerge. The report of the judges is passed to the trustees for assent.
Entries and contributions to be considered for the award must align with any themes that underscore PIND’s intervention in the Niger Delta region. The themes include:
- Reducing Poverty (through market linkages, jobs facilitation, and income increase for smallholder farmers in five agricultural value chains – aquaculture, palm oil, cassava, cocoa, poultry – and MSMEs development)
- Powering Coastal Communities (through renewable energy solutions)
- Nurturing Youth Employment (through market-relevant skills for jobs and enterprise start-ups) and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) (through advancing economic opportunities and voice)
- Fostering Stability (through social capital and early warning and early response systems)
- Empowering local organizations (through capacity building for better service delivery and access to funds/grants)
- Influencing government policies, programs, and practices.
