G20 Fellowship Voices For Land

UNCCD and One World Media have partnered to run a new Fellowship focussed on digital content creators telling stories that inspire global action on land degradation and restoration.

Five digital content creators and journalists have been selected for the G20 Fellowship – Voices for Land.

The programme is funded by UNCCD’s G20 Global Land Initiative and will support a cohort of five digital content creators and journalists. The group will participate in various workshops and be awarded a production grant to produce a campaign on land degradation and restoration.

Land is being degraded worldwide at a rapid pace. It is a result of human-induced actions which exploit land, causing its utility, biodiversity, soil fertility and overall health to decline.

This initiative will provide participants with a production grant, workshops and mentoring guidance to translate complex land degradation and restoration data into engaging stories for social platforms such as TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. As a result fellows will be better equipped to engage both local and global audiences and inspire them to take action.

They will be supported through every stage of planning, reporting and completion, with guidance on how to strategise and effectively engage their audiences.

Each fellow will receive a production grant of up to USD $6,600 in funding and one-to-one mentoring. The Fellowship will provide in-depth training and editorial support to guide the projects throughout their development.

Read the Announcement

Meet Our Fellows

Eric Kawa

Sierra Leone

Eric Kawa is a multilingual media professional and Co-founder of Splash Multimedia Limited in Sierra Leone, specializing in land restoration, climate, and environmental storytelling. He is a graduate of the Rockefeller Foundation’s CNN Academy Climate Storytelling Program and a fellow of the G20 Global Land Initiative’s Land Restoration Masterclass at the London School of Economics (LSE). His work focuses on amplifying stories that promote climate resilience, environmental conservation, sustainable development among other issues. Eric currently works with Capital Radio Sierra Leone and contributes to Africanews and China Global Television Network (CGTN), using journalism and multimedia platforms to raise awareness of pressing environmental and climate issues.

Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn

Radhika Gupta

India

Born and raised in India, Radhika is an artist and environmental storyteller based in Stockholm. Her work represents community voices using futuristic scenario workshops, tactile art installations and digital tools. Besides her specialisation in image making, Radhika has worked at the interface of the arts and environmental sciences. She brings together different knowledge forms to weave collective narratives. Radhika currently works on an Indigenous community-led project ‘Before More is Lost’ in West Sikkim, India, to reclaim traditional food futures for the land and people.

Portfolio | LinkedIn | Instagram

Reyhab Watari

Kenya

Reyhab Watari is a multi-award-winning journalist and the founder and Editorial lead of Africa Farming Journal. With over 15 years of media production experience, she amplifies stories of African agricultural innovation and resilience. Recognized by the Media Council of Kenya, the Association of Media Women in Kenya, and the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists, her work champions food sovereignty. As a G20 Global Land Initiative (UNCCD) Champion, Reyhab specializes in the intersection of land restoration, climate-smart farming, and food security. Based in Nairobi, she leads high-impact storytelling that drives narrative change across Africa’s agricultural value chain.

Facebook | LinkedIn

Lilan Dayananda

Sri Lanka

Lilan Dayananda is an internationally recognized social-tech entrepreneur, celebrated for his innovative contributions to social impact. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elzian Agro and has been named one of the top ten Social Entrepreneurs of the Global-South by the United Nations Youth Envoy’s Office, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and UNDP Youth Co: Lab. His achievements have earned him a place on Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30 Asia” list in the social impact category.

Portfolio | LinkedIn | Instagram

Jaya Setiawan Gulö

Indonesia

Known as Hello Gulö, Jaya Setiawan Gulö is an awards-winning young changemaker and storyteller building Jadi PNS, one of the world’s leading virtual talk show platforms run by youth. His work has been recognised by the UNEP, FAO, UN Women, UNESCO, UN ECOSOC, the US Department of State and the Gates Foundation, among others. He tells land degradation stories because he believes environmental issues should be easier to understand and closer to everyday life. He wants to help more young people see why healthy land matters and inspire them to be part of the solution.

Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube

About UNCCD and the G20 Land Initiative

The UNCCD is the global voice for land. We promote practices that avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation and are the driving force behind Sustainable Development Goal 15 and Land Degradation Neutrality.

The ambition of the G20 Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation and Enhancing Conservation of Terrestrial Habitats (G20 Global Land Initiative) is to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in degraded land by 2040. The Initiative, which was launched in 2020, under the G20’s Saudi Arabia Presidency, is hosted by United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification based in Bonn, Germany.