Narratives on climate change and migration

About the training

This intensive, in-person journalist training is designed to strengthen reporting and storytelling on climate change and migration in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. Journalists will explore the complex relationships between climate impacts, human mobility, livelihoods, and resilience, while developing the skills needed to communicate these issues accurately, ethically, and engagingly to diverse audiences. The training will equip participants with the knowledge and tools to interpret climate science, analyse migration narratives, work with data and expert sources, and produce nuanced, evidence-based stories grounded in lived experiences and local realities.

Climate change is increasingly reshaping patterns of mobility and displacement across the world. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, food and water insecurity, and loss of livelihoods are already affecting vulnerable communities, many of whom have contributed the least to global warming. In some contexts, migration can serve as a strategy for adaptation and resilience; in others, climate impacts can deepen inequalities, intensify resource pressures, and compound existing vulnerabilities. Yet media narratives on migration often remain oversimplified, crisis-driven, or disconnected from the experiences and agency of affected communities.

This training seeks to bridge these gaps by helping journalists critically engage with dominant narratives around climate-related mobility and migration. By strengthening evidence-based and human-centred reporting, the training aims to move beyond fear-based and crisis-driven framings, creating space for more diverse, nuanced, and rights-based understandings of climate mobility.

Through practical exercises, collaborative learning, and story development sessions, participants will strengthen their ability to produce compelling, well-sourced stories that inform public understanding, elevate underreported perspectives, and support more informed decision-making on climate change and migration in the HKH region.

This training programme falls under the Foresight Intervention within the Strategic Group on Resilient Economies and Landscapes at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD), funded through the Successful intervention pathways for migration as adaptation (SUCCESS) project (Project no. 110007-003) by UK aid from the UK government and by the International Development Research Centre (IDCR), Ottawa, Canada as part of Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) research programme. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the UK government, IDRC, its Board of Governors or ICIMOD.

Course objectives

The training will capacitate journalists from South Asia with the knowledge and skills to report on the complex links between climate change and migration in the HKH, with a focus on how climate impacts shape mobility, livelihoods, resilience and their representation in media narratives.

It supports more nuanced and critical engagement with dominant framings of climate-related migration while encouraging more balanced, context-sensitive, and inclusive storytelling approaches. This includes the careful use of terminology, avoiding alarmist narratives, centring the lived experiences and perspectives of affected communities, and critically examining how data is sourced, constructed, and interpreted.

Overall, it equips participants with the expertise to develop and present scientifically sound stories that are easily accessible and understandable to the general public.

Expected output

Upon completion of the training, participants will:

• Gain improved understanding for nuanced reporting, myth-busting strategies, and stronger ethical reporting mindsets in climate migration coverage.
• Cover various elements of a compelling storytelling including how narratives can help raise awareness on the climate-migration dynamics.
• Gain a grounded approach to reporting climate-linked migration challenging simplified narratives.
• Improve skills to report on climate and migration.
• Enhance abilities to improve and interpret evidence related to climate and migration.
• Strengthen professional network: Connect about 26 journalists and experts, expanding professional networks.
• Contribute to a community of practice: Cross-exchange among participants and experts continued beyond sessions.
• Cultivate a community of young climate migration reporters across the HKH/South Asia.
• Publish at least one story in international, national, or local media. Journalists are expected to have their stories published or broadcast by December 2026. Stories may be printed or broadcast in local languages as well as English.

Agenda summary

Day 1: Rethinking climate change, migration, and media narratives

• Setting the stage: climate mobility, migration, and development in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region
• Beyond the headlines: understanding climate mobility through regional and global perspectives
• Words matter: Navigating key climate change and migration terminology and avoiding common misconceptions
• From evidence to policy: exploring how researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and media shape climate mobility narratives
• Migration Mic: participant-led storytelling and peer learning
• Interactive discussions and networking with journalists, researchers, and practitioners from across South Asia

Day 2: Human stories, intersectionality, and visual storytelling

• Roots and routes: understanding movement, staying, adaptation, and lived experiences through personal and community stories
• The Hot Seat: reporting climate mobility across South Asia – experiences, challenges, and lessons from journalists and editors across the region
• Gender, inequality, and intersectionality in climate mobility reporting
• Seeing climate mobility: visual storytelling beyond crisis imagery, including photography, film, framing, and ethics
• Migration Mic: participant-led storytelling and peer learning
• Practical exercises on strengthening human-centred and inclusive reporting approaches

Day 3: Media analysis, data journalism, story development and pitching

• Reading the media: analysing dominant climate mobility narratives in South Asian media
• Making sense of the numbers: using data, evidence, and regional datasets to identify and develop compelling stories
• Hands-on workshop on interpreting climate and migration data for journalism
• Story Lab: transforming research findings into nuanced, evidence-based story ideas
• Pitch clinic and editorial feedback: refining story concepts through peer review and guidance from senior editors and journalists
• Migration Mic: participant-led storytelling and peer learning
• Closing reflections and pathways for future reporting on climate mobility.

Who can apply?

This training is for early to mid-career freelance and staff journalists working in print, digital/web and photojournalism who regularly report on environmental issues, particularly climate change and its impacts, in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Selection criteria

• Minimum of 2-4 years of journalism experience
• Experience in the reporting environment
• Proactive and highly motivated to develop expertise in climate migration reporting and storytelling
• Decent photography, video shooting and editing skills
• Available for 100% of the training period
• Willing to be a part of a network of climate migration storytellers
• Basic understanding of climate change issues, climate change adaptation, migration and mobility preferred
• Women and participants from marginalised communities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Eligible applicants

This is a public notice to ensure that all interested and qualified individuals have a fair opportunity to submit applications for funding. The eligible applicants must be located within ICIMOD’s working areas – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. In addition, applicants should not be affiliated with a political party or engaged in any political activities and not be focused solely on religious activities.

How to apply

Submission instructions

• • The application must be submitted no later than the deadline (23:55 NPT, Tuesday, 26 May 2026) or subsequently announced deadlines if additional reviews are announced.
  • Incomplete applications, or those submitted after the deadline, shall not be considered.
  • The selected participants will be announced on the event page. They will also receive a receipt confirmation of their selection.

ICIMOD reserves the right to reject the application in the event of false or misleading information or any other circumstances that ICIMOD deems disqualifying.

Participation costs

ICIMOD will cover all direct costs related to the workshop, including international airfare, visa processing, local transport, accommodation, and food during the workshop for all selected participants.