NEPAD training for journalists opens

Story: Abdul Aziz
April 12, 2008
The fourth in a series of New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) Training of the Trainer seminar (TTT) for broadcast and television journalists opened in Accra, Ghana on Monday.
The first in the series took place for South African Development Community (SADC) countries in South Africa.
The second seminar was held for Central Africa French speaking countries in Congo Brazaville.
Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania was the venue for the third in the series for East African English speaking countries.
The opening ceremony for the fourth in the series which was hosted in Accra was well attended by both the private and public radio, television and print media journalists in Ghana.
The presence of journalists from the media houses in Ghana was a demonstration of the interest journalists are beginning to attach to NEPAD training programmes across Africa.
The three-man NEPAD delegation to the Accra seminar was led by Louise Napo Gnagbe, Media Manager of NEPAD.
Opening the seminar Mr Gnagbe welcomed all the 12 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia to the training programme.
He reminded the trainees who were expected to transfer their knowledge to ordinary people at the grassroots the important role of the media in the development of the continent.
He explained that the fourth training programme which was not the last in the series aimed at providing aspiring journalists with practical training on the job to foster journalism in Africa as well as to train them to better understand NEPAD and stand in position to promote the role and functions of NEPAD and other Pan African institutions.
The Media Manager of NEPAD who granted an interview to the Daily Graphic shortly after the opening ceremony elaborated on the strategy NEPAD had adopted to reach over 800 million people in 53 countries with different languages such as French, Spanish English, Portuguese and Arabic. as well as different religions and varied levels of development.
He said NEPAD had been designed to address the current challenges facing the continent such as high levels of poverty, underdevelopment and the continued marginalisation of Africa.
He said under the leadership of the general management of Communications and Marketing of NEPAD Secretariat, the media section had established a sustainable policy to work closely with the media on the continent to better communicate on NEPAD concerning African developmental issues.
He said the aim was to create awareness, understanding and ownership around the concept and philosophy of NEPAD.
Mr Gnagbe said it was important for ordinary people to be convinced in their minds that NEPAD was an African programme developed by Africans for Africa.
He said ordinary people and journalists could gain extensive knowledge of NEPAD by visiting the NEPAD website in French and English. as well as patronising the weekly electronic newsletter which was being sent to over 30,000 readers across the globe.
He said already the NEPAD website of WWW. nepad.org attracted 100,000 new visitors from April to July in 2007.
Mr Gnagbe said NEPAD had realised the importance of the role media played in the success of the communication strategy and the benefits to be derived by staying close to the ground through the media and that was why it had introduced these series of training programme for media men through the whole continent.
The Media Manager of NEPAD expressed the hope that this form of collaboration with the African Media would develop so that the engagement of all African journalists continent wide would impact positively on the development of the continent and the visibility of NEPAD in that roles.