admininitiative to improve training facilities for journalists across the continent.
Under its Global Media Development Programme led by Mr Eric Chinje and Mr Craig Hammer, the World Bank aims to engage journalists and media owners to develop skills in reporting on development priority areas.
It is expected that the programme would be launched in southern Africa next month following a successful run in East Africa.
Addressing financial journalists at a media training workshop in Cape Town last Friday, Mr Chinje, a media specialist, said they had launched the Independent Media for Accountability Governance Empowerment
Network after an extensive consultative process across the continent.
The initiative would involve journalists from both the privately owned and official media and would be designed to close information gaps to ensure that media content is in line with development objectives.
“What makes Image different is that unlike other World Bank interventions, it is not coming from a team of economists sitting in a dark room and telling people what is best for them, but it is a consultative driven process addressing the development topics across the continent,” Mr Hammer said.
Among some of the partners involved in the programme are the Africa Media Initiative, Highway Africa, Africa Development Bank, the Africa Leadership Forum and the Africa International Centre for Journalists.
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