Mayowa Adeniran
@mayowaCSNEWS
The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) have been effective in many areas of the world. Even countries that were unable to reach their ultimate goal have been able to some extent make reasonable progress. But as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are about to commence, the United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) with support from the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) will be organising a training workshop for media practitioners across Africa on the SDGs.
This is very significant, as release a from UNMC states that there is the need to enhance the capacity of journalists and other media practitioners on the various aspects of the SDGs and their roles in communicating and mobilizing citizens around them.
The release also made it clear that media practitioners need to be equipped to use their various platforms to influence governmental actions on the SDGs through effective messaging and knowledge-based monitoring and reporting of the implementation of the goals.
The salient objectives of the training workshop will be to build the knowledge base of media practitioners across West Africa on the SDGs, build capacity of media practitioners on their roles in communicating and popularising the SDGs, build capacity of media practitioners in influencing the implementation, monitoring and reporting of the goals.
Participants will also be able to understand the role of new media platforms in advancing SDGs advocacy, monitoring and reporting.
As such, they will be able to develop tools that will enhance the capacity of the media to perform their roles in the communication, reporting and monitoring of the SDGs.
Participants will also be able to create partnership and networking opportunities and platforms for media practitioners to share ideas, skills and knowledge on the role of the media in development process especially their role in monitoring and reporting on implementation of the SDGs.
It is believed that the training workshop will provide opportunities for media practitioners to support and also benefit from the work of other development actors such as civil society and the academia to enhance their roles in the SDGs.
The two-day workshop will feature presentations and discussions on various topics relating to the objectives of the workshop. Participants would be drawn from print, broadcast/electronic and social media as well as media related civil society organisations.
They would be exposed to analytical presentations on the SDGs – vision, principles, contents and processes leading to its adoption. There will be skills building sessions and peer learning activities geared towards understanding the roles of media in the popularization and implementation of the SDGs.
At the end of the workshop, a road map for the establishment of a platform for media networking and partnerships on the SDGs will be established.
