The British Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) and the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) will once again collaborate on a media campaign project titled “Climate Change in News Media” in an effort to close the knowledge and capacity gaps regarding climate change in Africa.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is providing funds for a programme that will teach journalists, including reporters and editors from a few newsrooms in Ghana and Nigeria.
The project, according to CJID, also aims to give participants the ability to report climate change impacts and repercussions, government policy actions and inactions, international and transnational negotiation processes, and local remedies currently in place in these nations.
The centre noted in a statement issued ahead of the commencement of the project that the partnership becomes important considering the fact that “Africa is worst hit by the devastating effects of climate change despite contributing the least to global carbon emissions.”
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“However, studies show that awareness of climate change in the region is low, and the media isn’t doing enough to amplify the discourse,” the statement added.
Speaking on the project, Felicia Dairo, the project coordinator on climate change at CJID, said journalists could adequately report evidence of and impact of climate change as it relates to the region only if they are well equipped.
She said: “For us to change the narrative of low climate change reporting across the region, it is important that we pay attention to the knowledge providers. When they are armed with the required knowledge, they can inform, educate and engage the citizens. We hope that at the end of the project, journalists across the pilot countries (Ghana and Nigeria) are more equipped to report evidence of and impact of climate change as it relates to their countries”.
The Project Manager of Open Climate Reporting Initiative (OCRI) at the CIJ, Adeolu Adekola, noted that continuing the work in Africa to interrogate climate change is a need the CIJ identified following the first year of delivering OCRI.
He said: “The Climate Change in News Media with support from UNESCO’s Section for Media Development and Media in Emergency has a unique approach because it aims to go beyond regular news coverage. Working with CJID in Anglophone Africa and another partner in Francophone Africa will provide the select media organisations with tools and techniques to sustainably report climate change for impact in the regions.”
Story adapted from Premium Times
