Journalists trained in reporting of good practices on Sustainable Land and Water Management

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Journalists at the end of the NEPAD training

NEPAD, through its TerrAfrica Partnershiphas been involved the trainingof African journalists, to enhance their capacity to effectively communicatedevelopmental issues.

TerrAfrica is a multi-partner platform and primary vehicle for consultation and action on sustainable land managementwith the direction and supportprovided by a group of African governments; NEPAD, World Bank and a dozen other United Nations and international organisations.The programme recognizes the importanceand the role of easy access to radio by many in Africa, in scaling up sustainable land and water management.In order to scale up investment in sustainable land management in Africa, NEPAD launched the TerrAfrica Sustainable Land and Water Management Initiative. It coordinates efforts by African countries, the internationaldevelopment community and other stakeholders and has provided support to countries to develop stainableland management investment frameworks. Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Togo, and Uganda are among countries that have completed their investment frameworks and are workingto secure resources to implement them within the CAADP process. A number of other countries are at various stages in the preparation and implementation of their investment frameworks.

Another intervention that is worthy of note is the Africa Region of the World Bank’s Strategic Investment Programmefor Sustainable Land Managementin sub-Saharan Africa (SIP) that was approved in 2007 with GEF grant of US$ 137 million to support a large portfolio that aims to help shift the region’s development agenda in favour of more sustainable and climate-resilient land management.

Prior to the Rio + 20 Conference in Brazil in June, TerrAfrica conducted a one-week course for 26 radio producersand presenters from Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo on “The Role of Rural CommunityRadio in the Dissemination of good practices on Sustainable Land and Water Management (SLWM)”. The training which took place in the Togolese capital Lome, was titled “Green Radio” and is part of a series of regional workshops aimed at the country level, to allow local communityradio broadcasters to better understandthe concepts related to land management and climate change issues in Africa.

“This training is very useful to us because we get a good understandingof the issues and are better able to convey this information to people at the grassroots who do not have access to high level policy informationand training, “said one of the journalists.Now back in their countries the trained journalists produce programmeson their local and communityradio stations on sustainable land management and other environmentalthemes.

Said Ousmane Djibo, NEPAD’s TerrAfrica Project Coordinator, “The training is filling a huge gap on knowledge sharing. The programmes run by the radio journalists in their communities enable end users on the ground that are not able to attend international conferences, to access best practices related to climate change and sustainable land management,which can apply in their day to day life and make them more accessible.

”Other initiatives, which border on environmental planning and management,have contributed substantially to sustainable land and water management. These include the African Mining Partnership (AMP), a high-level ministerial forum that was established to implement the mining chapter of NEPAD. The AMP has evolved into a forum for African countriesto discuss and take common positionson emerging issues of importanceto Africa; the NEPAD Spatial Development Programme; and the Southern and Eastern Africa Minerals Centre, which has now opened membershipto all African countries and to other stakeholders, including the private sector. At the regional level, there have been efforts to improve harmonization of mineral policies and standards, as well as regulatory and legislative environments.