Advancing Journalism Education in Africa: Insights from UNESCO Initiative

Following a call for proposals to enhance journalism programmes across the continent, these projects built significant capacity and expertise amongst participating staff and faculty members. Implemented by schools in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa, they focused on diverse areas such as data journalism, environmental journalism, gender diversity and representation in news, media sustainability and improving reporting on marginalised communities.

Moïse Bakundukize from the Department of Journalism at the Université Bilingue du Congo, which built the capacity for students and journalists to report better on the environment and climate crisis, emphasized:

The outcomes included partnership with a local community radio station on environmental reporting and a platform for engaging with experts on climate issues. "One journalist who participated in our training was so inspired he has now started his own media NGO focusing on environmental issues," said Bakundukize.

Similar long-term impacts were reported across other projects, leading to new partnerships with media outlets, recognition of schools as training leaders in their focus area and the development of new curricula. Other outcomes include: a toolkit for reporting on indigenous communities, a manual for environmental journalists, a sustainability model for community radio and a research conducted into revenue generation for African newsrooms.

Nqobile Ndzinisa from the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Eswatini, which trained journalists from Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho in data journalism, emphasized:

Additionally, these projects forged closer ties with practicing journalists and communities through field trip. "One community we visited now stays in constant touch with us via a WhatsApp group that they set up," says Wanja Njuguna from the Department of Journalism and Media Technology at the Namibia University of Science & Technology. She led field trips to a San community in Donkerbos and an Ovahimba community in Opuwo in Namibia to enhance reporting on marginalised communities. These trips were the department's first since Covid-19, and they proved transformative for Njuguna, both personally and academically.

"We now have a stronger curriculum based on real-life experience," said Tamanda Kanjaye from the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences that is finalising a sustainability model for community radio in Malawi.

All beneficiaries urged UNESCO to consider similar interventions in the future and emphasized the importance of ongoing discussions to share best practices in journalism education across schools in Africa.

The UNESCO project also entailed developing criteria for excellence through extensive consultations with over 100 journalism educators and trainers in Africa, providing schools a framework for self-evaluation and identifying areas of improvement.

The criteria can be downloaded here.

This UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) initiative, coordinated by Wits University and Rhodes University (South Africa) and supported by the Google News Initiative, underscores a commitment to fostering excellence in journalism education in Africa.

Join us for an engaging panel discussion titled "Supporting the next generation of African journalists" on Thursday, April 18th, at 11:00 (CEST), at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia and online. The discussion will highlight key initiatives' achievements and feature firsthand experiences from two panellists representing projects in Ethiopia and Kenya.