The Investment Climate Facility (ICF) for Africa and the Thomson Reuters Foundation have today launched a call for applications to their groundbreaking business journalism training course being held in Zambia next month. Participants have until Tuesday 19 May to apply for the Zambian course that will be delivered in English in Lusaka from 25 – 29 May 2009.
Media organisations are invited to recommend applicants, or journalists can apply themselves, for the intensive five-day workshop which will be delivered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The course will broaden reporting focus and skills, as well as deepen understanding of economic and business issues of relevance to the continent and internationally.
Participants will have the opportunity to put theory into practice through numerous practical exercises and timed writing tasks. Detailed briefings, expert guest speakers, group discussions and a field reporting trip are core elements of each course. There will also be the opportunity for a select number of participants who demonstrate high potential in the introductory courses to attend an advanced two week course at a later date in either London, Paris or Lisbon.
This second of six training courses is part of Africa’s most ambitious journalist training programme, which aims to improve business, financial and investment journalism across the continent. Both ICF and the Thomson Reuters Foundation believe that greater scrutiny of investment and business issues, more timely and accurate reporting and a culture of delivering impartial news will help increase investor confidence across the continent.
ICF’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Omari Issa, explains: “This is the third course in an important project that will increase domestic and foreign confidence and ensure more of the continent’s financial and business reporting is ‘by Africa for Africa’. The journalists who attended the first two courses have since told us that their reporting has benefitted from what they learnt and they were able to put their learnings into practice immediately after the course. We hope that business journalists from across East Africa will apply for this course. “
Lenny Njau, journalist for Kenya’s The People Daily Newspaper, who participated in the inaugural training course in Nairobi, explains: “The course was a brilliant idea and the timing could not have been much better. At a time when the world is engulfed in financial crises, nothing is more important than giving people the most accurate information. As a budding journalist, I feel much more knowledgeable and open minded in making judgements having taken part in ICF and the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s inaugural course.”
Application forms are downloadable from: www.icfafrica.org and http://www.reuterslink.org and must be received by 19 May 2009. ICF will fund all training programme fees and accommodation and media organisations will be required to cover the costs of journalists’ flights and allowances. The selection of suitable journalists will be conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Applications will also be considered for further training sessions which will be held in Lagos Nigeria, June 22-26; Abidjan, Ivory Coast, July 27-31; and Maputo, Mozambique, August 24-28.
