Malawi and Botswana workshops fully subscribed

The two-day Gaborone and Lilongwe January 2010 training workshops on “Covering Poverty, Food Security and Social Protection” are fully subscribed.

Prizes will be offered to the best report on the topic by participants in each country.

Food riots across Africa, sparked by the global economic crisis, have made food security the continent’s most pressing issue. Is your newsroom equipped to cover the issue quickly, intelligently and in depth? Africa is home to three-quarters of the world’s “ultra-poor”. Food aid may solve their immediate hunger, but longer-term solutions are needed to bolster food security.

Programme Day 1

• Introduction to covering poverty – plus film screening
• Debate with local experts on how the media covers poverty
• Introduction to the RHVP
• A deeper look at poverty
• Field trip: Guided tour of local anti-poverty project plus interview opportunities

Programme Day 2

• Review of what was learned on the field trip
• Generating poverty story ideas
• Turning poverty story ideas into fully fledged story concepts
• Planning stories on poverty
• Sourcing information on poverty and poverty interventions
• Interview with RHVP expert

Aim of this workshop

Covering Poverty, Food Security & Social Protection is an RHVP initiative, funded by the United Kingdom’s development agency, UKaid, and is aimed at increasing and enhancing news media coverage of poverty and poverty policy interventions in the Southern African Development Community region.

Sponsorships available

The first 10 journalists signed up will be fully sponsored by RHVP.

Prize for best story

The RHVP will adjudicate and grant a prize to the journalist who writes the best story published or broadcast on the topic within a month of the workshop. The RHVP’s decision on the winner is final.