Sahel Dialogue
Goals
A project
Supported by
Presentation
Although the governments of the countries situated in the Sahel region of Africa recognise the importance of the media in conveying information and facilitating development, the political, financial and social crisis that is engulfing the entire region has had a particularly negative impact on the media outlets operating in those countries.
In effect, while the media may sometimes appear to be actively seeking to destabilise their local communities by spreading fake news or hate speech, they also represent genuine players for encouraging development and reconciliation.
By offering people a forum for expressing their opinions – especially young people, who account for over half of the Sahel region's population – the media have a part to play in facilitating dialogue between citizens, civil society representatives and the authorities. This is the overall objective of the Sahel Dialogue project, which was launched in 2018 in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
Project beneficiaries
Media professionals, bloggers, young people, civil society representatives and local authorities.
Files to download
Actions
Training and providing support and guidance to eight trainers
- Identifying three trainers in Burkina Faso, three trainers in Mali and two trainers in Niger, to give training courses on the fundamental aspects of professional journalism.
- Strengthening the skills of those trainers through a training course, and then supporting and guiding them as they give their training courses in their respective countries.
Training and enhancing the skills of two journalists at local radio stations
Twelve-day training courses on the fundamental aspects of professional journalism, provided to eight local radio stations in Niger and eight local radio stations in Mali, all able to reach out to young people.
Training on interactive formats to journalists at local radio stations able to reach out to young people
Twelve-day training courses provided to eight local radio stations in Niger and eight local radio stations in Mali, and further support to at least four local radio stations in Burkina Faso under the 'Citizen Harmonies' initiative (part of the Faso Media 2 project).
Training web journalists and bloggers on new formats
Twelve-day sub-regional training course on formats that interact with young people.
Media and the web: journalism geared to young people
Supporting the devising and production of new youth-centric formats and of content that promotes dialogue and discourse and focuses on the priority issues of young people in Burkina Faso
Rolling out the Citizen Harmonies component of the Faso Media 2 project in another town in Burkina Faso (Ouahigouya): supporting local radio stations and assisting in the production of programmes centred on dialogue and local discourse through a series of activities (workshops and meetings bringing together the authorities, media outlets and civil society organisations, training courses for elected officials, civil society representatives and young people, training on dialogue-based programmes, etc.).
Helping to create the three best youth-centric formats proposed by the beneficiary media outlets in Mali and Niger
Following a call for proposals from the beneficiary media outlets (radio stations and websites/blogs), selecting one of the proposals for a pilot programme.
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