By Alpha Abu
In a bid to capacitate electronic media practitioners in the effective transmitting of information on the Right to Food concept, Managers and Producers from 50 radio stations across the country have undergone training by Community Media Network CoMNet. The two day event held at the Culture Radio precincts along the Grafton- Regent highway, also looked at Food and Nutrition Security and Safe Water.
CoMNet Project Co-ordinator Theophilus Sahr Gbenda in presenting the overall framework and focus of the engagement, pointed out how it will build the capacity of the trainees , thereby enhancing their reporting and analytical skills to be able to promote Right to Food and related issues in Sierra Leone.
He said members of the network of radio stations would become empowered and be in a position to identify and expose internal and external factors undermining the achievement of the right to food in the country.
Gbenda spoke about the enormous challenges the country faces in the area of food security and the dismal food insecurity picture World Food Programme (WFP) gave about the situation in the country, with malnutrition affecting almost a third of babies between 6-59 months.
He on behalf of CoMNet, acknowledged what he said was the untiring efforts by German NGO WeltHungerHilfe (WHH), Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and WFP to “address the worsening food situation in the country”.
Journalists would be expected after the training to also have increased knowledge on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests and the Voluntary Guidelines of FAO.
The trainees are also expected to establish regional right to food platforms in a bid to have full ownership of the campaign at community level, a process that will be fully monitored through follow ups by CoMNet.
Earlier during the formal opening ceremony, The Executive Director of Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), Abu Brima explained how right to food has become a global phenomenon with political and economic implications for countries.
He described the training by CoMNet as timely and urged the journalists to speak with one voice so they could be heard and listened to. Brima said Sierra Leone is endowed with fertile land and as such there should be the enabling environment for rural people to take farming as a career. Such a development, he believed, could serve as the answer to the socio-economic needs of the farmers.
He admonished the journalists to respect the cultural dynamics of the rural people especially their values, as they undertake the process of reporting on right to food and land tenure issues.
Brima spoke about the mass land invasion by the West in Africa and urged for conscientious approach by all to ensure just and equitable benefits for the local people. He therefore urged the journalists to do thorough research on the reasons for lack of food and that the media be used effectively to inform the public and leave the other aspects of the process to Civil Society Organisations.
The training which ended yesterday Thursday 9 September 2021 was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through WHH.
Copyright © 2021 Politico (10/09/21)
