Ten West African journalists were selected for the 2022 Climate Change Journalism Fellowship of the Media Foundation for West Africa. The 10 journalists who were selected through a highly competitive process are made up of five females and five males, with one Fellow each from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Nigeria and Ghana.
The MFWA has launched the Fellowship as a new initiative to increase awareness and respond to climate change. It does this by increasing media quality and public education about West Africa’s ongoing climate crisis.
Participants will undergo a five-month intensive training and mentorship program that begins with a two month virtual training and ends with a three-month residential program in Accra, Ghana. The Fellowship includes publications and practical investigations through Fact-Check Ghana and The Fourth Estate journalism projects.
Fellows will be conducting rigorous investigations and fact checking of climate change issues and related challenges in their respective countries during the course of the fellowship. Climate change experts and journalists with experience in the environment/climate change field will lead training sessions.
Fellows will be given intensive practical training to be capable of conducting critical, high-quality and fact-based reporting to improve lives and provide access to information on climate-related topics. Fellows will submit at least two important reports by the end of their Fellowship. Fellows will receive a Certificate of Honour after successful completion of the fellowship.
The Fellowship will end with the 10 Fellows serving as the foundation members for a West Africa Regional Climate Change Journalism Network.
The MFWA received over 400 applications in this inaugural edition of the Fellowship. The Deutsche Welle Akademie (DW Akademy) is supporting this maiden edition.
Below is a list of 2022 Fellows.
- Mawuédem Koffi Akotoh (Togo)
- Daouda Soom (Senegal).
- Adjimehossou Rodrigue Fulbert (Benin)
- Oumar Issoufou Adamou (Niger)
- Nana Samake, Mali
- Sidibe Aissata, (Guinea).
- Délorès Pie (Côte d’Ivoire)
- Madina Belemviré (Burkina Faso)
- Emmanuel Bright Quaicoe, Ghana
- Janet Ogundepo (Nigeria)
Source: mfwa.org
