ECA empowers French-speaking African journalists on the African Continental Free Trade Area

UNECA
workshop for French-speaking African journalists
12 September 2022
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)
press release By Tahirou Gouro

Dakar, 7 September 2022 - The African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) of the United Nations of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), supported by the European Union, kicked off a training workshop for French-speaking African journalists on the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) from September 7 to 9 in Dakar, Senegal.

The overall objective of this training workshop is to deepen participants' understanding and appreciation of AfCFTA’s role in stimulating economic growth.   This comes in the context where many stakeholders who may need to take part in the implementation of the AfCFTA are unsure of their role and the benefits they could gain. Strategically communicating with these audiences to meet their information needs will help to address these barriers.

This workshop also provides peer-learning opportunities where participants will share their experiences and explore the latest approaches and techniques in reporting on development projects.

Specific objectives include sharpening journalists' knowledge and skills in reporting on the AfCFTA and its impacts at the local level, providing them with knowledge for creating quality content on trade and development issues that readers will find exciting to read and share and facilitate the establishment of a network of journalists to promote the AfCFTA.

In his opening address, Mr. Adeyinka Adeyemi, Senior Advisor at ATPC said "this workshop aims to improve the knowledge of French-speaking African journalists on the AfCFTA, allow them to familiarize themselves with our knowledge products and our support to AU Member States in the implementation of this Agreement and finally provide participants with a tool that will allow them to have good information in real-time to better communicate on the AfCFTA”.

This meeting, which will be held for the next three days, gathered some thirty French-speaking journalists from several African countries. The workshop was a follow up to the first workshop for English speaking online publishers and bloggers focusing on trade and development, which was held from 29 March to 1 April 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya.

This media workshop is one of the key actions of the European Union-funded project: "Deepening Africa's Trade Integration through Effective Implementation of the AfCFTA to Support Economic Integration" with a total budget of 8 million euros. The aim of the project is to: 1) advocate for the ratification and implementation of the AfCFTA by all AU member states; 2) support member states to develop and operationalize their national strategies and a national plan for effective implementation and monitoring of the AfCFTA; and 3) build the capacity of national and regional stakeholders to implement the competitiveness and structural reforms necessary for the AfCFTA to achieve its intended outcomes.

For more information, please contact:

Communication Officer
ECA- SRO/WA

 

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