Media advocacy group, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has launched a competition for journalists who report on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Executive Director of MFWA, Sulemana Braimah, stated during the event in Accra that the initiative is part of efforts to mainstream the SDGs in development reporting in Ghana for social change. He urged journalists to continue reporting highly on development issues to quicken the government to act and to ultimately help Ghana attain the SDGs.
“No government responds to silence, so it’s our duty as journalists to continue making the relevant noise in the development area to force the government to push development agendas,” he entreated.
Ms. Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, chairperson for the Editors’ Forum Ghana – who also served as the chairperson for the occasion – urged Ghana to prioritize on the SDGs. She said that in her opinion Ghana should prioritize mainly on goal 6 which talks about clean water and sanitation.
“Communal standpipes should phase out and household taps should be the way to go,” she suggested.
She lamented how women and children all over Ghana go through the laborious task of getting water from communal standpipes into their households. She urged the government to rather focus their energies on getting household taps instead of communal standpipes or boreholes.
Bossman Owusu, a communications analyst with the UNDP, highlighted the importance of the SDGs and reiterated the important role journalists play in the attainment of the SDGs. He tried to debunk the notion that the SDGs are a UN or government affair.
“The SDGs are everybody’s business and not just the business of the United Nations or national governments. We should all then make it our business to achieve these targets set by the United Nations,” he urged.
Journalists who are interested in getting into this competition can get the modalities on the MFWA’s website, www.mfwa.org. The organization also provides funding opportunities for journalists who have compelling, groundbreaking SDG-related stories. The deadline for entries is the 9th of October, 2017.
The overall best Ghanaian SDG story would be awarded GH¢10,000 with a certificate and a plaque. The first runner-up also gets cash price of GH¢6,000, a certificate and a plaque. The second runner-up would be awarded a cash price of GH¢3,000, a certificate and a plaque.
BY Akpene Darko-Cobbina