The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has commenced two major projects aimed at strengthening the media’s role in promoting transparency and accountability in governance, and improving press freedom in West Africa. The projects are being implemented in Benin, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Ghana, Niger and Senegal
The MFWA’s national partner organisations in four target countries, Benin, The Gambia, Niger and Senegal, will be supported under the project, “Promoting Press Freedom in West Africa’ to strengthen their institutional capacity to advocate on freedom of expression issues in their respective countries.
In Burkina Faso, Ghana and Senegal, the MFWA will partner influential media organisations and key national-level anti-corruption institutions to improve public participation in governance under the project: “Enhancing Public Participation and Demand for Accountability in Governance through effective Media and Governance Dialogue Platforms. This project aims at strengthening the capacity of governance and anti-corruption institutions to engage more effectively with the media on governance and accountability issues. Under the project, media organisations will also receive training to enhance their capacity in investigating and reporting on transparency and accountability issues.
“These projects will build the capacity of the media to do advocacy on press freedom, report better on governance and accountability issues; and also empower them to become efficient platforms for citizens-authorities engagement,” said Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the MFWA.
Some of the activities under the projects are stakeholder engagements, institutional and other capacity building opportunities, support for critical and investigative reporting on corruption and accountability issues; and creation of platforms for dedicated media programmes on the issues of Transparency and Accountability.
The projects are being implemented with funding support from the Programme on Independent Journalism of the Open Society Foundations, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.