Workshop overview

IPS Latin America organized a two-day training workshop for Central American journalists in Ciudad de Guatemala on 4-5 August, 2010, focused on the current challenges of Central American countries facing the food crisis and smallholder farmers’ response.

The workshop was part of the activities for “The role of smallholder farmers in response to the food crisis and as a tool to eradicate rural poverty: knowledge sharing to influence pro-poor policy formulation in Western and Central Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean” small grant, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Read more »

Elena Madrazo Hegewisch, AECID Director, Mario Lubetkin, IPS Director General and Federico Mayor, IPS Chair.

More than sixty participants joined lively debates on the theme “Communication and Development: policies, networks and technologies”. The seminar was held 5 - 7 July in the University of Santander, Spain as part of a series of joint activities by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the global news agency IPS Inter Press Service in 2010.

The seminar gave the opportunity to different actors in the field of communication and development cooperation to exchange their experiences and create coordination channels to improve public communication policy. Read more »

Left to right: Kathy Sierra (World Bank), Carlos Perez del Castillo (CGIAR), Rudy Rabbinge (CGIAR) and Busani Bafana.

Zimbabwean journalist Busani Bafana is the 2009 recipient of the Award for Excellence in Agricultural Science Journalism, described by CGIAR as”[a] professional who has put his way with words at the service of Africa’s agriculture”.

In a story entitled “A Better Banana for Africa,” which Bafana wrote for Inter Press Service (IPS) Africa, he reports on efforts in Kenya to improve banana yields and health, which are keys to “Africa’s potential banana boom.” Read more »

Workshop participants with Dr. Mo Ibrahim (centre)

Sudanese journalists attending “Reporting Elections” training with IPS Africa have been urged to use their responsibility as journalists to tell the stories of ordinary people.

IPS Africa, with support from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, hosted a training workshop for South Sudanese print, radio and television journalists in Nairobi (Kenya) during 15-17 March 2010, to critically examine the role and responsibility of the media during elections reporting. Read more »

Almost 80 million smallholder farmers in Africa, supply about 80 percent of its food. In order for Africa to establish a prosperous and sustainable economic future, the voices of its farmers must be amplified.

To enable this, journalists from across the West Africa region attended a media workshop in Accra, Ghana, hosted by Inter Press Service IPS Africa on behalf of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The workshop aimed to build the capacity of local journalists and editors from West and Central Africa to gain the skills and knowledge they need to report on the food crisis and how it can be solved, particularly with the contribution of smallholder farmers. Read more »