African Women in Media partners UNESCO to launch TRAKD tools - ITREALMS

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African Women in Media (AWiM) in partnership with the UNESCO IPDC-funded programme, has launched "TRAKD: Developing Tools and Resources towards adoption of the Kigali Declaration in newsrooms in Africa," reports ITREALMS.

This two-month programme, ITREALMS gathered, will be in collaboration with UNESCO under the IPDC framework. Through the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), UNESCO works to create a supportive environment for media development, critical dialogue, and media independence.

A press statement available to ITREALMS endorsed by the Community Engagement Officer at AWiM, Joy Adigwe, quoted the Co-founder and CEO of African Women in Media, Dr Yemisi Akinbobola, as saying the programme is important for women practitioners at this era of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“We are pleased to work with UNESCO on this important programme, which aims to strengthen the capacities of media stakeholders on Generative AI and Technology Facilitated Gender Violence (TF-GBV). Through it, we will share best practices for adopting the Kigali Declaration on Elimination of Gender Violence in and through Media in Africa by 2034," she said.

The programme, she also said, will feature eight in-depth living training sessions with over 60 participants, including journalists (editors, reporters, and producers) and content creators from at least ten countries. Key training areas include: Information Literacy: Raising awareness of Generative AI and TF-GBV, as well as the intersections of gendered violence in these new media forms.

"Capacity Building: Strengthening technical internal and external capacities to combat online and offline violence against women in media.

"Knowledge Sharing: Sharing knowledge of collaborating on best practices and policy implementation against TF-GBV," the CEO underscored.

Also speaking the UNESCO Regional Advisor for Communication and Information in Africa, Ms Misako Ito, pointed out that “While technological innovations like ChatGPT offer gains in productivity, UNESCO’s study ‘Your opinion doesn’t matter, anyway’ shows that generative AI has increased the potential avenues for technology facilitated gender-based violence faced by women and girls online.” 

The programme will kick-off at the African Women in Media conference in Dakar, Senegal on 5-6 December, with a specialized workshop for journalists and content creators.

Nkem Nweke and Gbemi Omotoso/Editor

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