Twenty junior radio and print journalists from twelve Caribbean Commonwealth countries and two non-Commonwealth countries will be in Jamaica from September 12-16 for a training workshop on Reporting the Millennium Development Goals”.
The workshop which will be held in Mandeville, Manchester is being organized by Panos Caribbean and is funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.
During the workshop, local and rural issues in addition to national and regional issues will be highlighted.
A press release from Panos Caribbean quoted Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, Dr. Mark Collins as saying that “at this half-way stage towards the MDG target date of 2015 it is vital that Caribbean governments keep up the momentum. Journalists play a key role as opinion-formers who can ensure that citizens and politicians alike recognize that there is no room for complacency in tackling these goals. They must be achieved and this workshop will help to ensure that the issues are kept alive and kicking.”
Jan Voordouw, Executive Director of Panos Caribbean stressed that MDGs are of prime importance to Caribbean societies, especially the vulnerable ones.
“However, often people do not easily see how to translate such global goals to local realities. During the workshop we will explore how media can assist in evaluating progress on the goals in our specific islands, to see how far we have come whether it is nationally or in marginal areas,” Voordouw said.
The release said also that the training during the workshop will focus particularly on HIV/AIDS, climate change, education, and debt relief.
“We expect that after the workshop, more radio and print stories will come out on the MDGs in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The workshop will also provide an opportunity for networking and joint investigation among journalists across the region,” Voordouw said.
The participants are drawn from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Haiti and Suriname.
Presenters will include Dr. Maureen Samms-Vaugh from the Early Childhood Commission, Canute James, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communications, Dale Rankine from the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme in Jamaica, and Peter Espeut from the Caribbean Costal Area Management Foundat-ion, the release added.
In 2007 a large UN Conference agreed on eight MDGs, setting targets for the substantial reduction of poverty by 2015. Nearly all the countries of the world have signed up to them.
The eight MDGs are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.
