ECA earns high praise for efforts to showcase NEPAD successes, challenges
The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has been lauded for its communication efforts in highlighting the successes and challenges of NEPAD.
The praise came from two of ECA’s partners – the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The Director of the Department of Information and Communication of the AUC, Ms Habiba Mejri-cheikh, praised the ECA for its draft of a reporting manual for journalists to enhance regular reporting of successes and challenges of the African Union and its NEPAD Programme.
Ms Mejri-cheikh who also co-chairs the Advocacy and Communication Cluster of the Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM) for UN support to African Union and NEPAD was speaking at an Expert Group Meeting on the review of the reporting manual drafted by ECA’s Economic Development and NEPAD Division (EDND) on behalf of the RCM Cluster on Advocacy and Communication.
Mejri-cheikh was of the view that once the manual is “reviewed and published”, it would be one of the most concrete achievements of the Cluster that she co-chairs with Ms. Mieko Ikegame, who heads the Coordination, Advocacy and Programme Development Unit in the Office of the Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA).
A Senior Communication and Public Information Officer at the International Labour Organization (Regional Office for Africa), Mr. Guebray Berhane, also appreciated the first step taken by the ECA to table a draft and expressed the wish to have an improved copy ready for the next RCM meeting this coming November.
Earlier, the Director of EDND, Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie, welcomed the group, and entreated them to constantly remember that they, as the media, are the key allies of NEPAD, according to a statement issued by the ECA October 20, 2012.
Prof Nnadozie said the draft tabled for review had been called for at the two Regional Media Dialogues that were held in The Vaal, South Africa, and in Lesotho in 2009 and 2011 respectively.
The two media dialogues, which brought together officials of the AUC, the NEPAD Secretariat, representatives of UN agencies, including ECA and media executives from across Africa, concluded that a reporting manual for the media might help strengthen the capacity of African journalists to better cover NEPAD issues, the NEPAD Agency, enhancing its ownership by the people of Africa.
Porf Nnadozie was convinced that the Advocacy and Communication Cluster is responding to one of the most critical challenges of NEPAD —more effective communication —with the production of the manual.
By Ekow Quandzie