The electoral processes in Africa have largely been characterized by lack of transparency and accountability with citizens not being informed on key issues such as the appointment of members of election management bodies, registration of voters, nomination of candidates and conduct of campaigns, polling dates and candidates, funding for political parties and candidates, polling, counting, transmission and declaration of winners. Lack of information on these and more aspects has not only affected voter turn-up but also undermined the credibility and legitimacy of the outcomes of electoral processes. Consequently, elections have been contested and quite often resulted in pre- and post-election violence, sometimes at a large scale as was the case in during the 2021 elections in Uganda. More significantly, lack of access to information affects citizens’ ability to hold to account elected officials based on promises made during campaigns neither, do officials elected through a process devoid of transparency feel compelled to account to their electors, undermining democratic development.
Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) with support from UNESCO will organize a 3 days of training on gender and conflict-sensitive reporting for media practitioners in Uganda based on UNESCOs guidelines on Gender Sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM) and Conflict-sensitive reporting: state of the art; course for journalists and journalism educators. This action will be implemented under UNESC’s Strengthening Electoral Processes project in Uganda (SEPU). The training will be based on UNESCO’s publication titled: Media and Information Literate Citizens: Think Critically, Click Wisely!
The action will be conducted in partnership with the Uganda Women’s Council for three days starting on Tuesday February 21st to 22rd 2023.
At total of 50 participants from Women Council representatives, leaders of women leagues of 4 major political parties, women representatives of special interest groups, journalists & media practitioners will be targeted.
During the training facilitators will be drawn from the Electoral Commission of Uganda, Uganda Police force, the Peace Centre, African Centre for Media Excellence, AFIC among others.
The training will be officiated by the Minister of Gender Labour and Social Development and will have keynote speeches from stakeholders such as UNDP and the Uganda Electoral Commission.
