Programme of the Media and Journalism in Africa Days 2020

After the success of last year, Africa 21 is pleased to present the agenda of the 2nd edition of the Media and Journalism Days in Africa dedicated to climate change in English-speaking Africa.

On the program this year:

Moderators: Catherine Fiankan-Bokonga, correspondent of France 24 at the United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG) and Vice-President of the Association of Accredited Correspondents at UN (ACANU) and of the Swiss Press Club (Day 1&2) ; Jean-Luc Mootoosamy, Director of Media Expertise and Vice-President of Africa 21 (Day3).
General coordinator: Julien Chambolle, Secretary general, Association Africa 21.

With the active participation of:

Corbin August (South Africa), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC);
Asmaa Botmi-Clarke (South Africa), VOA Africa & AFP;
Sharon Tshipa (Botswana), Freelance, BBC Future Planet, Deutsche Welle Africalink Radio, Greenpeace International, Xinhua News Agency, SOPA Images, Botswana Guardian, Mmegi Newspaper, Watchdog Uganda, News Day Zimbabwe & AFP;
Mantoe Phakathi (Eswatini), Freelance, IPS News & Mongabay News;
Eden Berhane (Ethiopia), Ethiopian Broadcasting Service;
Ayele Addis Ambelu (Ethiopia), Africa News Channel;
Albert Oppong-Ansah (Ghana), Ghana News Agency & IPS;
Samuel Hinneh (Ghana), SciDev.Net & Daily Dispatch Newspaper;
Sophie Mbugua (Kenya), freelance, the Humanitarian, Deutsch Welle (DW), Reuters Thomson Foundation, Radio France International (RFI), News Deeply, AAAS Science, Huffpost, Scidev.net, Mail & Guardian, and the BBC Science in Action, Mongabay, New African, and Shout Africa. Locally by the Daily Nation, the East African and the Star newspaper;
Justus Wanzala (Kenya), Kenya Broadcasting Corporation;
Chimwemwe Njoloma (Malawi), Malawi News Agency;
Shola Lawal (Nigeria), freelance, Mail & Guardian, The New York Times and the Guardian;
Ayoola Kassim (Nigeria), Channels Television;
Lominda Afedraru (Uganda), Monitor Publications Ltd;
Davis Buyondo (Uganda) Freelance, New Vision & Uganda Radio Network;
Bai Bai Sesay (Sierra Leone), Independent Observer;
Jenifer Julius Gilla (Tanzania), The Guardian Limited;
Violet Nakamba Mengo (Zambia), Zambia Daily Mail;
Kennedy Nyavaya (Zimbabwe), NewsDay, The Standard and Zimbabwe Independent.

Wednesday 14 October, on Zoom

Session 1

10:30-11:00 AM – Welcome ceremony:
- Jean-Luc Mootoosamy, Vice-president Africa 21;
- Mohamed Atani, Regional Information Officer for Africa, UN Environment Program;
- Abdalah Mokssit, Secretary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

- Jean-Pierre Reymond, Adviser at the Swiss Mission to the UN Office in Geneva and partnerships for innovation.
11:00-12:30 AM – Inaugural discussion: geopolitical approach of climate change crisis
- Arnault Graves, Senior Climate Adviser of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean
  Please click here to read the presentation.
- Kamal Djemouaï, Independent Climate Change Consultant, Adviser to the African Group of Negotiators (AGN)

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Session 2

2:00-5:00 PM – ABC of Climate change in the world and in Africa: facts, figures, and policy
- Facts and data on climate change in Africa:Pauline Dube, IPCC expert
- Climate change through images around the world and in Africa: Catherine Lilian Nakalembe, GEO expert and Africa program lead at NASA Harvest and Abubakr Salih Babiker, GEO expert and at Regional Numerical Weather Prediction at ICPAC, click here to read the presentation.
- International climate negociations and african positions : Kamal Djemouaï, Independent Climate Change Consultant, Adviser to the African Group of Negotiators (AGN)

Thursday 15 October, on Zoom

Session 3

10:00-1:00 PM- Climate change risks and humanitarian crisis
- Catastrophes and humanitarian crisis: Aurélie Lachant, focal point on climate change, ICRC. Please click here to read the presentation.

Journalistic presentations of the session:

- Sophie Mbugua (Kenya): A twin challenge of floods and COVID19 sinks Kenyan further into poverty.
- Lominda Afedraru (Uganda): Is the invasion of locusts and extinction of edible insects in Uganda a climate change issue? Its impact on food security.
- Violet Nakamba Mengo (Zambia): Zambia : Lessons learnt from Natural Disasters.
- Bai Bai Sesay (Sierra Leone): Sierra Leone’s annual flooding and disaster.

Sendai Framework and climate change, Denis Mc Clean, head of communications, UNDRR. Please click here to read the presentation

To read in addition :
– UN Report: dramatic rise in climate disasters over last twenty years, Press release, 12 October 2020 UNDRR 2020/08.
– Report : Economic Losses, Poverty and Disasters 1998-2017, UNDRR, Geneva, 2018.
– Report: human cost of disasters, an overview of the last 20 years 2000-2019, UNDRR, Geneva, 2020.

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Session 4

2:00-5:00 PM – Social and human aspects of climate change
- Social impact of climate change: Vicente Paolo B. Yu III, Visiting Fellow, UNRISD. Please click here to read the presentation.
- Movement of population and climate change crisis: Hind Aissaoui Bennani, Lisa Lim Ah Ken, climate change and migration experts and Yvonne Ndege, Head of Media and Communications, IOM

Friday 16 October, on Zoom

Session 5

10:00-12:30 – session dedicated to journalists
- Corbin August Afrique du SudStory on 17-year-old climate change activist, Ayakha Melithafa, from Cape Town who attended the World Economic Forum in Davos this year.
- Asmaa Botmi-Clarke (South Africa): The Green Corridor’s litter boom project in Durban.
- Sharon Tshipa (Botswana): Climate change thwarts beekeeping’s potential to lift over half of Africans out of poverty
- Albert Oppong-Ansah (Ghana): The Oyster business in the Gulf of Guinea and climate change
- Samuel Hinneh (Ghana): Drone Farming: How precision agriculture is transforming farmers livelihoods in Ghana.
- Mantoe Phakathi (Eswatini): Local Farmers Establish Seed Bank to Adapt to Climate Change
- Jenifer Julius Gilla (Tanzania): Mndimi : the village’s economic activities such as agricultural and fishing has stopped because ocean water has invade almost 2000 hectares and cause soil erosion and salty soil
- Kennedy Nyavaya (Zimbabwe): How a botched energy transition is working against climate change prone Zimbabwe.
- Chimwemwe Njoloma (Malawi): Irrigation schemes shot down fearing it may contribute to flooding in the areas.

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Session 6

2:00-4:00 PM – session dedicated to journalists

Journalistic presentations of the session :

- Davis Buyondo (Uganda): How Permaculture Is Reviving Scorched, Exhausted Soils In Uganda’s Southern Region
- Justus Wanzala (Kenya), « The besieged jewels of Yala swamp”, Feature Story on threatened three Kenyan satellite lakes near the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria.
- Ayele Addis Ambelu (Ethiopia): Wildfire distraction on African Forest; Neglected issue.
- Shola Lawal (Nigeria): How is Nigeria battling forest degradation, the number one cause of rising emissions in the country?
- Ayoola Kassim (Nigeria): Protecting Nigeria’s Elephant Population.
- Eden Berhane (Ethiopia): Tv based advocacy and activism to mitigate Environment pollution.
Closing remarks, Ugo Ikepeazu, Vice-president, Africa 21.