Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) will train regional media practitioners from five East African Community (EAC) Partner States from 27th-29th June 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda.
According to the LVBC Executive Secretary, Dr. Bwire K. Masinde, the regional media training on adaptation to climate change in Lake Victoria Basin referred is “timely and a strategic action consistent with LVBC Strategic Plan 2022-2026.”
The Strategy underscores climate action as one of the priority focus intervention areas of the Commission in the next five years. The Executive Secretary added, “Indeed, the news media can mobilize actors and accelerate adaptations to climate change in Lake Victoria Basin.”
The training of media practitioners in the EAC Partner States fits into LVBC’s mandate of facilitating, coordinating and promoting activities of different actors towards sustainable development and poverty eradication in the Lake Victoria Basin.
Recognizing the media’s capacity to inform and educate masses, influence changes in practices and policies, the training is expected to equip media practitioners with relevant knowledge and empower them to proactively cover climate change related issues. It is integral to LVBC’s efforts towards improved sharing of timely and accurate climate information to practitioners and policy-makers in Lake Victoria Basin.
Deputy Executive Secretary for LVBC Eng. Coletha Ruhamya and a representative from the Republic of Rwanda will open the regional training. Through trainee-centered approaches, media practitioners will explore climate change issues, impacts and most important why the mainstream media matter in the fight against climate change in Lake Victoria Basin. Funded by the UNEP, participants are expected to renew their commitments in accelerating climate change adaptations through heightened and holistic coverage of climate change in EAC Partner States.
The Regional Media Training on Adaptation to Climate Change is consistent with development priorities articulated by different policy frameworks at regional and national levels. It is in tandem with consistent with the EAC Treaty (1999) as thereafter revised, the 6th EAC Development Strategy, the Protocol for Sustainable Development of Lake Victoria Basin (2004) and the current the LVBC Strategic Plan (2022-2026). It aligns with the host’s (Rwanda) policy priorities: Vision 2050 and the Green Growth and Climate Resiliency Strategy and the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Part of the expected deliverables of the training aligns with article 7(a) of the EAC Treaty focused on promoting a people-centered EAC regional integration and importantly, article 71(f) on the ´dissemination of information on the Community to the stakeholders, the general public and the international community,’ (EAC Treaty, 2010).
Amos Ndoto, the Regional Coordinator of Adaptation to Climate Change in Lake Victoria Basin applauded the regional media training as it seeks to accelerate the realization of improved information at all levels, specifically at local communities of the EAC Partner States. “It is our anticipation, trainees will produce media articles upon return to respective countries,” Ndoto noted. The training will cover techniques of generating media interests in covering climate related events, issues and current interventions by actors in the Lake Victoria Basin, exposure to LVBC’s programmatic interventions to reverse climate change negative effects in EAC Partner States, among others.
