On Wednesday October 23rd, Media Challenge Initiative, a non-Governmental Organisation held a press briefing to announce their upcoming Media Expo and training on reporting about Climate change and its effects in Uganda and the world atlarge all aimed at imparting reporting skills to future passionate Journalists and those already established in mainstream Media.
The three day Media challenge Expo under the theme ‘’Reporting on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction in Uganda’’ is slated to take place between Friday 1st – Sunday 3rd November at Xanadu Collections (Previously Mackinon Suites hotel) located along Mackinon road, Nakasero.
This training comes after analysis that very few Journalists in Uganda have knowledge about climate change or can report about Climate change and narrate its entire impacts in the social, economic and political aspects in the world as the subject matter affects people in far-reaching ways.
Impacts related to climate change are evident across regions and in many sectors important to society such as; human health, agriculture and food security, water supply, transportation, energy, ecosystems, and others – and are expected to become increasingly disruptive throughout this century and beyond.
Climate change affects human health and well being through more extreme weather events and wildfires, decreased air quality, and diseases transmitted by insects, food, and water. Climate disruptions to agriculture have been increasing and are projected to become more severe over this century, a trend that would diminish the security of America’s food supply. Surface and groundwater supplies in some regions are already stressed, and water quality is diminishing in many areas, in part due to increasing sediment and contaminant concentrations after heavy downpours.
This Media Challenge Expo comes at a time, Media Challenge Initiative has been on tours across the different Universities in Uganda impacting Journalists with additional skills reporting on climate change- a topic they believe will enable them gain full knowledge while reporting on Climate change. While the organisation has recorded tremendous success in equipping this knowledge to young journalists, success stories are already in place as some of them have been sent to work with main stream Media in Uganda while they look forward to the global platforms thanks to the partnerships in place.
This years’ Media Challenge Expo is anticipated to bring together the entire media fraternity for conference sessions on improving climate change communication in Uganda, a journalism career fair for students, more than fifteen (15) different journalism skills trainings, and a live news reporting competition for University teams.
Commenting on the Media Expo, Rebecca Sserwanga from the Climate Change Department in the Office of the Prime Minister, one of the funders of the project emphasized that Journalists have a common role to play in creating public awareness about the accumulative threat of climate change in the country.
She stated;’’ It is a collective effort, we are increasingly seeing unprecedented warming temperatures and what is the cause of this? It’s our human activities. We need to restore wetlands, plant trees to bring our environment back to optimal state. It is the role of journalists to increase the awareness, reason we are supporting the Media Challenge Initiative projects’’.
Mr Mpindi Abaas, Media Initiative Challenge CEO revealed that they are implementing the Climate Change Media Challenge projects to improve effective reporting on climate change and disaster risk reduction and during the process; they will increase awareness of intensity of climate change and disasters in Uganda. He also added that their ultimate aim is to promote individual responsibility through storytelling, showing the world what is ongoing and enabling them to act to protect their communities.
The Programme Manager at Konrad Adenaeur Stiftung (KAS Uganda), one of the funders, Mr Ojok Okello highlighted that Journalists must be able to understand climate change issues due to high number of fallacies and lies around the issue. He noted that; ‘’Talk about facts: In one year we have seen the most fluctuation in rainfall in recent years in Uganda, so for you to have evidence and facts, you need some kind of training and experience sharing like Media Challenge Initiative is offering in the Expo’’.
Climate change and disasters are a substantial threat to Uganda, especially in the agriculture sector given the background of Uganda’s economy, Agriculture being the main backbone. While in some regions like Karamoja are increasingly affected by crippling drought, others such as the eastern Bugisu and Teso sub regions are receiving above –normal rainfall, contributing to devastating floods and mudslides. The changing seasons are reducing farmers’ yields. But public knowledge of climate change is lacking. The Media is an important actor in filling this information gap.
The Office of the Prime Minister is currently undertaking a project on Strengthening Community Resilience to Climate Change and Disaster Risks (SCORE) supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in conjunction with Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE).
This years’ Climate Change Media Challenge is supported by DW Akademie, Konrad Adenaeur Stiftung Uganda, US Mission for Uganda, OPM, UNDP, UNESCO, Coca-cola and African Centre for Trade and Development.
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