Women, Media and Change (WOMEC)

In order that to achieve its goals, WOMEC engages in the following:

• providing media skills training for women both in leadership and at the grassroots level;
• giving greater visibility to women through the media;
• supporting journalists/media practitioners and editors to develop editorial policies to guide gender-sensitive coverage;
• serving as a centre of excellence that focuses on training and capacity building, creating a platform for exchange of ideas, and facilitating networking of female journalists in the sub-region;
• developing a database on women in the media in Africa which will hold information on the human resources of female journalists in Africa;
• establishing a resource centre for female journalists to learn new skills and access information;
• developing a mentorship programme between young female journalists and the older experienced journalists in the West African sub-region;
• organising information and communication technology (ICT) training for women’s organisations and women in media to help them to effectively use ICTs in their work; and
• establishing an exchange programme for female journalists in Africa to enable them share experiences, ideas, and learn from each other.

WOMEC’s projects include:

• Media Capacity Building Projects on Malaria and HIV/AIDS in Africa
• The Female Parliamentarian’ Newsletter
• Media ICT Project
• Radio Diaries of Women Living with HIV
• Leadership Programmes for Women in Governance in Ghana

Since its inception in 2004, WOMEC has undertaken a number of training activities in an effort to help women be more effective in the use of media. The following are a few examples of training activities:

• June 2007: WOMEC organised a capacity building workshop for 20 female journalists from both private and public media houses in Ghana. The workshop was designed to build the capacity of female journalists to enable them to report from a gender perspective.
• June 2007: WOMEC coordinated a public forum ahead of the African Union (AU) Summits held in Accra, Ghana to ensure that the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa remained on the agenda of policy makers and to urge all African leaders to safeguard the rights of women through ratification and implementation of the Protocol.
• April 2007: Held in Mombassa, Kenya, WOMEC, with sponsorship from Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance, organised a second Media Training Workshop on Reporting on Malaria Research in Africa for 20 Journalist from across Africa.
• April 2007: WOMEC organised a field trip to Dodowa Health Research Centre for 10 journalists to acquaint themselves with research going on at the centre.
• November 2006: WOMEC co-founded African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) - a network of African journalists and scientists working together to eradicate malaria in Africa. Participating journalists and scientists are from — The Gambia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania.
• August 2006: WOMEC worked with six women living with HIV to produce radio diaries. Six radio journalists were trained to partner with HIV positive women to act as mentors and to assist with the production of radio diaries of women living with HIV.
• In 2004: WOMEC, in collaboration with UN System Gender Programme conducted a three-day workshop that brought together 25 media organisations from both the print and electronic media to sensitise journalists to promote gender mainstreaming in media coverage against the background of the women’s manifesto for Ghana.
• In 2003: WOMEC organised a Reflection Seminar for female parliamentarians with the goal of developing media skills, tools, and practices for effective participation of women in parliament.

Women, Gender.

WOMEC believes that women’s issues are a dimension of many issues such as education, health, environment, and human rights. Its vision is to give voice to voiceless women and work towards a 50% increase in the coverage of women and women's issues in the media.