Media ogranisations across Africa have joined a worldwide effort to leverage funding for independent media development, as an intrinsic step to overall progress and democracy building. During the recent launch of the African Forum for Regional Development under the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), media support groups issued an open letter to the African Union (AU), European Union (EU) and the OECD “calling for better recognition of media development as an integral part of development strategies.”

“This is still a new idea to many in the development sector that a free, independent and pluralistic media is both a democratic ideal in its own right, but also a vital component of development itself,” said Jeanette Minni, one of the two elected African members of the GFMD’s Steering Committee to RAP 21.

Adding on, Gabriel Baglo, the second elected member, said to RAP 21, “I think the EU, for example, has realized that they cannot achieve a lot, developmentally speaking, in Africa without the media.” First, Baglo said, “the media needs to be developed where the staff is well trained and taken care of. The media has to be strong enough to be part of development.” Only when media development accelerates, Baglo stressed, can it become instrumental in the overall development of African countries.

“A very strong independent media that can report and investigate both the good and faulty parts of governance and society is needed. The media cannot just be public relations tool,” he continued. “Much closer collaboration between the media industry and media training institutions is needed in Africa in order to develop training curriculum and standards...Perhaps the media industry needs to become more vocal about their uptake needs and the industry needs to show engagement with the media training industry for such problems to be addressed,” said Minni.

Likewise the political climate across Africa needs to be conducive for media development. Baglo noted Ghana and South Africa as particularly being in the vanguard in this field, along with Mali, Botswana, Zambia and Senegal to a lesser extent. Though in other places such as the Gambia, Eritrea, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) a more aggressive campaign will be required.

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