GIME follow up initiatives

Following the Gender in Media Education Audit, which took place from November 2009 to April 2010, Namibia and Mozambique have spearheaded initiatives to implement the findings of the audit to improve the incorporation of gender into their teaching curriculum.

GIME in Namibia

The Polytechnic of Namibia and The University of Namibia have pledged to begin mainstreaming gender into their media training, following the Gender in Media Education Audit taken in October 2009. The findings of this audit were explored in two meetings held by the UNESCO office in Windhoek on November 23rd, 2009 and  February 12th, 2010 where Gender Links presented the Audit and recommendations were established to prioritise appropriate follow-up actions.

The three main goals of the meeting were to:

–   Develop training and development programmes to build capacity of full-time and part-time lecturers to mainstream gender into the development of course content .
– Identify new areas of specialised reporting that incorporate gender, e.g. Reporting Gender Violence and Human Trafficking.
– Create institutional exchanges between PoN and UNAM to share expertise and exchange information on how each department is incorporating gender into their Media education and Journalism training.

Following this meeting, in partnership with the UNESCO Office in Windhoek, the GMDC has contributed to developing modules in Communication Theories (Polytechnic of Namibia) and Media Theories (University of Namibia) to include a two week session on gender. These modules are aimed at mainstreaming Gender in Media Education, including the development of tailored materials for each department. Following this development, the GMDC began its ‘Training of Trainers’ in Namibia on May 6th, 2010. Kubi Rama trained lecturers for two days from both Polytechnic of Namibia (PON) and the University of Namibia (UNAM) to test and implement the modules related to Communication Theories and Media Theories at each institution.

The GMDC will also analyse the current journalism curriculum of UNAM and PON to identify entry points to mainstream Gender- Based Violence reporting and propose course outlines where Gender-Based Violence reporting can be mainstreamed. The course outline will include a course description, pedagogical approach of method, schedule, a list of required and recommended texts and an outline of the schedule for the classes. Following this input, the GMDC will host a second training of trainers session in July.

Mozambique takes forward GIME findings

GIME Workshop Maputo

On April 6th, 2010 The Gender in Media Education (GIME) workshop was held at the VIP hotel in Maputo, Mozambique. The media training institutions in Mozambique are just beginning the process of reviewing their curriculum. It was therefore an opportune time for Gender Links to host this one-day workshop to discuss mainstreaming gender in the curriculum of journalism courses run at media and journalism training institutions in the country.

The participants at the workshop learnt about the findings of the “Gender in Media EducationÀ (GIME) report which showed that gender is not mainstreamed into the curricula of media and journalism courses run at accredited institutions in Mozambique and none of the media institutions have gender policies.

The one-day workshop was used to stress the importance of mainstreaming gender in the curriculum of journalism courses and also on having a gender policy in place in each institution.
Some 29 participants attended the GIME workshop in Maputo including lecturers from Eduardo Mondlane University, and the Higher School of Journalism and School of Journalism in Mozambique, as well as representatives of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Mozambique MISA, the syndicate of journalists (SNJ), the Editors Forum (Forum de Editores), UNESCO, and UNICEF.

Both countries have made a commitment to include gender in their upcoming curriculum reviews and to begin the process of improving, adapting or creating official gender policies.