Business Unusual, Gender, Economy and the Media targets financial journalists with the aim of raising awareness on and profiling women’s contribution to the economy. So far training has been conducted in Botswana, DRC, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe .
With the signing of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, the project has sought to highlight the economic provisions of the protocol. Since 2009, training workshops have coincided with the SADC Heads of State (HOS) summits in the DRC and Namibia in 2010. In 2011 GL brought together Angola and Mozambique journalists for a training workshop ahead of the HOS summit in Luanda. In 2010, GL conducted a workshop for regional journalists with the aim of highlighting how the SADC protocol economic provisions could be tied to the 2010 Soccer tournament.
This year, Gender Links, in collaboration with the Angolan Forum for Women Journalists, conducted a training workshop for journalists ahead of the SADC HOS in August 2011. The workshop brought together journalists from Angola and Mozambique. These Lusophone countries have not benefited from previous Business Unusual training initiatives. Angola has previously been marginalised in the process to promote women’s rights in SADC. The HOS summit therefore presented a strategic opportunity to carry the work of the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance forward.
