African journalists have been urged to spearhead the continent’s development agenda, especially as it relates to agriculture. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the New Partnership For Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, made the call at the on-going NEPAD sensitization workshop for African Media Practitioners in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Tuesday. “We for a long time suffer from communication gap. We have defined a communication strategy in solving this problem and one of the ways we wish to achieve this is through a sustain partnership with the media,” he said. “We need to own NEPAD, it is an African development programme, it’s success depends on all. So ownership is very important, ownership demands contribution and constructive engagements. ‘New leaders are emerging in Africa and they have an agenda, a transformation agenda based on the fact that Africa is no longer interested on receiving aid, given the resources and the young population we have, aid is no longer important. What is important is harnessing those huge resources,” the NEPAD CEO said. Dr. Mayaki however pointed out that the transformation agenda cannot be achieved without good governance, transparency and collaboration at national, regional and international levels, with the media playing a central role in the process. Also speaking, a representative of the Kenya-based Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Ann Mureithi, said the organisation feels that the media need to report more on agricultural development, in view of its importance. ‘AGRA thinks African media need to tell the success stories of progress being recorded in the sector. We want to partner with journalists beyond Kenya and Ghana. There is the need for journalists to be part of the on-going process in revolutionizing agriculture in the continent,” she said. On his part, the Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), based in The Netherlands, Mr Michael Hailu underscored the need for more agricultural trade within the continent, saying agriculture is also about business, technology, trade and getting relevant market information that will increase yields, income and create wealth for the farmers. “Getting important message to the people is central. The media tends to focus much on famine and drought, they tend to emphasize too much on negativism, whereas great progress are being made. We hope this workshop will help change that attitude,” he said. Participants at the workshop, with the theme “Reflecting on Africa’s past and future,” include journalists drawn from the various media organizations in Africa, communication experts, development partners and the civil society groups.

Source : http://www.afriquejet.com/ethiopia-journalists-urged-to-spearhead-africas-development-agenda-2012032835853.html