The Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana (YHFG), a youth-focused organisation has organised a workshop on Gender Transformative Communication for selected media practitioners in the Upper East and North East Regions.
The two-day capacity-building workshop aimed at empowering media practitioners to produce gender-sensitive and gender-transformative content.
It is also to create awareness among media practitioners about how gender norms and stereotypes can influence their programming and news reporting.
Dominic Anarigide, Project Officer, YHFG, noted that the issue of gender has been a major concern since time immemorial, and coupled with the introduction of gender mainstreaming concepts, it was important that media practitioners were abreast with the issues to enable them in their reporting.
He said the workshop was to increase the participants’ understanding of gender transformative change and communication concepts.
Mr. Anarigide added that when Media Practitioners are acquainted with the issues of gender, it will increase media coverage of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) from a gender transformative perspective, including media coverage that challenges discriminatory social norms and stereotypes.
The workshop formed part of a five-year Reproductive Health Education (RHE) project dubbed “Evidence to Action: Sexual Health Education Advocacy” being sponsored by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) in Sweden.
It is being implemented in 11 communities in two Districts of the Upper East Region, including Bawku West District and Kassena Nankana Municipal.
Sumaila S. Saaka, a resource person, noted that media practitioners had some level of power within themselves that they could use to influence change in society, and it was important that such power was used to the benefit of society.
He urged media practitioners to be sensitive in their reporting about issues concerning gender for the general wellbeing of society.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gilbert Azeem Tiroog|Ghana
