The British Council, in collaboration with UNESCO, recently hosted a four-day training workshop in Zimbabwe to educate the media there about climate change issues.

The workshop provided journalists with an opportunity to conceptualise and practise reporting on climate change.

It formed part of a British Council/UNESCO initiative called ‘Our Climate, Our Future’, which is a three-year project that was launched in February 2009 and will run until 2011.

Programmes assistant Melody Sango says that through this initiative, the British Council and UNESCO seek to raise awareness about climate change ‘in a way that allows for individuals to participate in adapting to and mitigating its effects.’

Sango says in Zimbabwe there is not much reporting on climate change.

‘As part of our mandate to build awareness, we wanted to bring together media practitioners from newspapers, television and radio stations and show them how to incorporate information about climate change into a local context to make it more accessible for the general public.’

According to the press release marking the event, over 25 representatives from media houses attended the workshop. These included editors, bureau chiefs, reporters, producers and presenters – each with a distinct and strategic role to convey climate change messages to the public.

Sango says the British Council is pleased to be part of an initiative that seeks not only to empower local media practitioners but also to tackle one of the biggest phenomena of our time.

‘Training our media practitioners widens the audience for information about ways of adapting to climate change and measures that they can practise in their own homes.

‘They got an opportunity to share ideas and create their own network for the purposes of reporting on climate change issues.’

The trainers explained climate change in a way that allowed the journalists to redefine their role in raising awareness.

‘This included lessons on the production of news, stories, pictures, audio/video programmes for newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and the internet,’ Sango says.

According to the UNESCO website, the training produced a network of climate change journalists, a roster of experts and resources, and ideas for climate change programmes.

To read about the British Council’s Climate Change programme visit the British Council Africa website. You can also read the latest News in Africa as well as see what events are being planned in Africa.