MEDIA ADVISORY
Media Orientation Workshop in preparation of the Africa's Industrialization Week 2019
Theme: “Building Media Awareness on Accelerated Industrial Development for Africa (AIDA) and related strategies: Industrial Policy Literacy Capacity Building Session for Business/ Economic Journalists”.
INVITATION TO MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES

WHAT: Media Orientation Workshop on Africa's Industrialization, in preparation of the African Industrialization Week, scheduled to take place from 18-22 November 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
WHEN: 25th – 27th September 2019.
WHERE: Headquarters of the African Union Commission - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
WHO: Organised by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the AUC Directorate of Information and Communication (DIC) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ – AU office.

Justification and objectives of the Workshop
Whilst the Department has continued to implement and coordinate these pan- African industrialisation programmes, and the benefits thereof, there has been limited visibility/awareness of these and their impact by the general populace of the continent. Apart from this, the continent continues to be negatively portrayed in international media channels, building negative perceptions that have compromised business risk, hence compromising the continent’s capacity to mobilise foreign investment. With the coming on-stream of the AfCFTA, and the liberalised trading market-induced business opportunities, the need to improve the continent’s image cannot be underscored, if the much needed capital to boost industrial supply capacity has to be assured.
Thus, the need for a more proactive communication of the various continental industrial frameworks, becomes an important subject going forward and the need to cultivate a working relationship with the agents of information sharing, the Media. Against this backdrop, it has become rather imperative to work closely with the media fraternity to build awareness in the continent and beyond on these programmes. Thus, this maiden Media Training/Capacity building programme, therefore, could not have come at a better time, if we are to change the perceptions on the continent, through positive and transformative journalistic reporting.
Expected Outcomes:
• ¬Establish a network of journalists to cover objectively the Africa industrialization agenda;;
• Educate the public at large through the media, on the work of the AU in the area of industrialization;
• Entrenchment of a culture of positive and balanced reporting on industrialization developments on the continent;
• Expose journalists to best practices of current and emerging success stories on the continent’s industrialization agenda.

Background

The maiden media training Session will cover Pan - African Industrialsation frameworks, recent developments on the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), imparting skills on ethical, positive and transformative journalism. This training also seeks to inform development of a Communication Strategy for the DTI on Africa’s industrialization initiatives and build a working relationship with the African media.

The training will bring together about forty (40) business journalists identified from the 5 geographic regions of the continent, including SADC award winners. The participants which have been carefully, and deliberately chosen from social media, electronic media, print, bloggers, among others, from both international media groups, independent practitioners, and Diaspora, provides a balanced high profile skills set that will enrich the training, and knowledge exchange.

Journalists are invited to attend and cover a media briefing/press conference on the 27th September 2019 to get an update on forthcoming events which include the upcoming Africa industrialization week (AIW2019), the World Economic Development Forum (WEDF) among others related issues.

The social media Hashtags for use are: #AUDTI #DTIMediaTraining #Industrialization #AwarenessOnAIDA #AfricanUnion

Note to the Editors: Mandate of the DTI:
The Industry Division in the Department of Trade and Industry of the African Union Commission is mandated to formulate, implement and harmonize industrial development policies on the continent. The Division, works with different stakeholders including the Private Sector, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Member States (MS), civil society, industry policy and research think tanks and development partners.
Central to this mandate is the coordination and implementation of the industrial policies and strategies on the continent. The central guiding industrialization framework is the Accelerated Industrial Development of Africa (AIDA), as well as the Africa Mining Vision. The AU Summit also endorsed the Africa Union SME Strategy in January 2019, and the Department is presently seized with its roll-out.

Media contacts contact

Esther Azaa Tankou| Head, Information Division at African Union Commission| African Union Commission I E-mail: YambouE@africa-union.org

Janet Faith Adhiambo Ochieng, Communication Officer, Directorate of Information and Communication E-mail: OchiengJ@africa-union.org

Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org | Web Site: www.au.int | Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

For further information:
Lunga Izata | Directorate of Trade and industry | African Union Commission I E-mail: IzataL@africa-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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