ZAMBIA: Journalists Trained on Seed Politics, Climate Change and Nutrition
Zambia Journalists from various media houses
Mwenya Mukua
Caritas Zambia, SO SUN Alliance and Pelum Zambia brought together 28 journalists from various media houses across the country for a 2-day training in seeds, nutrition and climate change policies.
The training aimed at building capacity of journalists to tell stories that provide positive change in environment and agriculture.
“As agents of change, journalists are the centre of advocating, on one hand projecting the known duty bearers and giving them a platform to provide messages on issues that affect the rights holders or communities, on the other hand making the communities’ voices known by giving them a platform to for feedback on the issues affecting their wellbeing,” said Mr. Muketoi Wamunyima, Pelum Zambia Country Director.
Mr. Wamunyima noted that due to lockdowns and restricted movements due to Covid-19, the world is faced with the need and opportunity to relook at how policy and strategies should support communities to be more resilient to disasters.
“This need cannot be over-emphasised when it comes to food system. We are still recovering from effects of the droughts and floods that affected our past farming seasons and, with the Covid-19, farmers are faced with more challenges to access markets for their produce,” he said.
Among the recommendations put forward, stakeholders concerned with food system have been urged to promote the development of a local system that will promote local seed, diversification in agriculture sector and build communities’ resilience to the effects of climate change.
The workshop was held at ZEC’s Kapingila House in Lusaka from 28th-29th July,2020.
