Reporting on COP27

First-hand accounts from COP27

Media from all over the world reported on the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh and commented on the debates and results of the conference for their home audiences. A group of journalists from various countries in sub-Saharan Africa were in Egypt thanks to support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Here are some samples of their work.

Text
Robert Bosch Stiftung
Images
Hannah Bernstein/Earth Journalism Network
Date
December 13, 2022

Many media companies in Africa do not have the financial means to send their reporters to a multi-day event like the World Climate Conference. The Robert Bosch Stiftung enabled journalists from Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria, Liberia, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe to participate in the conference. The aim was to enable differentiated reporting on international climate policy that is geared to local needs. 

And the results were impressive. In 87 articles for print and online media, radio and television, the journalists assimilated and processed the crux of the conference for their local audience. They addressed the concerns and demands of young people, women, farmers, civil society organizations and indigenous groups on the African continent, commented on the negotiations, and interviewed high-ranking interlocutors from politics and science.

Webinars, briefings and coaching

In addition to travel expenses, the fellowships included content-related preparation and coaching of the reporters, for example through an introductory webinar on international climate policy and daily briefings on the most important events during the conference. The fellowships were organized and carried out by Internews, a non-profit media organization that trains journalists worldwide.

Here is an overview of some of the published stories:

Women want to have a say in how climate crisis policy is acted upon. This is a thematic focus in the reporting work of Pauline Ongaji, a bilingual science journalist and English-Kiswahili translator from Nairobi, Kenya. She also writes about smallholder farmers and what they are demanding of policymakers.

Published on: Nation Online, which is part of The Nation Media Group that operates print, broadcast and digital media in East and Central Africa. Its audiences range from Kenya to Tanzania Uganda and Rwanda.

The impact of climate crisis on major African cities was the topic of an article by  Melody Chironda. The journalist also wrote about the link between food security and the climate crisis as well as climate-activism amongst young people in Africa. A graduate of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa, she has worked as a journalist for more than ten years and now lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Published on: AllAfrica Global Media, an online medium reporting from Cape Town, Abuja and Johannesburg, among other places. AllAfrica aggregates about 500 reports a day from newspapers and news agencies.

An award-winning journalist, Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh has shared her O-original sound reports from COP27T with global audiences. She works as a Liberia correspondent for Radio Deutsche Welle (Afrika). Her articles have appeared for example in National Geographic, the BBC, the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR), and FrontPage Africa, among others. She is also committed to the rights of girls and women, for example through Just A Girl Initiatives. She lives and works in Monrovia, Liberia.

Published on: soundcloud.com, the world's largest open music and audio platform. 

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