BY YOANA KIMWELE.
The USAID, MINDNEXT MEDIA Communication `together with the County Government Of Kenya of Kitui held the Capacity building training for Local journalists.
The purpose of the training was to strengthen the Resilience Capacities of Community Media through knowledge Management and Strategic Communications Practices training for Kitui-based journalists.
The training was made for increasing recognition that media and communication can build resilience by making technical information pre-accessible.
The stakeholder’s joint documentation initiative training was held between May 15, 2023-May 19, 2023, at KEFRI, Kitui. The one-week activity was funded by USAID through the Resilience Learning Activity
(RLA) and implemented by MindNextMedia Communications.
The joint documentation initiative was to collaborate with key stakeholders to identify and share best practices and stories of community resilience – stories that encourage the prevention of and preparation to withstand climate and human-made shocks at community and county levels.
It will also strengthen the skills and capacities of the County Communications team, local media and journalists in Kitui to document and share their stories with the public.
There is increasing recognition that media and communication can help strengthen resilience, including making technical information more accessible, addressing social norms and perceptions, supporting people to evaluate their choices, facilitating dialogue, prompting positive decisions, and influencing power.
After the training, the team will be expected to document and publish/air at least two stories from the field, guided by USAID RLA and partners… The face Setting was done by Titus Kyalo, RLA Kitui field manager, More introduction remarks by Kitui County Director of Communication Mr Onesimus Kilonzo, on the roles of local media actors in supporting the county government and development partners/USAID partner in information sharing with the community.
Former chairman of the media county of Kenya Prof Levi Obonyo took the participants through strategic communications and knowledge management to support the development interventions and county government business for development. The participants were taken through how to increase awareness in strengthening their communication and knowledge management process.
The journalist was trained in addressing social norms and perceptions, supporting people to evaluate their choices, facilitating dialogue, prompting positive decisions, and influencing power. Local media outlets are critical in providing applicable knowledge on how to take actions relating to agriculture, pastoralism, and entrepreneurship.
Communication and knowledge management have also been recognized as important roles in fostering public dialogue and public decision-making. The evidence base around what works is still evolving, while the implementation context can change rapidly and unexpectedly.
This volatility requires implementers to closely monitor and adapt interventions to meet the most critical needs. Against this backdrop, the opportunity exists, rough documentation of our implementation progress, to advance learning. cognizant of the critical role that knowledge management and strategic communications play in strengthening Governance and supporting effective resilience programming.
The County Government of Kitui, in collaboration with USAID- Resilience Learning Activity¹, have convened a forum with the County Communications Teams and the Local Media journalists to achieve the following objectives: Establishing and understanding the existing county capacities, gaps, and opportunities in strengthening strategic communications functions for resilience.
Establish effective collaboration mechanisms with the local media teams. To strengthen the relationships and links between local media outlets, County Government communications teams, and USAID implementing partners to enhance information sharing with local communities.
To strengthen the capacity of local media outlets as critical local organizations/partners in ASAL counties to tell their own stories and influence decision-making. To reinforce the role of communications and knowledge management as central to disaster, risk, and emergency responses from the outset at the County level for improved outcomes of these shocks and stresses because communications/information is an aid in times of disaster.
Other key Personalities who spoke during the training include mr yusuf Ibrahim and Rachel Kibui and Daniel Mule – the distinguished media personalities in Kenya whose contribution to the media industry has been awesome.
About the USAID-Resilience Learning Activity, The Resilience Learning Activity (RLA) is a five-year initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to support regional and country-level institutions to conduct resilience learning activities in the Horn of Africa (HoA) aimed at contributing to the region’s Journey to Self-Reliance.
The activity empowers regional, national, and local partners and institutions to undertake analysis while strengthening their capacities for analytics, facilitating learnings for adaptive management, as well as improving knowledge management (KM) and strategic communication to support evidence-based resilience programming.
At the country level, RLA is the secretariat supporting the Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth
PREG) and Southeastern Kenya (SEK) Coordination Mechanism and strengthening learning amongst local actors across Northern (Garissa, Marsabit, Turkana, Samburu, Wajir, and Isiolo) and South Eastern (Makueni, Taita Taveta, and Kitui) counties.
Under objective three of the project, “Improve knowledge management and strategic communication for local and host country Organizations. The RLA is supporting communities, governments, and research institutions to generate learning and package knowledge and information relevant to resilience in forms that are accessible, practical, and applicable to decision-making.
The work of media is to inform, interpret new sources promote and influence policy-making in county government and national government decision-making.
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