ADEA decided to establish an education journalism award last year following a suggestion made at a workshop organized in Cotonou, Benin by the Communication for Education and Development (COMED) program. COMED is an initiative that seeks to promote the use of communication in support of education through the training of journalists and communication officers of ministries of education. The Cotonou workshop discussed future COMED activities and ways of enhancing the role of journalists and communication officers as efforts are made by countries to achieve quality education for all.

The Africa Education Journalism Award stresses the importance of relevant and quality public information and communication for the development of education in Africa. It recognizes the essential role the media can play as providers of information, and as educators and analysts. It seeks to encourage African journalists to write articles on education and to foster public debate on education in African countries.

The competition will be opened as of October 9, 2001. It will honor four journalists every year. Award-winning journalists and their editors-in-chief will be invited by ADEA to Paris and London for a study trip that will consist of seminars on education issues and visits to major press organizations that are partnering the award. These include The Times Education Supplement (TES) and the BBC in London, and Le Monde interactif (Le Monde online), Radio France Internationale (RFI) and La cinquième (television) in Paris. Winners will visit Paris and London next summer.

About COMED

ADEA’s COMED program is implemented with the World Bank and the West African News Media and Development Center (WANAD) with partial funding from the Norwegian Education Trust Fund. A major premise underlying the COMED program is that information exchange and communication among partners are essential to well-managed and efficient educational systems and to

the achievement of quality education for all. The COMED program is therefore designed to help African governments establish structures able to conceive and implement information and communication programs.

A major component of the program are training workshops organized for journalists and communication officers of Ministries of Education. Given the key role of the mass media in disseminating information, COMED gives special emphasis to training African journalists in how to report development issues. So far, over 120 journalists and communication officers from 30 countries have participated in COMED workshops since 1999.

About ADEA

ADEA was created in 1988 to foster greater collaboration and coordination between development agencies. Since 1992, ADEA has become a partnership between African Ministers of Education and international funding agencies. It has evolved into a structure designed to:

(i) reinforce African ministries’ leadership capacities as they work with funding agencies;

(ii) develop these agencies’ awareness that their own practices should be adapted to the needs of nationally-driven education policies, programs and projects;

(iii) develop a consensus between ministries and agencies on approaches to the major issues facing education in Africa.

Central to ADEA’s philosophy is the belief that the responsibility for educational development rests with national governments. Towards this end, ADEA is concerned with fostering a process that empowers African ministries of education and makes funding agencies more responsive to countries’ concerns and priorities. ADEA’s activities focus on strengthening policy dialogue between governments and agencies, between governments, and between agencies. Activities also focus on the development of institutional capacities within Africa through technical skill development and the sharing of successful strategies, innovations and experiences.

Arusha, October 9, 2001