The WSIS Geneva Plan of Action called upon all stakeholders to “contribute to media development and capacity building”, and UNESCO was designated the lead facilitator of Action Line C9 “Media”. It is with this mandate in mind that UNESCO launched this study to assess existing journalism training institutions in Africa, and to develop a strategy to build institutional excellence to offer quality training.

The study was conducted in collaboration with Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies (South Africa) and the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille (ESJ, Graduate School of Journalism in France), and has also benefited from contributions from and consultation with field experts, international media networks, African teaching institutions and media development agencies.

The report maps the capacity and potential for excellence of almost one hundred journalism schools across Africa, highlighting the development challenges and opportunities of African journalism institutions and identifying specific areas for support from development partners. The report aims to provide a set of indicators and criteria for measuring the potential for institutional excellence that can be adapted for use in other parts of the world.

In light of the findings, the report recommends that Africa does not need new or more journalism schools. Instead, the continent needs a core of excellent facilities that can make a real impact, and which are also at the heart of a wider network with other schools (especially those who could be recognised as “Centres of Reference”). In this regard, UNESCO could locate these recommendations with work being done by UNECA in its STREAM process. Already amongst its recommendations, STREAM is proposing that “the calls for improvements in the training of journalists need to be thought through carefully and mechanisms and ways thought up in how such improvements will be implemented.” UNESCO could facilitate taking forward this proposal, and thereby linking journalism education into a wider framework of media development in Africa as envisaged by STREAM. In this light, journalism education would become a sister pillar alongside other complimentary activities, such as steps to promote policy reform, local content and media enterprise sustainability.