Rwanda Eyes 78% of Journalists Capacity building by 2020

Officials in Rwanda Media High Council said on Monday that by 2020 at least 78% of Journalists will be equipped with necessary skills and trainings through the capacity building programs which have an overall objective of media professionalization as well as specialization among media Practitioners.

Speaking to media practitioners who have completed a one week practical training on reproductive Health reporting, the Executive Secretary of Rwanda Media High Council, Peacemaker Mbungiramihigo said that the capacity building among journalists started five years ago and the results have been good so far.

“I hope that by 2020 media professionalization and specialization will be at about 78%.” Mbungiramihigo said.

By 2018, the  score  on  perception  of  respondents  on  ‘capacity  building  institutions  and  their  ability  to  provide needed training’ was rated at 68.4% for the Rwanda Media Barometer (RMB 2018), with 85.6% for ‘right to join media associations  and  exercise  their  rights’  as  the  highest  rate  while  ‘media  professionals  access  training appropriate to their needs’ is rated as the lowest at 53.2%.

Findings indicate that the sub-indicator on ‘journalists access the type of training needed to perform their roles’ stands at 53.2%. This is still low but shows significant improvement from 39% in RMB 2016.

The RMB 2018 overall rating of on the sub-indicator of ‘skills training to report on democracy and development’ is 64.4%, a decline from 2016 rating of 67.5%.

Officials say there has been a significant improvement in the perception of journalists’ right to join media associations, as demonstrated in the above table, ranked at 85.6% up from 66.6% in 2016.

Providing advocacy on behalf of the media fraternity by professional association is a function that has been positively considered, where 67.1% of journalists interviewed agree that the Media Self-Regulatory Body and media associations are playing the role satisfactorily.

Meeting professional standards of quality sub-indicator grow from 64.2% in 2016 to 71.2% in

2018. Nevertheless, there is a need to have continuous building of capacity and skills. This sub-indicator also considered journalists’ welfare whereby it was established that 60.5% of journalists do not have social security and medical insurance cover, 32.3% do not have formal contracts and 32% do not get their salaries on time.